Missions Impossible: Extraordinary Stories of Daring and Courage

Hazel Flynn is a writer and editor who has authored or co-authored four books. She is also a highly experienced journalist, whose roles have included contributing editor for Reader's Digest magazine international editions, senior editor for Who Weekly magazine, and a former radio producer and broadcaster. Hazel is based in Australia.

CONTENTS

AGE OF HEROISM

The Trojan Horse

An ingenious end to a ten-year siege
The Battle of Thermopylae

To hold back the massive Persian invasion of Greece
Hannibal Crosses the Alps

A surprise overland attack on the Roman Republic
The Siege of Masada

To make a final stand against the Roman conquerors
The Battle of Roncesvalles

A dramatic defensive retreat through a steep mountain pass
The Battle of Agincourt

The French army aimed to stop the English reaching Calais
The Siege of Tenochtitlàn

To seize control of the capital of the Aztec empire
Pizarro's Conquest of Peru

To subjugate the Inca empire and seize its wealth
The Great Siege of Malta

Two opposing cultures aiming to control a strategic island stronghold
Drake's raid on Cádiz

The disruption of Spain's preparations to invade England
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

To prevent a large Spanish force invading England

AGE OF SUBTERFUGE

The Gunpowder Plot

Assassinate King James I and return England to Catholicism
The Assassination of the Duke of Buckingham

To kill a prominent royal adviser detested by his countrymen
The Capture of Beeston Castle

To seize control of a strategically located stronghold
The Escape of Charles II

To keep the king safe from the Parliamentarians hunting him
Captain Morgan's Raid on Panama

To loot and pillage the city's enormous wealth
The Theft of the Crown Jewels

To steal the precious royal regalia
The Escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie

To avoid capture by the British army
The Battle of Monongahela River

British colonial forces aim to seize Fort Duquesne from the French
The Capture of HMS Serapis

Victory in a naval battle between American and English ships
The Burning of the White House

To cause maximum public destruction in the US capital
The Defense of Hougoumont

To hold an isolated farm adjacent to the main Waterloo Battlefield

AGE OF DERRING-DO

The Alamo

To prevent the Mexican army taking the fortified Alamo Mission
The Charge of the Light Brigade

The Russian forces removing captured Turkish guns
The Defense of Camarón

To ensure the safety of a valuable French convoy
The Battle of Gettysburg

To turn an unexpected confrontation into a critical battle
Mapping the Roof of the World

A covert survey of the closed country of Tibet
The Defense of Rorke's Drift

The defense of an unfortified British hospital station against a Zulu army
The Battle of Maiwand

To prevent the advance of the Afghan warlord Ayub Khan
The Siege of Khartoum

To hold a remote fortified city against an Islamic uprising
The Jameson Raid

The overthrow of Transvaal's Boer government
Lynmouth-Porlock Overland Lifeboat Rescue

The rescue of the crew of the imperiled sailing ship Forrest Hall
The Siege of Ladysmith

The isolation of the British force inside the city
55 Days in Peking

The defense of foreign legations against a Chinese populist rebellion
Shackleton's Third Antarctic Expedition

The first land crossing of Antarctica
The Irish Hero of the Somme

The location and rescue of his platoon commander

AGE OF DIRTY TRICKS

Escape of the Goeben and the Breslau

To evade pursuing British forces
Captain Pollard: "Fire-eater"

To recover lost ground and divert German forces from the Battle of Loos
The Siege of Kut-al-Amara

To vanquish British Army troops in Mesopotamia
Pancho Villa's Raid on the United States

Retaliation, restitution, and resupplying the Villistas
Black Tom Sabotage Operation

To destroy shipping facilities and munitions bound for the Allies
The Capture of Aqaba: Lawrence of Arabia

To force the Turks out of the Arab homelands
The Raids on Zeebrugge and Ostend

To neutralize the threat posed by German U-boats
The Strange Journey of Alvin C. York

To secure the Deauville railroad
Agent ST-25

To gather intelligence on the Bolsheviks
The Evacuation of the Czechoslovak Legion

To safely remove the Czechoslovak Legionnaires from Russia
The Raid on Kronstadt

A hastily organized British attack on a Bolshevik naval fortress
Starting a World War: The Raid on Gleiwitz Radio Station

To fake a border incursion as an excuse for war
Special Operation P: The Sinking of the Royal Oak

To cause maximum disruption to the British Home Fleet
A Bomb Attempt on Hitler's Life

The assassination of Adolf Hitler
The Boarding of the Altmark

To locate and free British POWs on a German "merchant" ship
The Capture of Fort Eben-Emael

To seize a seemingly impregnable fort
Operation Sealion and the Battle of Britain

The invasion of Great Britain by German forces
The Assassination of Trotsky

To eliminate Stalin's vanquished but still vociferous foe
Operation Claymore: The Lofoten Islands Raid

To boost British morale by destroying German war supplies
The German Airborne Invasion of Crete

