Popski's Private Army (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

Product Information

Hackett authorized him to set up a small, motorized unit to go behind enemy lines to find and destroy fuel dumps, aircraft, and transport. On one occasion Popski took his men out with a patrol of the LRDG to find a route by which Montgomery’s armor could outflank the Mareth Line. The work of spies, covert operatives and elite ‘secret soldiers’ is often hidden in the shadows but it is an important part of how Britain has fought conflicts and tackled threats at home and abroad for decades. For the next three months they raided German outposts, destroyed fuel and ammunition dumps, ambushed convoys, and liberated villages.

Then, with Rommel nearing the gates of Alexandria, the LRDG was pulled back from its forward base at Siwa and with it Peniakoff and his Commando. He was injured during his service with the French Army and was invalided out after the Armistice in November 1918. After being rejected by the Royal Navy and RAF, ‘Popski’, a Belgian of Russian ancestry by birth, joined the Libyan Arab Force (LAF) and later formed his own unit, LAF Commando. One of their camps is shown in Italy late in the war as preparations are made for the departure of a patrol.Peniakoff died on 15 May 1951 of a brain tumour at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.

But across the river they ran into heavy opposition and barely escaped destruction by mortars as they retired. During the next few weeks in the Foggia-Bovino area, PPA could do little more than keep a watch on roads, count traffic, try to identify the units the vehicles came from, and blow wheels off German trucks and tracks off armored vehicles with explosive gadgets invented and supplied by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). While the 1st Airborne set up a defense perimeter around the port, Popski took his jeeps off to find answers and locate possible landing grounds for the Royal Air Force between Taranto and Brindisi. While discipline within PPA was loose—officers and men lived together and shared everything, saluting was optional, the word “sir” was rarely heard, the men wore whatever pieces of uniform or civilian clothing they preferred, provided they didn’t include any items of enemy uniform, and Peniakoff was “Popski” to everyone—he demanded resourceful, fighting men.Invented in 1923, the first models were marketed for commercial company use, as a counter to industrial espionage. Three nights later, Popski arrived in an LCT with 30 members of PPA, 12 jeeps, and a detachment of 73 commandos of No. He loved motorbikes and travelled behind the iron curtain to rallies, sometimes carrying secret documents hidden in his leathers and risking his life, feeding his need for danger and adrenaline.

Inside pages are complete and are intact but do show signs of heavy tanning and there are some marks to the edges of the pages.Find out more about the agencies, military units and individuals who have fought the ‘Secret War’ – and how they address the threats of today. On April 21, Caneri led all PPA, with his headquarters organized as a fighting patrol, into the watery maze around Lake Comacchio where, with the partisans of the Garibaldi Brigade and units of the 27th Lancers, they fought Germans for seven days.

As soon as he was able to get replacement jeeps, Popski made his way to the mountain village of Sarnano, 40 miles southwest of Fermo, where Yunnie and his four men met him. Peniakoff began an engineering degree at the Free University of Brussels at the age of 15 before his studies were interrupted by the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. That meeting led to a friendship that lasted for the rest of Vic’s life, he died last Monday aged 101, three days short of his 102nd birthday.

Time was short for training, for Popski had been warned that PPA would take part in the landing at Anzio, so the newcomers were kept at it day and night in the snow-covered mountains. But when Belgium was invaded, he was accepted and commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the general list, probably the oldest 2nd lieutenant in the British Army. When it left Cairo in October 1943, Popski’s Private Army consisted of Popski, Captain Bob Yunnie, 12 other ranks, and three Arab soldiers from the Libyan Arab Force. He transmitted the information to the 4th Armored Brigade and pursued the Germans, across the mountains and down to the coast where, in late afternoon, they caught up with German sappers laying mines in a ford across the River Fortore. Post-war, in 1947, he was made a Belgian Officier de l'Ordre de la Couronne avec Palme and awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre avec Palme.