Churchill’s Last Wartime Secret The 1943 German Raid Airbrushed From History – book review

With an interest in Skirmish gaming, small games and uneven troop numbers,  I found this book by Adrian Searle an interesting read about one of WW2’s unsolved mysteries, invasion scares and hush ups.

Did the Germans ever mount a raid on the radar stations of the Isle of Wight?

Officially according to U.K. Government Archives, no.

However Adrian Searle explores in detail the similar rumours along the East and South Coast such as Shingle Street as comparison material.

The secret  history and development of British radar is covered in another chapter.

The German  raid on Granville harbour in Northern France in March 1945

Operation Biting –  The British Commando  Raid on Radar stations in Bruneval Northern France February 1942  is given another chapter.

Tracing and evaluating eyewitness accounts (mostly German)  and archive material (absences) takes up the rest of the book.

Chapter headings

What makes this book interesting from a Games scenario point of view is the detailed inclusion of maps and terrain photographs of a raid that may or may not have happened.

A range of characters from German naval and military personnel, radar technicians, British civilians, Home  Guard, British infantry and  ARP Staff are featured.

Some of the few but well chosen photographs in the book. 

The kind of detailed maps that game scenario writers love.

Here is Adrian Searle’s preface to whet your appetite.

Preface page 2 – suitably intrigued? 

Any good wartime history book needs blurb and an intriguing cover montage.

Atmospheric stock photo library shots of a German amphibious assault. 

The start of the Bruneval raid chapter …




This should be an interesting scenario inspiration for future raid and Skirmish games.

Things I learned – the battle of Graveney Marsh 27 September 1940 between a downed German Ju88 bomber crew and a detachment of the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Rifles. 

The existence of Royal Military Police Vulnerable Points Wing  The Blue Hats to protect key installations like radar sites in 1941 in addition to the RAF regiment. 

I partly blame my interest in this type of wartime book on the following things in no particular order: Dad’s Army, Bletchley Park and Robert Harris’ book Enigma, Went the Day Well? and The Eagle Has Landed films, and the proliferation of elite forces troops like paratroops produced by Airfix that I played with as a child.  

Recently rebased and varnished 54mm Airfix German paratroops,  preserved from my childhood attempts at painting camouflage.

An interesting Featherstone first for the History of Wargaming Project publications …

More commando raid type posts to come …

Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN January 2019