Five Ventures

Iraq – Syria – Persia – Madagascar – Dodecanese

First Edition
(The Second World War. 1939-1945)

Her Majesty's Stationery Office (1954).

Hardcover Book with Dust Jacket

The sixth volume in a series of military histories commissioned and published by the British government about various campaigns of the Second World War. This volume tells the stories of Iraq 1941, Syria 1941, Persia 1941, Madagascar 1942, and Dodecanese 1943. The section on Madagascar explains the events leading up to the brief British military occupation of Madagascar in 1942-1943 and how military control was taken from the French Vichy government.

Text from the Front Cover

The Second World War
One of a series of short military histories based on official documents written for the general reader.

Text from the Front and Back Flaps

Five Ventures... five campaigns or expeditions embracing a broad sweep of western Asia (Syria, Iraq and Persia); an island in the Indian Ocean (Madagascar); and an archipelago of the Aegean Sea (Dodecanese). The scene shifts from desert to mountain and from mountain to desert again; thence to subtropical jungle and so to rock-bound shores fretted by waters famous in classic times.

These authentic stories are of absorbing interest in themselves and each had some influence upon one or other of the crises of the Second World War. We see in action a great array of the fighting men from the Commonwealth and Empire: our own Household Cavalry far from the guard duties of Whitehall, and the stout infantry of our English, Scots and Welsh regiments of the Line: Australians and South Africans, New Zealanders and Rhodesians; battalions from the old Indian Army of many races and all the military virtues; Arabs and East Africans. Our Allies the Free French play their part, and in one encounter the troops of Soviet Russia appear.

We are told of the peculiar difficulties which faced our commanders who were called upon to exercise great powers of tact and diplomacy and to achieve important ends with means which, by ordinary standards, were inadequate. Christopher Buckley is well informed on these matters and writes of them with sympathetic appreciation; and in his description of the manner in which all handicaps were overcome and one task after another was brought to its appointed conclusion the patient endurance and soldierly qualities of our men are fully revealed. Some episodes possess a romantic and picturesque quality which has almost vanished from modern warfare. So often the man counted for more than the machine. Following four stories of success never easily achieved the volume closes upon a note of tragedy. But even in an expedition perhaps foredoomed to failure the tale of high endeavour and self-sacrifice takes something from the bitterness of defeat.

Text from Page ii

This volume has been written at the request of H.M. Government as one of a series designed to furnish the general reader with a short military history of the Second World War 1939-45, pending the publication of the Official Histories. The author has been given access to official documents and sources of information: for the presentation of material, for the statements made, and for the opinions expressed, he alone is responsible.

Foreword from Page v

This volume, the sixth in the series, contains the remaining contributions of the late Christopher Buckley. His original draft has been carefully and sympathetically revised, making full use of the valuable comments received from official historians in the Commonwealth. Thanks are due to Australia for exhaustive notes on the account of the Syrian campaign, and to the Union of South Africa for additional matter concerning the operations in Madagascar.