SAS Italian job - Secret Mission Behind the Gothic Line - with Damien Lewis
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- čas přidán 11. 05. 2021
- SAS Italian job - Secret Mission Behind the Gothic Line
With Damien Lewis
Part of Italy Week
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In the hard-fought winter of 1944 the Allies advanced northwards through Italy, but stalled on the fearsome mountainous defences of the Gothic Line. A mission was planned to attack and destroy a German HQ installed in a complex of villas Botteghe d'Albinea in the hills above Reggio Emilia.
Fifty SAS paratroopers jumped in to the Cusna Mountain area between 4 and 24 March 1945, under the command of Major Roy Farran. Together with Michael Lees an SOE operative in the area and a group of local resistance fighters they planned the assault.
Damien Lewis joins us to talk more about this incredible tale.
www.damienlewis.com/ / authordlewis
Here is the petition link Damien talked about
www.change.org/p/parliament-t...
Buy the book:
UK uk.bookshop.org/a/5843/978178...
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Every time I hear a story told by Damien Lewis I wish I was a Hollywood producer so I can make it into a movie. This is another great story of the SAS and SOE
I applaud you 100% for saying that... but like any film that's been made about any amount of SAS content has been played down, both by viewers and critics.. Why..!! partly because so no one can fully realize what the Brit SAS are capable of.
Yeah but the woke crowd can't do history correctly. That is the BBC. They gotta tick them boxes. Accurately or box ticking. Guess which they prefer.
Dick heads in Hollywood could not do such a story justice, only the British could do it, Hollywood is brain dead Woke.
Will definitely be reading this one, as I have with Lewis's books.
Rogue Heros season 2 is in the can. If they miss this one, I'm done
I've read many of Damien's books; mostly more modern SAS/SBS ops, but I'm intrigued by this and it has 5 stars on Amazon....ORDERED! Damien Lewis, although never an actual SF member, is highly respected, by the SAS/SBS for getting it RIGHT! All his books are extraordinarily well researched (thanks to SF co-operation), gripping, and impossible to put down!
Ive just googled Micheal Lees after watching this and realised ive been living within walking distance of his old house for nearly 30 years and had no idea!! I'd never even heard of him until now. There should be plaques, road names, buildings etc named after him but theres nothing ive ever seen or heard of.
Cool, perhaps it just needs someone local to get such a plaque organised - hint hint
@@WW2TV funny you mention it. I was thinking of sending an email or two!!
@@chrisr9380 It will be an uphill battle for sure. If you have never heard of him before now, what are the chances anyone else will see the significance of memorializing his former residence there? Even for WW2 buffs and historians this is a pretty obscure operation. Needless to say, it will be important to have allies in that neighbourhood to help you convince others in authority that something should be done along those lines. Clearly, the current owner of the house would need to be consulted as a first step. If he/she isn't interested in going along with your plans, you'd might as well save your time and energy because nothing is going to happen on that property without their consent.
@@thegreatdominion949 agree completely......BUT..... the manor house is now a school, owned, i think, and run by the local authority so that may help. But yes i agree with you in that it is unlikely. That said, an email or two to the right people is free. If it doesnt happen, ive signed Damiens petition, so ive done my little bit to help. 👍
Thank god for the SAS what would we do with out them . LOVE & RESPECT to them .
Amazing story and thanks to both of you for making this video to publicise what these men did. I for one will sign the petition to get some sort of justice for what he did in the face of adversity.
Absolutely brilliant, and should be made into a film, if only to honour the heroism of all involved.
SAS, always cool and Damiens is the man to tell the story :)
My father told me about this...'"some of our people....not me...pulled it off"' with a huge grin. He was very cryptic, but i have been hunting for this for years. He described it as a stronghold...and 'rescued' a vip..thank you. Father had one of those jeeps i have one photo he was in nw europe
Thanks for sharing your father's story
To avoid confusing people, I think it is important here to distinguish between the Gothic Line in different sectors of Italy as the Gothic Line along the eastern side of Italian peninsula (Adriatic Front) was first broken in late August 1944 by the British 8th Army. It obviously took quite a number of months more to crack the line in the generally more mountainous sector assigned to the U.S. 5th Army in the western and central portions of the peninsula.
