Operation Biting

The 1942 Parachute Assault to Capture Hitler's Radar

By: Max Hastings

Narrated by: Max Hastings, John Hopkins

In this enthralling history, internationally bestselling author Max Hastings recounts the odds-defying Operation Biting, a 1942 parachute commando raid on Northern France to steal vital components of German intelligence—one of the most thrilling British commando raids of World War II, and one of the most successful.

In February 1942, RAF intelligence was baffled by a newly identified radar network on the coast of Nazi-occupied Europe, codenamed Würzburg. British intelligence proposed an assault to capture key components. Incredibly brave agents of the French Resistance risked their lives to probe the German defenses on the Normandy coast. Then a company of Airborne forces were dropped into France in the dead of night amid heavy snow. Launching their attack, the allied soldiers dismantled the German’s radar, and after three nail-biting hours and a fierce battle with Wehrmacht defenders, escaped in the nick of time using landing-craft that carried them back across the stormy seas to Portsmouth.

Operation Biting retells this dramatic operation through a gallery of amazing characters from Winston Churchill, who promoted the raid, to Lord Mountbatten, who commanded Combined Operations, to the brave unsung commandos who fought their way through enemy territory.

A cliffhanger of a story that ratchets the suspense to the last page, Operation Biting sheds new light on an exciting and little-known chapter of the Second World War.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Great story well told.

Max Hastings knows his stuff and writes well. Fascinating. The SAS before there was an SAS.

Lots of Meaningless Bio, Not Much Action

The book is about a British Army airborne raid executed in February 1942 into a lightly guarded area of occupied France to capture a portable German radar. The radar site was on the coast, 20km north of Le Havre. The first four and a half hours of the book are biographies of the leaders of the operation. There's far more detail than needed; why mention that a major had a Swiss mother if it doesn't come up elsewhere in the book. The biographies all seem glowing even when the author reveals negative details about the leaders. The second half of the book consists of a one hour chapter about the planning the operation and three hours about the action.

The action finally begins in chapter 9. Luck was with the British that night except that just as happened in Operation Squatter (the November 1941 British parachute raid behind German lines in North Africa) some men completed the operation without their rifles since the parachutist’s rifles flew in separate planes and were sometimes dropped many miles from the owners. Can you imagine parachuting behind enemy lines without your primary weapon … gotta love the Brits. After a few firefights and a few prisoners taken, most of the men were exfiltrated via fast boat. This raid wasn't very consequential as that summer German night fighters were carrying radar and no longer relied on communication with the portable radars.

Just excellent. So enjoyable.

I love the asides. The story of Daphne du Maurier. Likewise Reg Jones. And the balanced criticism.

As always Sir Max is wonderful at brining you into the story and making to people real, not just spear carriers

His portraits of the big wigs never slide into hagiography and can be not just amusing but quite pithy

Another Tour de Force by Sir Max Hastings

I have read dozens of treatises on WW 2 and though there are many outstanding authors such as Kershaw, Holland and others to numerous to name, none write with more literary expertise, more rigorous research, or impeccable honesty than Hastings. His breadth extends from WW I, multiple books on WW 2, and to Korea and his major history of the Viet Nam war is the standard to which all authors should seek. Why any reader could rate this less than 5 stars is a mystery. We should hope for another of his works.