The Quiet Operator: Special Forces Signaller Extraordinary

When Len Wilmott joined the Army as a boy soldier, corporal punishment was still regarded as a better way of dealing with defaulters than "jankers" or stoppage of pay; and it was still delivered with sufficient severity to demand the presence of a doctor. Wilmott suffered this indignity with fortitude and no apparent thought of writing to his MP. This biography describes how he came to be in Poland when the Germans invaded in September 1939; how he came to survive the next five years; his extraordinary adventures in Greece, in company with figures such as Monty Woodhouse and Eddie Myers; his experiences in Brittany at the time when the Allies landed in Europe, then in Holland (twice) - and a little-known side of the Arnhem battle; and his presence at the "liberation" of Belsen. After the war he became involved in bringing refugees out of East Germany, the Greek Civil War and the Malayan Emergency. Co-author John Simpson, whose own distinguished military service took him to many parts of the world, met Len Wilmott in Australia, where Wilmott eventually settled, and persuaded him to tell his story.