Another amazing story thank you Paul and Damon.
Brilliant stuff as always. Great show with a fantastic guest who clearly knows his stuff! One of the best writers out there!
Been a sbs SAS marines and most of the British forces for donkeys years, still love to read and watch all these stories, always want to learn mostly ww2 history, these blokes tells it so good ,keep up the good work and many thanks to all the fallen RIP
Welcome to WW2TV John
@@WW2TV been watching it on u tube for ages now ,today I watched a bit about the paras and marines, jemmy Clarkson does a vc one enjoy that
Love this guy's books, one of the best WW2 commando and FS writers. I have just looked in my audible library and I have this book, it's says it's read, but I don't recall reading it.
I may if read it in the drunken COVID period.foing to revisit this over Xmas
Immensely interesting story. My great uncle was a Captain and then "acting Major" in 2nd SAS during the war, and served all over Europe, but predominantly behind German lines I understand, awarded an MC and several mentions in despatches. He had a classic photo album from those days which I gave to the regimental museum upon his passing. Pictures included "giggling SAS soldiers crouched behind hedges as German Panzer troops drove past on the other side".... you just can't make this stuff up!
Major Peter Lancelot Le Poer Power was his name. Rest in peace
Brilliant! Thanks!
Excellent, well worth a listen
Absolutely incredible stuff ,bloody brill Paul ,Damien's stories of this kind of thing are just legendary ...
Brilliant as always 👍
Brilliant presentation! Thank you
Excellent stuff gentlemen
An excellent presentation!
I've heard of this raid, but not about the raid until now. Thank you.
Me too! Father told me some of " his people" did it...not him. He had a huge grin
riveting , as then as now, those that make policy are as removed from what is reqiured to win a war we are blessed that those brave souls that carry the sword for freedom do so with courage and conviction we owe much . And to those that smear their name , do so with shame.
Thanks for keeping the SAS in the limelight there the best :) :)
Thanks . Damian KEEP THE GOOD WORK UP :)
This is the best Special Operations Force action ever. This is what they're built for.
What a riveting story.
If Damien wants to look into another SAS/SBS hero of several countries; Anders Lassen is worth checking out.
Thanks
Thanks Rohan
Great story, a true bunch of warriors 👏
Lees deserves posthumous recognition by the state with the decorations he deserves.
Thanks, Damien and Woody. Sorry it took me a year to watch this one. This has to be in that top 1% of WW2 stories that blow your mind. Incredible ... but to end with that kicker with Lees' name being trashed just reminds us that life isn't fair ... and the b******s will grind you down in the end. I've ordered the book. I couldn't not. However, I do have one sour question to ask that I know probably won't get an answer to. I read Nikolai Tolstoy's Victims Of Yalta many decades ago and so am familiar with the way Soviet citizens were treated when they were repatriated - so do you have any idea what happened to the Russians after the operation/war? At least the Nazis didn't take it out on the Italians in this instance. Maybe David Kirkpatrick could also have put a message on his pipes to say 'this machine kills fascists/saves Italians'.
i bought the book i love a good juicy story with bigger than life real people
I clicked this thinking it was going to be THAT Damien Lewis.
It is that Damien Lewsi, maybe you mean the actor Damian Lewis?
Wow, I used to participate in the commemoration in the Milan cemetery and of course had no idea about the men buried there. Who knows how many other stories like that are there in that cemetery?
I saw Mr. Lewis' book on Josephine Baker at Barnes & Noble.
I think it is my favourite of his books
@@WW2TV Review?
We talked about the book on WW2TV czcams.com/users/livend1T1NtG5pw?si=MYspA17eEqLkBigy
Watch SAS Rogue Heroes Stirling and Paddy Mayne legends and mavericks. The upper class General staff would have lost us the war. REMEMBER until El Alemain and the airfield missions which terrified the Nazis and Italian Fascists . So making air superiority was for me a BIG important mission in their work with LRDP ..Faron a legend too. Like in Civil war in America apart from Stuart and Jackson the west point upper command did not fight the way they needed too, Mosby and Cleburne and Forrest ran amok.SAS were disrespected by the high command. My Grandfathers both fought at 19 both MM awards. One also other medals and oak leaf with bar. El Alemain and Monte Casino Scotch Horse Gunner Sgt William Strain mentioned in dispatches three times. His war record is amazing. SAS were a special breed.
was a poor show overall, just a drama and not that accurate. What it needed was Damiens involvement.
