LRDG

Specialist military units of the commando type enjoyed wide vogue during the Second World War, and what little military glamour shone through the conflict was confined almost exclusively to these private armies. They were the stuff of which legends are made. Bold leaders harassing armies with mosquito forces naturally became headline heroes in a war of otherwise inhuman mass effects. Ord Wingate and his Chindits in Burma; Evans Carlson and his Marine Raiders in the Pacific; Mountbatten's commandos; "Phantom Major" David Stirling and his Special Air Services force in North Africa; and on the other side the unforgettable Otto Skorzeny.

The list of famous names is lengthy, and even today they evoke memories of high adventure and piracy. Missing from among them is the brilliant progenitor of all these private armies of modern times, the soldier-scientist who conceived and built the first and most successful of them all Royal Signals Officer: