German Special Forces of World War II

Germany's wartime special forces were a distinctive and pioneering range of elite units, and they saw action from the first day of the war. Part of the Abwehr, the Brandenburgers would become famous for their operations behind enemy lines, often equipped with captured Allied uniforms and vehicles. They would be joined later in the war by the Skorzeny commandos of the Waffen-SS, who carried out the extraordinary glider-borne raid to rescue Mussolini from his mountain prison, and later caused chaos behind Allied lines during the Battle of the Bulge. This book examines the full range of Germany's wartime elite units, including the midget submarines and frogmen of the Kriegsmarine's special forces, and the captured Allied bombers and manned V1s of the Luftwaffe's Kampfgeschwader 200. Book jacket.

Gordon Williamson was born in 1951 and currently works for the Scottish Land Register. He spent seven years with the Military Police TA and has published a number of books and articles on the decorations of the Third Reich and their recipients. He is the author of a number of World War II titles for Osprey. The author lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.