@@c-1802 80,000 surrendered at Singapore? Dunkirk? The list is massive. God Bless Paddy Mayne and Stirling and all them brave comrades.I salute them all. Toffs generals i dont respect sorry.
@@delstrain8590 i was referring to the drama show Rogue Heroes.
Aparantly a soldier named thomas rumble was also infulential here but there is not must information about his conflict
It's good to riminess about when the Brits had balls
just bought the audible version....im licking my...ears... no, just rubbing 'em together...whatever
Would have been a great podcast but for the man in the hat
You mean me, the host? Well you can't please everyone
Not sure that is right to say communist partisans in Italy we're "nominal communists".
I believe some if the most effective partisan groups were communist run and were as effective as any.
I believe they even had ideas about taking iver Italy. That's hardly nominal.
Makes these modern Jack Reaher characters look like over rated gym junkies,
It would never become a film as themain character is not American and Holly wood wouldn't be seen to be saving Europe yet again
The story absolutely stinks. I knew the story from the BBC documentary of course czcams.com/video/n4oCHpj1kiA/video.html My problem was the obfuscation on the side of Damien. 1. not naming the German HQ (which unit) 2. not naming the German general, 3. US general decorating our hero in the field (which general, does he have a name?). 4. Germans running around like chicken for 15 days (because they lost a handful of personnel and two phone lines?) So i looked into it and it looks like @ww2tv have fallen to a journalist who was interested in selling a book but certainly not in doing impartial research. Essentially we have an Andy McNab story (SAS dropped to Iraq, published a blockbuster clamed to have eliminated half the Iraqi army then Michael Asher The Real Bravo Two Zero (2002) proved that not a single Iraqi was killed, but the liar's books still raked in the money). This is really fanboy history, participants claim to have inflicted enormous losses, author collects memorabilia from family members and ex partisans, but no attempt is made to crosscheck with German sources. Once i looked into Damien Lewis' background it makes sense of course, journalist lionising UK forces for propaganda purposes see: Zero Six Bravo : 60 Special Forces, 100,000 Enemy, The Explosive True Story (Quercus, 2013). He may claim that he didn't have access to Iraqi witnesses so just published whatever high tales the Brits told him. Same approach with events that occured 75 years ago is just not up to scratch. German files in Freiburg are easy to access, but no effort was made, aggrandising his heroes pays better than honest research. If this story was done by Niels H or Greg Day, we would have learned who the German opposition were, probs a list of casualties from Greg, and a genuine attempt to evaluate the effect of the attack on the villas (unlikely that any German officer died, certainly no General was killed, nor injured). 10 mins of googling revealed that the general commanding in the area was later in British captivity thus he may have an interrogation file, not consulted by the author obviously. He's also published a unit history again i guess of no interest to the author:Friedrich Wilhelm Hauck: Eine deutsche Division in Russland und Italien : 305. Infanteriedivision 1941-1945 Author: Publisher: Dorheim, Ger. : Podzun-Verlag, 1975. Thus we received a rehash of the same story that was already told by a BBC documentary, but 20 years later we did not receive any additional information. Follows the logic of fanboy history, partly written to please the relatives of the heroes, that Roy Farran's team kidnapping and murdering a 16 year old youth in Palestine deserves no mention. The case was solid enough for it to be mentioned by the obituary but not shared with us. www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jun/12/guardianobituaries.secondworldwar Long story short, if a story stinks, you should look into it, and never trust a journalist driven by money alone.
WW2TV brings guests from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines and they have different ways in presenting information. Damien Lewis does not need me to defend his appearance, but there is of course a lot more information and detail in the book.
Really!@@WW2TV
I suggest you watch something more rewarding for your taste.anyone that quotes and reads the guardian is usually an agent provocateur in any case
It's amazing how much isn't published about the Italy campaign my father was in the armoured reconnaissance pushing through the gothic line Germans had to fight to the death as surrender ment being executed by free polish ,they ended up breaking prisoners legs and leaving them with food and water with no guards