History's Raiders

In one of WWII's most daring raids, Captain Otto Skorzeny, leader of Germany's Special Forces, led a glider assault against a remote mountaintop hotel outside Rome on September 12, 1943.

As dawn broke on August 19, 1942, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division troops, supported by British Commandos and US Rangers, launched a major raid on the German-held French port of Dieppe.

In November 1942, British Special Operations Executive agents and Greek resistance fighters attacked the Gorgopotamos railway bridge in the heart of Greece.

By the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone against Germany. Winston Churchill demanded a plan of harassment, with raiding forces landing on the coasts of occupied Europe.

In WWII, the British Army used small groups of special forces behind enemy lines in North Africa to conduct reconnaissance missions, gather intelligence, and launch sabotage raids.

As WWII began, a series of supposedly impregnable fortresses protected Belgium from invasion. At dawn on May 10, 1940, Germany conducted history's first glider-borne assault against Fort Eben Emael.