Operation Tombola: Rogue, British-led secret operation made up of a team of resistance fighters like no other in WWII helped break a Gothic Line stalemate

WW II Gothic Line ghosts haunt modern day Italy, Europe · Oct 29, 2026 · 42m

``The further back you can look the further forward you can see.'' - Winston Churchill

By Joe Kirwin

There are numerous iconic WWII behind-enemy-lines secret operations that have become the subject of dramatic books and films over the past 80 years. Some of these include Operation Gunnerside, designed to prevent Germany from accessing a Norwegian heavy water plant theNazis sought to build a nuclear bomb. It was led by a small team of Norwegian commandos trained in Britain by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) set up by Winston Churchill to battle Hitler and the Nazis on their own…