Raiding Forces

May, 1940: 10th Panzer Division has decimated France and is driving on Calais a short distance from Dunkirk. Lieutenant John Randal, a veteran of the US 26th Cavalry Regiment, volunteers to serve with the British forces and arrives on the continent three days before the town falls.

In this sequel to Those Who Dare, US Major John Randal, Commander of Strategic Raiding Forces is back, leading a crew of British Commandos, Royal Marines, and Royal Navy raiders on bigger and bolder missions to foil Hitler's Third Reich. Off the Gold Coast colony in Africa, the Germans are operating a naval intelligence ring that gathers information about British convoys in the southern sea lane. Couriers carry the data to nearby Rio Bonita, a tiny Portuguese island protectorate, whence they are broadcast to Nazi U-boats and surface raiders from a clandestine radio station onboard one of three interned enemy ships.

Major Randal parachutes into the middle of Italian East Africa with orders to raise a guerrilla army. Everything that can go wrong does. Blood Wings is a story of unconventional warfare and the ability to improvise, adapt, and press on against overwhelming odds. As in the first two Raiding Forces military adventures, Major Randal takes on a long-range, independent mission against incredible odds.

In this sequel to Blood Wings, US Major John Randal, commander of Strategic Raiding Forces, returns in Roman Candle, the second book in a trilogy within the Raiding Forces Series about the Abyssinian Campaign. Major Randal is raising a guerrilla army 600 miles behind the enemy lines in Italian East Africa. In the north, Col. Orde Wingate prepares to lead a column of ragtag patriots to install the exiled emperor back on his thorn. Out of the Sudan, the Kaid readies to attack with two Indian divisions into the mountainous Kern stronghold.

In Guerrilla Command Major John Randal leads the Abyssinian guerrilla army he has raised against the Italians in central Abyssinia in the final phase of his private guerrilla war...This is the story of an extraordinary military campaign that has been lost to history.

After wrapping up One Guerrilla Force (Parachute), Force N operations following the liberation of the Abyssinian capital, Addis Abba Major Randal goes on leave in Cairo. Lieutenant Pamala Plum-Martin, OBE, RM, is graduating from the Royal Air Force Number Four Service flying training school located at RAF Habbaniya, 50 miles south of Baghdad. Special Operations Executive James "Baldie" Taylor invites Major Randal to fly up to attend her graduation and get in some hunting for white oryx. They arrive at the same time as Libyan rebel troops loyal to the Golden Square.

The siege of the RAF base at Habbaniya is lifted after the defenders launch a surprise counter attach followed up by an intense air campaign and assault on Bagdad by Habforce that force marched to their aid. Back in Cairo, Raiding Forces is ordered to interdict the Via Balbia, Rommel's 1500 mile supply route along the Mediterranean coast. Maj. Randal forms Raiding Forces Desert Squadron (RFDS) and Raiding Forces Sea Squadron (RFSS) to conduct gunjeep and amphibious pinprick raids against the Afrika Korps exposed line of communication.

Raiding Forces is undergoing a major reorganization to be better able to carry out small scale raids against Rommel’s only hard topped road, the Via Balbia. It runs along the coast from Tripoli to Tobruk. The plan is for Raiding Forces to be able to strike from the desert out of the Great Sand Sea with gun jeeps and from the Mediterranean using amphibious DUKW’s.

Lieutenant Colonel Randal has established a clandestine base at Oasis X on the far side of the Great Sand Sea from which to launch hit-and-run gun jeep raids on isolated enemy positions, airfields, and fuel tank farms up to a 1,000 miles behind the lines with Desert Patrol, while his Sea Squadron carry out amphibious pinprick commando raids off a landing craft tank along the Mediterranean coastline.

The United States has entered the war. However, it will take time before America can commit ground troops to the battle. Col. John Randal and the men in the American Volunteer Group who have been serving with Raiding Forces are back in US Army uniform serving under their own flag. Raiding Forces is being expanded into a joint US/UK outfit. As it is, reorganizing events in remote parts of the world require Col. Randal and a team of his Raiders to carry out a pair of long range operations of national strategic importance.

Operation Crusader has had a devastating effect on the Desert Patrol gun jeep patrols due to the constant non-stop pace of operations and being misused by Middle East Command. The new US troops of the 575th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Separate) (Special) aka "Rangers" are being amalgamated into Raiding Forces after rotating through the British Commando School and completing "Blood in the Sand’ training under Capt. "Mad Dog" Reupart and Sgt. Maj. "March or Die" Mikkalis ably assisted by the ex-French Foreign Legion veterans of Blue Patrol.

The Nazis need industrial diamonds to build precision instruments and harden tools. Germany has an eight months' supply. The only way the Germans can get more diamonds is for DeBeers Diamond Company to supply them through neutral Switzerland. Raiding Forces has been tasked with shutting down the illicit diamond buying. Meanwhile, Colonel John Randal and a party of the 575th Parachute Infantry Regiment, a.k.a. the Rangers, make a combat jump on an artillery battery on the flank of Dieppe, working in conjunction with Lord Lovat’s No. 4 Commando.

Raiding Forces Small Operations Group with Colonel John Randal in command makes a night drop on the Italian-held Island of Castelrozzo, located a mile off Turkey’s southwest coast. The plan is to capture the island in order to use it as a base of operations for commando raids on Axis-held islands in the Aegean Sea. Major the Lady Jane Seaborn is shot outside the Gizera Restaurant. Commander Ian Fleming arrives and tasks Raiding Forces to carry out a Top Secret Golden Fleece mission.

The war in the Aegean heats up as Raiding Forces has completed its transition from gun jeeps to small boats. The SAS LRDG and the Greek Sacred Squadron are being transferred to Raiding Forces. A major reorganization is underway.

The 575th Ranger Task Force, Raiding Forces are conducting a fighting withdrawal back to the Salerno Beachhead following their drop on Benevento, Italy. The jump was widely scattered with one plane load missing the drop zone by in excess of 100 miles. While the 575th RTF has been away conducting a hit and run guerrilla campaign, blocking roads by downing trees, cutting rail lines and blowing bridges, an element of Sea Raiders from the Brandenburger Regiment have raided Castelrozzo.

Leros has been a catastrophe. The Germans invaded, overran and captured the island leaving Castelrozzo (ABC) as the last one still in Allied hands. The Luftwaffe now has air superiority over the entire Aegean Theatre of Operations. Neither the U.S. nor Royal Navy will risk capital ships in the AO due to the threat posed by enemy air. The Long Range Desert Group has been reduced to approximately fifty patrolmen.