To seize this strategically important Mediterranean island
Pearl Harbor Attack

The surprise immobilization of the US Pacific Fleet
Human Torpedo Attack at Alexandria

To destroy vessels of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet

SPECIAL OPERATIONS

Australian Companies in Timor

To continue resisting the Japanese against all odds
Operation Biting

The seizure of components of German radar for analysis
Operation Chariot: The Saint-Nazaire Raid

The destruction of the only Atlantic dock that could accommodate German u boats
Operation Anthropoid: The Heydrich Assassination

To kill the feared Nazi who was ruling the Czech homelands
Operation Jubilee: The Raid on Dieppe

To damage German defensive installations and to gather intelligence
Operation Freshman: A Glider-borne Raid on Norway

To sabotage production of heavy water needed for German atomic bomb
The Sabotage of Gorgopotamos Viaduct

To cut the Greek rail supply line to Axis troops in North Africa
Operation Frankton: The "Cockleshell Heroes"

To destroy or damage Germany's blockade-running merchant ships
Operation Gunnerside: The Heavy Water Raid, Norway

To attempt once again to destroy supplies needed for a Nazi atom bomb
Operation Vengeance: The Assassination of Yamamoto

The assassination of the Japanese admiral who oversaw the Pearl Harbor attack
Operation Chastise:
The "Dam Busters" Raid

To destroy three dams considered key to Germany's war efforts
Operation Tidal Wave: Bombing the Ploesti Oil Fields

To cripple the Axis by attacking a major source of its oil supply
The Rescue of Mussolini

To rescue the deposed, captive, former head of state
Operation Source: The Midget Submarine Attack on Tirpitz

To sink or damage the Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Lützow
Operations Jaywick and Rimau: Sabotage Raids in Singapore

To destroy as much Japanese shipping as possible
"The Wooden Horse" POW escape

To break out of a German POW camp and make the "home run" to Great Britain
Clandestine Information-gathering for D-Day

Within enemy sight, to gather information for an invasion
Operation Jericho: The Raid on Amiens prison

To breach the walls of a prison holding condemned French Resistance fighter
The Kidnapping of General Kreipe

The abduction of the local German commander in Occupied Crete.
Operation Deadstick: The Airborne Attacks on Normandy Bridges

To capture, in advance of the D-Day Normandy landings, two key bridges
Operation Gaff: The Attempted Assassination of Rommel

To kidnap or kill German military leader Erwin Rommel
The Cabanatuan POW Rescue: The "Great Raid"

To free American and other Allied POWs before they could be executed
Operation Tombola: Raids Behind the German Lines in Italy

To disrupt German troops as the Allies advanced in Italy

THE AGE OF COLD WARS

Operation Centerboard I: The Enola Gay Story

The delivery and detonation--during combat--of the world's first atomic weapon
The Berlin Airlift

Providing supplies to the Allied-controlled zone, despite a Soviet blockade
The Battle of Imjin River

To prevent Chinese forces breaking through the UN line to reach Seoul
Battle of Dien Bien Phu

To force a decisive battle to determine Vietnam's future
The Mysterious Death of "Buster" Crabb

To spy on Russian naval ships
U-2 Incident: Gary Powers

To prevent the US conducting overflight surveillance on the USSR
The Siege of Khe Sanh

To distract and harass American forces at a DMZ combat base
Operation Kingpin: A Raid on a North Vietnamese POW Camp

The rescue of over 50 US POWs from a North Vietnamese camp
Rescue from Space: Apollo 13

To bring three US astronauts home after their spacecraft malfunctioned

THE AGE OF TERROR

Battle of Mirbat: The SAS in Iman

To prevent communist-led Omani rebels seizing the town of Mirbat
The Munich Olympics: Black September

To hold up meeting ransom demands for Israeli hostages to secure the release of prisoners
Operation Thunderbolt: The Israeli raid on Entebbe

The freeing of hostages taken in an Arab-German plane hijacking
The Attempted rescue of US Hostages Iran

To free US hostages held inside the seized US embassy
Iranian Embassy siege, London

To free the hostages taken by an Iranian splinter group
The Pebble Island Raid

To neutralize the threat to an upcoming amphibious British landing
The Sabotage of the Rainbow Warrior

To prevent environmentalists protesting against French nuclear tests
The Loughgall Ambush

The prevention of further armed actions by known IRA members
Bravo Two Zero: Iraq

To identify mobile Scud missile launch sites and destroy their communications
Black Hawk Down

To capture the Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his key lieutenants
The 9/11 Attacks

To cause maximum fear, death, and destruction
The Kamchatka Submarine Rescue

Freeing seven Russian submariners trapped deep in the ocean
The Rescue of Tasmanian Miners

The extrication of two miners from a tiny cage deep underground
The Rescue of Chilean Miners

The odds-defying rescue of 33 men trapped deep beneath the Earth's surface
Target: Osama Bin Laden

To kill or capture the man responsible for deadly terror attacks
The "Impossible Odds" Rescue, Somalia

To free American and Danish aid workers held for ransom in Somalia

Index
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