Albanian Assignment, David Smiley
Albanian Assignment, David Smiley
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Albanian Assignment
The Memoir of an SOE Agent in World War Two

Author: David Smiley

Narrator: Shaun Grindell

Unabridged: 6 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/10/2021


Synopsis

Albanian Assignment is one of the finest special forces memoirs to come out of the Second World War. Listeners of Damien Lewis, Ben Macintyre, and Patrick Leigh Fermor will be enthralled by this book.

In 1940 Winston Churchill established the Special Operations Executive to "set Europe ablaze."

Three years later David Smiley and Billy McLean were parachuted into northern Greece and crossed the border into Albania to do just that.

For the next eight months Smiley mediated between the competing resistance factions and organized them to conduct ambushes and acts of sabotage on fascist armies and infrastructure.

His actions were rewarded with an immediate Military Cross, yet his work in Albania was not done. Soon after he had left the country tensions between the Albanian resistance movements had deteriorated into open conflict meaning that Smiley and McLean were once again forced to parachute into the country to reconcile the guerrilla forces whilst continuing the fight against the Nazi forces.

Smiley's account of his time in Albania is a remarkable book that uncovers the operations and its difficulties of an SOE agent in one of the forgotten fronts of World War Two.

About David Smiley

David Smiley was a British special forces and intelligence officer. He fought in the Second World War in Palestine, Iraq, Persia, Syria, Western Desert, and with Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Albania and Thailand.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jamie on August 10, 2021

The value of partisan and irregular forces is not in their military capabilities. Poorly led, often poorly equipped, and almost entirely untrained, they do not perform well against real soldiers, presuming they will fight at all. The Albanian forces in this book were noted for melting away, not at t......more

Goodreads review by Paul on May 12, 2023

Smiley and McLean: Lives of derring-do. When Smiley and McLean drop into the Epirus Mountains, avoiding the common mistake of breaking their noses on the other side of the Halifax’s hatch, their Albanian adventure begins. Smiley thuds onto the bed of a rocky stream to be hugged by a big, bearded......more

Goodreads review by Mike on September 29, 2024

This book is a memoir of the author's account of his time serving with the SOE in Albania during WWII. The writing is typical of first-hand memoirs and is somewhat understated. The subject on the other hand is a something that I have seen very little information on. The author details his efforts in......more