In the spring of 1940, after the humiliation of Dunkirk, Britain was facing the prospect of military defeat and the country's morale and was at an all-time low. Churchill needed a solution that would not only give him the military edge but raise the spirits of a despondent population.
As a young journalist covering the Boer War, Churchill had come across a special breed of soldier, called 'Kommando' in Afrikaans. These men specialised in dangerous, dirty missions behind enemy lines. They stalked their prey like hunters and could kill with their bare hands. In Britain, after Dunkirk, it was an idea whose time had come.
Churchill ordered the setting up of his own 'army' of 5000 elite irregulars, whose exploits would strike fear into the enemy. A film crew would accompany them into combat, ensuring that their exploits could become a valuable weapon in the propaganda war.
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