Books in Raiding Forces series

In this sequel to Private ArmyLt. Col. John Randal returns in Africa 1941Raiding Forces continues to conduct small-scale raids on Rommel’s only hard topped main supply route, the Via Balbia, that runs from Tripoli to Tobruk along the Mediterranean coastline. Commander Ian Fleming, RN arrives to recruit the unit for Red Indian missions…code for ‘Ultra Secret’ operations to capture German Enigma encoding machines, codebooks or operators. Lt. Col. Randal declares war on German pilots attacking them in places they congregate at night. Action is nonstop.

The first in a series of meticulously researched World War II novels about hit-and-run raids against Hitler's war machine by British forces - under the command of a U.S. soldier - "Those Who Dare" is sure to appeal to avid military fiction fans. By May 1940, panzer divisions had decimated Belgium and reached Calais. Lieutenant John Randal of the U.S. 26th Cavalry Regiment volunteers his expertise to help slow their advance. What unfolds is a blend of military guerrilla tactics, suspense, humour, cultural and social commentary, and war buddy camaraderie - plus a little romance between the American GI and the widowed Lady Jane Seaborn. Along the way readers meet such colourful characters as Captain David Niven in MO-9 and Captain 'Geronimo Joe' McKoy with his Travelling Wild West Show and Shooting Emporium. The author - a decorated combat veteran - covers the details of war extensively, from the five points of contact of a parachute landing fall to descriptions of a British raider's A-5 flinging ferries before the first 12-gauge shell casing hits the floor. As the novel ends, Major Randal's men, fresh from Operation Tomcat in France, learn they will deploy via sea transport within 48 hours on their next mission. The second book, which is already written, tells that tale.

The Nazi’s need industrial diamonds to build precision instruments and harden tools. Germany has an eight month supply. The only way the Germans can get more diamonds is for DeBeers Diamond Company to supply them through neutral Switzerland. Raiding Forces has been tasked with shutting down the illicit diamond buying. Meanwhile, Col. John Randal and a party of the 575th PIR aka Rangers make a combat jump on an artillery battery on the flank of Dieppe working in conjunction with Lord Lovat’s 4 Commando. And later, during OPERATON TORCH, Col. Randal leads a party of the 10th Ranger Battalion up a 12 mile river onboard the destroyer USS Dallas to capture the Port Layety airfield in one of the most daring operations of WWII.

Raiding Forces Small Operations Group with Colonel John Randal in command makes a night drop on the Italian held Island of Castelrozzo located a mile off Turkey’s southwest coast. The plan is to capture the island in order to use it as a base of operations for Commando raids on Axis held islands in the Aegean Sea. Admiral Sir “Razor” Ransom, the Deputy Commander of Operations (Irregular), wants Raiding Forces to reorganize into a small scale amphibious raiding unit to carry out pinprick raids. With Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps driven off the continent of Africa, gun jeep desert patrolling has come to an end. A major reorganization for future operations is underway. Instead of jeeps, the Raiders will transition to high speed MAS Boats, PT Boats and caiques. Major the Lady Jane Seaborn is shot outside the Gizera Restaurant. Commander Ian Fleming arrives and tasks Raiding Forces to carry out a Top Secret Golden Fleece mission. And, Raiding Forces carries out a night combat jump on Sicily to capture a vital bridge at Gela for Major General George S. Patton.

In this sequel to Africa 1941, Lt. Col. John Randal returns in The Sharp End.The United States has entered the war. Col. John Randal and the men in the American Volunteer Group who have been serving with Raiding Forces are back in US Army uniform serving under their own flag. Raiding Forces is being expanded into a joint US/UK outfit. Events require Col. Randal and a team of his Raiders to carry out a pair of long range operations of national strategic importance. Meanwhile, there is a mole in Middle East Command HQ that Rommel calls his “Good Source” and the German 621 Radio Intercept Company is providing the Desert Fox high grade tactical intelligence.

Col. John Randal and Raiding Forces continue the mission in Book XI, Raiding Rommel. OPERATION CRUSADER has had a devastating effect on the Desert Patrol gun jeep patrols due to the constant non-stop pace of operations and being misused by Middle East Command. The new US troops of the 575th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Separate) (Special) aka 'Rangers' are being amalgamated into Raiding Forces after rotating through the British Commando School and completing 'Blood in the Sand' training under Capt. 'Mad Dog' Reupart and Sgt. Maj. 'March or Die' Mikkalis ably assisted by the ex-French Foreign Legion veterans of Blue Patrol. Brandy Seaborn alerts Col. Randal to a SOLID GOLD mission to assassinate Nazi Hauptman Alfred Seebohm, Rommel's Merlin -- the commander of the Afrika Korps signals intelligence unit that has exploited the Eight Army's total lack of radio security. Meanwhile 'Wild Bill' Donovan, the chief of the Office of Strategic Services, invites Col. Randal to become the head of Special Projects.

