Churchill's Pirates

One of the last great untold narratives of World War II: the story of how a group of motley navy men and fishermen worked tirelessly to keep Britain safe in her darkest hour.

Just after midnight on September 2nd, 1939, a German U-boat quietly slipped out of its berth at the Wilhelmshaven naval base. Its mission: to begin infesting the waters around Britain with deadly mines that would trap the country in a chokehold and force them into conceding defeat.

As those first mines found their marks, sinking innocent shipping vessels just off the coast, the nation called its men and women to arms in its defense. The result was an eclectic group of sailors and volunteers that came to form a "navy within a navy"—the Royal Naval Patrol Service—an often motley crew making do with converted fishing trawlers, dinghies, and pleasure yachts.

Though scrappy and easily overlooked, they became Churchill’s secret weapon. With incredible resilience and ingenuity, their little ships were deployed in their thousands around the world, to destroy the mines, heroically rescue stranded Allied forces at Dunkirk, escort merchant ships through stormy Arctic and Atlantic waters, hunt submarines off the coast of America, carry out secret missions in France and the Mediterranean, spearhead the D-Day invasion of Normandy, and patrol the deadly jungles of Burma.

Drawing on fascinating first-hand accounts with surviving veterans, exclusive interviews, original papers, and new archive material, Churchill’s Pirates brings the heroes of the small ships to life, taking us into the action alongside the brave crews that played a critical role in helping the allies win the war. Themes of US-British camaraderie form a strong current throughout the narrative—particularly given the crucial role these “pirates” played in cementing the close relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt.