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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.