The French SAS in Holland (Hardback)

On the night of 7/8 April 1945, the Allies in the West launched Operation Amherst. The last airborne operation of the war in Europe, it saw some 700 men of the 3rd (French) and 4th (French) SAS Battalions, part of the Special Air Service Brigade, parachuted into north-eastern Holland. They were to assist the First Canadian Army’s advance to the North Sea by creating maximum confusion behind the German lines and securing vital road bridges.

Dropped from a high altitude, in strong winds, and with navigation faltering, the men were widely dispersed, often landing in the wrong spot. But, nonetheless, the French went into battle with vigour and audacity, laying ambushes, attacking headquarters and seizing bridges. Although they were to be relieved by the ground forces within 72 hours, several sticks had to hold out for much longer before the ground troops reached them. It was 14 April – a full week after the landings – when the last men reported back in.

Amherst was an operation that was costly for both sides. The two SAS battalions claimed a total of 269 enemy soldiers killed, 70 wounded and 187 taken prisoner; the actual number of Germans killed was in fact much lower, about 40. In material damage they claimed 29 enemy vehicles destroyed or captured and three railway lines cut. The French parachutists’ own losses added up to 33 killed, 35 wounded and 92 missing – a grand total of 160, meaning a loss rate of nearly a quarter of the men. Though Allied commanders at the time generally judged the operation a success, post-war assessment has been more critical.

This book tells the full story of this little-known SAS operation. It is an account illustrated with a remarkable collection of rare combat photos, each of them accompanied by their present-day comparisons – the format for which After the Battle is famous.