This review appeared in yesterday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal. From the review:
It was a minor incident in a long war. In a raid on the night of Oct. 3, 1942, about a dozen British commandos landed on the tiny Channel Island of Sark, capturing one German soldier and shooting others when they tried to raise an alarm or escape. Operation Basalt, as the raid was called, yielded some military intelligence, but its main purpose was to remind local residents, abandoned by British forces two years before, that they were not forgotten in London.
But well after the raid, Operation Basalt resonated with importance, not just for the islanders living under German occupation but for British commandos elsewhere who, less fortunate than their counterparts on Sark, found themselves in German hands. Eric Lee’s riveting account, “Operation Basalt,” conveys the details of the operation as well as its disturbing repercussions.