In 1953, Ian Flemings literary sensation James Bond emerged onto the worlds stage. Nearly seven decades later, he has become a multi-billion-pound film franchise, now equipped with all the gizmos of the modern world. Yet Flemings creation, who battled his way through the fourteen novels from 1953 to 1966, was a maverick a man out of place. Bond even admits it, wishing he was back in the real war the Second World War. Indeed, the thread of the Second World War runs through the whole of the Bond series, and many were inspired by the real events and people Fleming came across during his time in Naval Intelligence.
In Ian Flemings War, Mark Simmons explores these remarkable similarities, from Flemings scheme to capture a German naval codebook that appears in Thunderball as Plan Omega, to the exploits of 30 Assault Unit, the commando team he helped to create, which inspired Moonraker.
