Operation Cleeves, SOEs Forgotten Wartime Tragedy in Thailand (ePub)

In Operation Cleeves, SOE’s Forgotten Wartime Tragedy in Thailand, Kate Reid-Smith provides a well-written narrative behind a forgotten-about Special Operations Executive (SOE) mission on the eve of World War Two in Southeast Asia. Using declassified documents, recently discovered records, and extensive research, Reid-Smith reveals what happened to a collection of European civilians, mostly tin miners, and Indian soldiers stranded in southern Thailand during Japan’s invasion of the Malay peninsula and their drive on Singapore. While uncovering, and presenting, the bravery of these victims, most of whom the SOE recruited to deny the Japanese access to Thailand’s vital tin mines as a form of economic, and irregular, warfare, Reid-Smith skillfully explores the reason behind the tragic loss of those civilians and Indian soldiers. That reason centered around the hesitancy of the British traditional military hierarchy in southeast Asia to receive, properly execute, and use a new concept of warfare. Kate Reid-Smith’s work is an informative read, and a must-have for any reader, researcher, or historian intent on understanding the beginnings of British special, or irregular, warfare operations in World War Two.
Wayne Abrahamson, US Navy (ret.) and author of Black Silver, Sergeant Dooley and The Submarine Raiders, and The Martian Sentence.

Wayne Abrahamson