The REAL story behind Guy Ritchie’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

They have been the lads charged by Winston Churchill with finishing up a ‘butcher-and-bolt reign of terror’ behind enemy traces.

One was a swashbuckling English commander, one other a Danishman who favoured killing with a bow and arrow. 

In January 1942, Gus March-Phillipps and Anders Lassen performed key roles in a mission that appeared extra at residence in a spy novel than actuality. 

The clandestine Small Scale Raiding Force – performing below the command of the equally high secret Special Operations Executive – was tasked with capturing German and Italian vessels from Spanish territory and crusing them to British-ruled Nigeria.

Incredibly, this flagrant act of piracy was a convincing success – thanks partly to future James Bond creator Ian Fleming, who was then the SOE’s liaison on the Admiralty.

Now, acclaimed director Guy Ritchie is about to convey the story of Operation Postmaster to the large display in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, the trailer for which was launched this week.

Starring Henry Cavill as March-Philipps and Alan Ritchson as Anders Lassen, the explosive movie relies on historian Damien Lewis’s equally titled 2014 ebook.

The three ships focused by the tiny raiding celebration of 34 males have been the Italian service provider vessel Duchessa d’Aosta, the German tug Likomba and the diesel-powered Bibundi, a barge.

They have been moored within the harbour on the Spanish-owned island of Fernando Po (now referred to as Bioko) off West Africa. 

Because of its location, Fernando Po held an important strategic place. It was residence to 500 native troops and a dozen four-inch weapons stationed round it. 

The island’s Spanish governor was virulently pro-Nazi and so hostile to British pursuits.  

The sensitivity of the mission stemmed from the truth that Britain couldn’t be seen to be overtly launching an assault on territory owned by impartial Spain.

It meant that bombing the ships from the air was inconceivable. Another non-starter was the choice of sinking the vessels within the harbour, as a result of the shallow waters meant they may very well be re-floated simply. 

Instead, a small warship referred to as Maid Honour was disguised as a Swedish pleasure cruiser.

It set sail from Poole harbour in Dorset below the command of March-Phillips, who was identified for his stammer.

SOE agent Richard Lippett persuaded the spouse of a distinguished German resident of Fernando Po to carry a drunken feast for the Axis officers on shore.

With the alcohol flowing freely and the officers now being stored busy, March-Phillips, Lassen and their fellow raiders used explosives to interrupt the ships out of the harbour earlier than capturing their crew and discreetly towing them to Lagos.  

In the occasion that the plot went incorrect, the crew have been carrying hidden suicide capsules – nicknamed ‘holy communion – they may take earlier than being captured. 

But with the mission a hit and Churchill thrilled, Britain resolutely denied any involvement.

This denial was made believable by the work of Fleming, who performed a key position in devising a convincing cowl story.

It concerned British destroyer HMS Violet, which steamed into the Gulf of Guinea to ‘intercept’ the three stolen ships.

It was claimed that the Italian and German crews had mutinied and sailed away of their very own accord. 

Once in worldwide waters, the Violet seized the ships and escorted them into British custody. 

The denial of involvement issued by the Admiralty partly learn: ‘In view of the German allegations that Allied naval forces have executed a slicing out operation towards Axis ships within the Spanish port of Santa Isabel, Fernando Po, the British Admiralty think about it essential to state that no British or Allied warship was within the neighborhood on the time of the alleged incident.’

In his ebook, Mr Lewis referred to as the assertion a ‘masterpiece of double-speak and deception – one intentionally designed to counsel that the Germans, by way of their wild accusations, had introduced the following misfortune upon themselves.’ 

The historian additionally revealed in his work the extent of Lassen’s brazen derring-do.

On one event, Lassen stole a jeep from American forces after which drove it up the steps of his lodge and into the carry, which carried it as much as the ground he was on.

Lassen was additionally a flagrant womaniser, as an evening in Salonika confirmed. He was seen rising bare – bar his boots – from his lodge room to inform his boisterous males: ‘Chaps, cannot you let your CO screw in peace?’

His talent on the preventing entrance summed up by one German commander, who mentioned the Dane and his males ‘come like cats and disappear like ghosts.’

Lassen would go on to serve within the fledgling Special Air Service (SAS) and stays the one man from the regiment to have been awarded the Victoria Cross. 

The prestigious honour was given to him posthumously for the act which killed him. 

He was sizzling whereas storming his third German bunker in northern Italy, lower than a month earlier than the tip of the warfare in Europe.

By then, March-Phillips had been useless for 3 years. He was killed throughout the ill-fated Operation Aquatint after main a raider group of 11 ashore in German-occupied France. 

The males have been chanced upon by a closely armed German patrol. March-Phillips was shot useless whereas trying to swim away. 

In a poem shortly earlier than Operation Postmaster went forward, March-Phillips appeared to foresee his personal dying in a poem he wrote.

It learn: ‘Let me be courageous and homosexual once more / Oh Lord, when my time is close to. / Let the god in me stand up and break / The stranglehold of worry. / Say that I die for Thee and the King, And what I maintain most pricey.’ 

In Ritchie’s new movie, which will probably be launched within the US on April 19, Fleming is portrayed by Freddie Fox. 

Ritchie’s different movies embody two Sherlock Holmes titles, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.