Book Review:
A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men: The Forgotten British Special Operations Soldiers of World War II
By Shannon Monaghan, Viking Press, 2024 (400 pages)
Fortunately, there are many riveting books about the daring raids of the British Special Air Service (SAS) “Desert Rats” during World War II. Indeed, there is a wonderful show about them on BBC, “Rogue Heroes.” Their insanely heroic attacks on German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Corps hundreds of miles behind enemy lines are almost beyond belief in their audacity and impact on the war.
But they were not the only ones. Less well known, until now, are four men who brought the fight to the Nazis in Albania, tying down hundreds of thousands of German troops from being dispatched to either the Western or Eastern Front to fight allied forces. Moreover, the end of World War II was not the end of their war against totalitarianism, as they marched off to Vietnam, Oman, Yemen, and elsewhere to fight “the good fight.” Their wars and lives are dazzlingly reported in “A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men” by Shannon Monaghan.
Billy McLean, David Smiley, Peter Kemp, and Julian Amery were boundless in their efforts to defeat the Nazis but also dealt with rising communist threats in Albania and Yugoslavia. Of particular challenge to them was trying to get the ruthless communist partisan leader (and future dictator of Albania) Enver Hoxha actually to fight the Nazis (he often claimed his partisans fought in this or that battle, but the truth is a combination of cowardice on Hoxha’s part and determination to save as much ammunition and men for later fights with non-marxist partisans kept them out of the battle). Moreover, as the four British heroes were increasingly successful on the battlefield, they suddenly discovered someone was selling them out to the Germans: Hoxha was tipping off the Germans, hoping the Brits would be killed off and he could step in as the leader.
However, there was another traitor to the cause of fighting the Nazis in Albania, and, of all people, he was back in Special Operation Executive (SOE) helping to oversee the entire operation: James Klugmann, the senior British Army officer overseeing all activities in Yugoslavia. Klugmann was a traitor, a Soviet agent who had been recruited at Cambridge in 1936 and was a friend and contemporary of the other infamous Cambridge spies, better known as the Cambridge Five: Kim Philby, Donald MacLean, Guy Burgess, and Anthony Blunt. Klugmann was taking his orders from the NKVD and Stalin, and his mission was to ensure Communist partisan Josef Broz Tito (and his toadie in Albania, Hoxha) were put in the best light while the Yugoslav royalists were falsely accused of cowardice and ineptitude. Klugmann’s fraudulent memos and analysis impacted the future of both Yugoslavia and Albania, as Churchill and other leaders read what he reported. But on the ground, he tried to get the four Brits killed numerous times. Klugmann was a committed Stalinist but somehow constantly escaped being nailed as a spy despite multiple investigations.
Eventually, the Fantastic Four were pulled from Albania despite their successes (and numerous wounds and near captures). They would all end up going to India to prepare to fight the Japanese, taking part in dangerous reconnaissance missions and helping to liberate Allied POWs. Billy MacLean and Julian Amery went on to serve in the British Parliament - but when danger called, they both went back to helping fight authoritarianism - including returning to Albania to serve in a joint British-US covert effort to throw Hoxha out of power.
Peter Berg was a witness to the rise of the Vietnamese Communist movement - the Viet Minh who were hunting French colonials down and murdering them, although defeated Japanese forces had not even left Vietnam yet.
This is a rollicking, fun read—and it is also an important one in that we cannot forget the efforts and successes of brave men like McLean, Kemp, Smiley, and Amery. Our world needs men like these again to step up and fight against the forces of darkness that are growing around the world.