Publisher's Synopsis
May 1940In his first decision as Prime Minister, Winston Churchill despatches a combined unit of Irish and Welsh Guards on two daring missions just one week apart. The success of the first Harpoon Force mission to the Low Countries is well documented. The second results in the Battle of Boulogne, where fifteen of the group are killed and one hundred and seventy-four captured. The rest of the battalion escapes an advancing panzer division and air attack. Eight men are decorated and twelve mentioned in despatches. The objective of this second mission is never revealed. May 2015John Joseph Thompson dies just days before a memorial service to commemorate the Battle of Boulogne and Jack Daly agrees to accompany his grandson, Tonka Thompson, to the ceremony. The friends are surprised to discover how little they know about the old man or the mission that resulted in his capture exactly seventy-five years before. But a chance encounter with a hapless Irishman begins to reveal the hidden and exceptional past of an outwardly unexceptional manGuardsman Jonjo Thompson, a foot soldier in the early days of war, finds himself behind enemy lines. With no support and few resources, Jonjo is on a mission so secret that even he won't find out what it is until he's the last man standing. This is not just a story of heroism. It is a tribute to the innocent tractability and selfless courage of the ordinary soldier. Unexceptional men, made otherwise by exceptional circumstances. Churchill said: "Never give in; never, never, never." This is the story of what happens when courageous men decide not to give in.
