Churchill's Killing House

At the end of 1940, Britain was under siege. Poland, Belgium, Holland, Norway and France had already fallen to Nazi rule, and the British army had been destroyed at Dunkirk. In the rubble of the Allies' crumbled defence, Churchill's Invairlort House was established as a new symbol of defiance – and then hope – against Nazi rule.

As the war rumbled on, this austere building became an academy for the brightest and best of all Allied volunteers, where they were transformed from ordinary foot-soldiers into a new breed of warrior – the commando. The list of instructors, advisors, and trainees that passed through it included some of the greatest fighting men of World War Two: William Fairbairn, Eric Sykes, Brigadier "Mad Mike" Culvert, Lord Lovat, David and Bill Stirling - who would go on to form the SAS - and Alick Cowieson amongst them.

Churchill's Killing House tells for the first time the remarkable human story of a new type of soldier and warfare that was created, and how it ultimately led the way to Allied victory over fascism.