Boarding Party The Sea Wolves eBook James Leasor
Download As PDF : Boarding Party The Sea Wolves eBook James Leasor 
Filmed as The Sea Wolves, this is the story of the undercover exploit of a territorial unit. The Germans had a secret transmitter on one of their ships in the neutral harbour of Goa. Its purpose was to guide the U-boats against Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean. There seemed no way for the British to infringe Goa’s Portuguese neutrality by force. But the transmitter had to be silenced. SOE was tasked with dealing with the problem, but how? Then it was remembered that 1,400 miles away in Calcutta was a source of possible help. A group of civilian bankers, merchants and solicitors were the remains of an old territorial unit called The Calcutta Light Horse. With a foreword by Earl Mountbatten of Burma.
Daily Mirror
'One of the most decisive actions in World War II was fought by fourteen out-of-conditions middle-aged men sailing in a steam barge...'
New York Times Book Review
''Mr. Leasor’s book is truth far more engrossing than fiction… A gem of World War II history.'
Boarding Party The Sea Wolves eBook James Leasor
In 1943, British shipping losses in the Indian Ocean were alarming. The British concluded that a German ship anchored in Portugal's colony in India was radioing information to German U-boats. But what to do? Portugal was a helpful neutral who needed to be kept that way. The Calcutta Light Horse was a volunteer regiment that was more social club than miltary unit. They wanted to help in the war effort, but the members were too old and too unfit to servre in the military forces. Nevertheless, perhaps they could help. If they attempted to disable the German transmitter, at worst in could be written off as a drunken lark without official aporoval. Mr. Leasor tells the tale of this slightly mad adventure in fine form.Product details
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Boarding Party The Sea Wolves eBook James Leasor Reviews
During World War II, German submarines were very active in the Indian Ocean and British intelligence in India believed that information relating to commercial ship movements to and from India was being leaked from a shipping office in Bombay to a German spy in Goa - a neutral Portuguese enclave on the western coast of India. The German master spy named Trompeter was resident in Goa and believed to be passing the shipping information to a German merchant ship Ehrenfels interned in Goa harbour. The shipping movements were then passed by a secret radio on the Ehrenfels to German submarines which then proceeded to use that information to locate and sink a large quantity of Allied shipping. Britain could not risk offending neutral Portugal by mounting an attack on Ehrenfels by a conventional British raiding force so the British special forces in India enlisted the support of the Calcutta Light Horse for the raid on Ehrenfels. The Calcutta Light Horse was a territorial unit composed of ageing British expatriates keen to serve their country despite their age and lack of physical fitness. The book provides an interesting but not a riveting account of the unconventional and very successful raid on a neutral harbour. The beautiful and deadly German spy Mrs Cromwell who we saw in The Sea Wolves (Snap Case) is missing from the book and this may disappoint many who saw the movie. I enjoyed the movie far more with its faster action and fine ensemble cast that included David Niven and Gregory Peck.
The idea that middle-aged men, out of shape and decades removed from the military exploits of their youth, would b asked by their government to volunteer for a top secret special operations mission--and succeed in doing so--sounds like the plot of a fanciful movie from Hollywood. But it really happened, and later did become a successful move. James Leasor does an excellent job recounting this extraordinary mission, bringing to life all the real-life characters and how they were able to end the dangerous U-boat threat in the Indian Ocean.
Saw the movie and read the book. The beautiful Mrs. Cromwell does not appear in the book version but she adds beauty to the film. David Nivin, Roger Moore, Gregory Peck, and so many others in the cast are familiar to movies goers. The flim is a delilghtful romp and
is a joy to see and the book was most enjoyable tor read. Quality for both.
How odd to read a war book that is fun. The Boarding Party concerns a group of British men in their 30s on up who take on a mission the navy could not because of Portuguese neutrality destroying a German ship that had been giving information to U-boats from a port in Portuguese territory on the coast of India. James Leasor interviewed many who took part in the one night of action. The material might have been handled better, but the asides are interesting and any story about amateurs succeeding against the enemy is fascinating.
A great, fast-paced story with lots of details that reads more like a novel. It is unbelievable to think that this operation was carried out by a group of over-age men and there are lots of comic relief in the book about some of their shenanigans.
Boarding Party tells the story of a secret British mission during WWII to disable an illegal German transmitter (illegal because the ship the transmitter was aboard was interned in a neutral country) that was sending U-boats exact information about shipping in the Indian Ocean during 1943. The story was good enough that a Hollywood movie was made of the story in 1980, entitled The Sea Wolves.
How destructive was this transmitter? In the 11 days before the attack, German U-boats sank 12 Allied ships in the Indian Ocean, whereas in the rest of the month, they sank only one.
What makes the story especially compelling is that regular soldiers or sailors could not carry out the attack-if they had been captured, the German would have pushed the Portuguese to throw the British out of their harbors and airfields, places essential to the conduct of the war for the allies. Instead, the British relied upon a bunch on business men, bankers, lawyers, accountants, and the like to do the deed, because if they were caught, they could say they did it on their own, without official instructions or knowledge.
I won't give away the rest of the story, about how a party played a crucial role in the attack, and how the prostitutes of the harbor town where the attack took place did their part to win the battle.
An excellent story, well written, and moves at a good pace for a true story.
It's learned that a Nazi spy ring is passing shipping information to U-Boats in the Indian ocean. The information is being transmitted from a radio located on a German merchant vessel docked in refuge in Goa, a neutral Portuguese colony on the east coast in India. Shipping losses are mounting and something must be done. The SOE sends in a ragtag team of physically over the hill British ex- patriot civilians, who belong to a ceremonial and social territorial Regiment called the Calcutta Light Horse, to deal with the problem. And deal with it they do. This is an interesting account of an actual event that took place in March of 1943. It's poorly written but worth reading from a historical standpoint. A forward by Earl Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, more or less attests to its accuracy. It's hard to believe that it actually happened, but apparently it did.
In 1943, British shipping losses in the Indian Ocean were alarming. The British concluded that a German ship anchored in Portugal's colony in India was radioing information to German U-boats. But what to do? Portugal was a helpful neutral who needed to be kept that way. The Calcutta Light Horse was a volunteer regiment that was more social club than miltary unit. They wanted to help in the war effort, but the members were too old and too unfit to servre in the military forces. Nevertheless, perhaps they could help. If they attempted to disable the German transmitter, at worst in could be written off as a drunken lark without official aporoval. Mr. Leasor tells the tale of this slightly mad adventure in fine form.
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