Col. John Randal and Raiding Forces continue the mission in Book XI, Raiding Rommel. OPERATION CRUSADER has had a devastating effect on the Desert Patrol gun jeep patrols due to the constant non-stop pace of operations and being misused by Middle East Command. The new US troops of the 575th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Separate) (Special) aka ‘Rangers’ are being amalgamated into Raiding Forces after rotating through the British Commando School and completing ‘Blood in the Sand’ training under Capt. ‘Mad Dog’ Reupart and Sgt. Maj. ‘March or Die’ Mikkalis ably assisted by the ex-French Foreign Legion veterans of Blue Patrol. Brandy Seaborn alerts Col. Randal to a SOLID GOLD mission to assassinate Nazi Hauptman Alfred Seebohm, Rommel’s Merlin — the commander of the Afrika Korps signals intelligence unit that has exploited the Eight Army’s total lack of radio security. Meanwhile ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan, the chief of the Office of Strategic Services, invites Col. Randal to become the head of Special Projects.

Maj. John Randal is back in Book VI in the Raiding Forces Series. He travels to the RAF Base located at Habbaniya sixty miles south of Bagdad to see Lt. Pamala Plum-Martin be awarded her pilots wings from the flying school located there. RAF Habbaniya is a base that the war has passed by, senior officers at the end of their career are assigned as well as pilots who are not considered good enough for combat flying or pilots who have become combat fatigued from flying combat tours and need a rest. Maj. Randal, the MI-6 senior officer Jim 'Baldie' Taylor and Lt. Penelope Honeycutt-Parker fly into the RAF Base the same day the Iraqi rebels of the Golden Square lay the place to siege by occupying the heights just outside the perimeter wire. They find themselves in a situation that is described to Maj. Randal "in terms an American can understand…this is 1836 and you just checked in to the Hotel Alamo". What happens next is an action packed story of a battle that has been lost to history.

Raiding Forces Small Operations Group with Colonel John Randal in command makes a night drop on the Italian held Island of Castelrozzo. The plan is to capture the island in order to use it as a base of operations for Commando raids on Axis held islands in the Aegean Sea. Admiral Sir “Razor” Ransom, the Deputy Commander of Operations (Irregular), wants Raiding Forces to reorganize into a small scale amphibious raiding unit. With Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps driven off the continent of Africa, gun jeep desert patrolling has come to an end. Instead of jeeps, the Raiders will transition to high speed MAS Boats, PT Boats and caiques. Major the Lady Jane Seaborn is shot outside the Gizera Restaurant. Commander Ian Fleming arrives and tasks Raiding Forces to carry out a Top Secret Golden Fleece mission. And, Raiding Forces carries out a night combat jump on Sicily to capture a vital bridge at Gela for Major General George S. Patton.

In this sequel to Those Who Dare, U.S.Major John Randal, Commander of Strategic Raiding Forces is back, leading a crew of British Commandos, Royal Marines and Royal Navy raiders on bigger and bolder missions to foil Hitler's Third Reich. Off the Gold Coast colony in Africa, the Germans are operating a naval intelligence ring that gathers information about British convoys in the southern sea-lane. Couriers carry the data to nearby Rio Bonita, a tiny Portuguese island protectorate, whence they are broadcast to Nazi U-boats and surface raiders from a clandestine radio station onboard one of three interned enemy ships. As a result, British convoys vital to the war effort are ravaged. Major Randal and the Raiding Forces mission is to invade neutral Rio Bonita and spirit away the three ships. Failure means either imprisonment or hanging for piracy-and that Portugal will declare war on its oldest ally. Peopling Dead Eagles are colorful characters new and old. There is Wild West showman Captain "Geronimo Joe" McKoy, the stunning Special Operations Executive operator Lady Jane Seaborn, who adopts the Raiding Forces as her own pet project; and Lady Jane's bombshell of a driver, Pamala Plum-Martin. Even Commander Ian Fleming puts in an appearance, submitting a plan for "Operation Ruthless", the goal of which is to board a Luftwaffe bomber and crash it into the English Channel in order to capture an Enigma coding device from a Nazi air-sea rescue craft. This action packed adventure story features Lovat Scout Snipers, the take down of the Vichy French fleet in English ports, daring Commando raids, an epic sea battle, beautiful spies and culminates in a deadly shoot-out in a crowed bar in Occupied France.

The siege of the RAF base at Habbaniya is lifted after the defenders launch a surprise counter attach followed up by an intense air campaign and assault on Bagdad by Habforce that force marched to their aid. Back in Cairo, Raiding Forces is ordered to interdict the Via Balbia, Rommel's 1500 mile supply route along the Mediterranean coast. Maj. Randal forms Raiding Forces Desert Squadron (RFDS) and Raiding Forces Sea Squadron (RFSS) to conduct gunjeep and amphibious pinprick raids against the Afrika Korps exposed line of communication.

In this sequel to Dead Eagles, U.S. Major John Randal, commander of Strategic Raiding Forces, returns in Blood Wings, the first book in a trilogy within the Raiding Forces Series about the Abyssinian Campaign. Major Randal parachutes into the middle of Italian East Africa with orders to raise a guerrilla army. Everything that can go wrong does. Blood Wings is a story of unconventional warfare and the ability to improvise, adapt and press on against overwhelming odds.As in the first two Raiding Forces military adventures, Major Randal takes on a long-range independent mission against incredible odds. He proves once again that he is the best unconventional commander that Special Operations Executive can call on in a time of desperate need.