Secret Operations: Eben-Emael

Once more Ian Allan Publishing embarks upon a series of interesting WW2 titles, and once more they fail to live up to expectations. The four titles in the brand spanking new "Secret Operations" are a strange bunch, in that only one of their subjects can really be termed "Secret" - Special Operations would be a more fitting title.

Take for example, the first in the series "Eben-Emael", which looks at the German glider assault on the Belgian frontier fortress. While the assault itself was planned in the greatest secrecy, it was but a part of the overall offensive, crucial in providing German troops safe passage into Belgium -hardly "secret" in the sense of missions such as those carried out by the British SOE.

The book itself is a beautifully produced softback, packed with fascinating pictures, both contemporary and current - particularly of note are the photographs of Eben Emael as it is now, still bearing the scars of battle. The subject is fascinating, how just 77 men managed to break into and subdue a fortress of over 800, yet the book is frustratingly short at just a tinge over 100 pages. Over half of the book deals with describing the fortress and the organisation of the fallschirmjager, meaning the description of the planning and the battle suffer in being almost miniscule in comparison. Do we really need the statistics of the K98 and the Ju-52 again? (that being said, there are some other interesting factoids in the book, such as the complement of each glider that landed)

Ultimately, Eben-Emael is a diverting but unfulfilling title, a good introduction for those of you who've never read about the assault or the Blitzkrieg in depth before. For seasoned readers and historians however, this book doesn't really tell you anything new - which doesn't bode particularly well for the rest of the series.

-SC