Of the plethora of special forces spawned by the Second World War, 30 Assault Unit remains among the least known. As Nicholas Rankin has presumably identified, this is rather a surprise given the frisson of secrecy that surrounded its work and that among those guiding it was Ian Fleming, then in Naval Intelligence.
The Second World War was the first to be in large part a see-saw struggle for technological supremacy. The Germans were the quickest to grasp this. During the Balkan invasions, they let loose Abwehrkommando; troops trained to seek out and seize the enemy’s intelligence machinery, especially codes.
The British did not form their own version – 30 AU – until late 1942, principally because until then they had to concentrate on defence. As Rankin relates, Fleming was instrumental in pushing for a naval element in what was intended to be a tri-service force. It would be fair, however, to say that others had agitated for it earlier, notably Geoffrey Cass, a Commando officer attached to MI5, and Jim Glanville, an SOE agent in Yugoslavia who had been told by the organisation that intelligence was the business of MI6.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...t-Unit-in-WWII-by-Nicholas-Rankin-review.html
The Second World War was the first to be in large part a see-saw struggle for technological supremacy. The Germans were the quickest to grasp this. During the Balkan invasions, they let loose Abwehrkommando; troops trained to seek out and seize the enemy’s intelligence machinery, especially codes.
The British did not form their own version – 30 AU – until late 1942, principally because until then they had to concentrate on defence. As Rankin relates, Fleming was instrumental in pushing for a naval element in what was intended to be a tri-service force. It would be fair, however, to say that others had agitated for it earlier, notably Geoffrey Cass, a Commando officer attached to MI5, and Jim Glanville, an SOE agent in Yugoslavia who had been told by the organisation that intelligence was the business of MI6.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...t-Unit-in-WWII-by-Nicholas-Rankin-review.html