Secret Service in the Cold War: An SIS Officer from Philby to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Balkans Hardcover – April 5, 2019

Myles Sanderson’s debut book is both a homage to his late father Colonel John Sanderson and a keyhole view of a British military family at war, from World War Two through the Cold War to the rekindled Balkan Civil Wars of the 1990s. Born in Britain but raised in India until the age of eight, John Sanderson was the son of a decorated WW1 Australian tunnelling commander who would later be consulted by Churchill whilst directing repairs to the London Underground during the Blitz. Sanderson joined the Territorial Army as war loomed. During the Battle of Britain, he rode a motorcycle around Kent, intervening to save shot-down German pilots from angry farmers. He had to save a number of Polish RAF flyers too, mistaken for Germans. Commissioned into the Indian Army, he fought with a Sikh rifle regiment in the 1942-43 Arakan Campaign in Burma before transferring to the 152nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, which was part of 50th (India) Parachute Brigade. Sanderson was lucky enough to survive the grim and oft-overlooked Battle of Sangshak in 1944. Sangshak was as pivotal as the Battle of Arnhem and as disastrous in terms of Airborne losses but rather more successful: the Paras’ sacrifice delayed the Japanese long enough for Field Marshall Slim to consolidate his defences at Imphal and Kohima. After WW2, Sanderson served as a military intelligence officer across Europe as the Cold War unfolded, in Paris, in Sofia and in other places, including Turkey. Doubt has been cast on this by one reviewer––a writer who once alleged that Nelson Mandela was an MI6 agent––but John Sanderson’s military intelligence movement orders indicate that he was, at the very least, attached to MI6, which amounts to the same thing. There are some amusing yet sobering anecdotes relating to large-scale NATO exercises in the 1980s that serve to show how close we sometimes came to seeing the Cold War degenerate into a shooting war because of local misunderstandings and British paratroopers behaving badly but not as badly as the Russian special forces they were playing would have behaved. Sanderson’s use of his father’s personal recollections and letters, with evocative diary extracts, letters and aerograms from other family members as well as external sources, brings this historical vista to life and makes for a very good read indeed.

A great book. I loved it. Having seen and lived « on the other side » and dreaming of freedom day in and day out during the cold war I found new and fascinating angles to many of the most famous once secret episodes of the second half of the 20th century. Great inside looks to the spy stories from Kim Philby to Oleg Gordievsky. It gives both a background to understand what goes on in the « big game » as well as a more intimate look from an insider. The personal stories and letters to the family describing everyday life give a real feel of the era and a human touch to the thriller part of the book. Thank you, John Sanderson. For the book and for your extraordinary work from the battlefields of Burma in the 2nd World War to helping to bring down the iron curtain in the cold war to Bosnia in the 1990s. A true testimony of courage and a life dedicated to his country and the cause of freedom. Five stars.

This intelligent book revealed the behind the scenes history of many of the world events from my childhood. It clarified my distant memories of newspaper headlines in both The Telegraph and BBC Radio and T.V. news broadcasts. I vaguely recollect the Suez and Hungarian invasions and the announcements of the defection of the Cambridge spies, in particular Philby, and of the general anxiety surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember seeing a photograph of Greville Wynne under an outraged newspaper headline and a grainy black and white television image of Khrushchev, banging his shoe in the UN General Assembly. The authors, father and son, describe the reasons for all these events and they skilfully outline their consequences. The research on the post-1945 Cold War era, up to the rapid demise of Communism, is detailed and authoritative.This book is written in a very readable, immediate prose, without the usual dense academic text. Explanations of East-West politics is interspersed with many lively letters and personal papers. These show the feelings and reflections of Sanderson's widely-travelled family and the long-serving British Intelligence soldier, evidently with significant MI4 and SIS involvement. I found the World War 2 history of the Forgotten 14th Army in India and Burma campaigns to be very moving. The Battle of Sangshak, part of the defence of Imphal, is a real tribute to the fortitude of the courageous British and Indian Paratroopers.I now know more about my childhood history, more about the history of the Cold War that I didn't know I'd lived through and I now understand the harsh reality of life under Communism in Eastern Europe. I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

Sanderson may have worked with MI6, and if he did good, but I see no evidence in this book that he was one of its officers. It is vague, numerous unsupportable assumptions are made, assertions abound. The material on John Aldwinkle is more substantial and interesting but, overall, this relies on largely irrelevant and repetitious descriptions of events and operations in which, based on the evidence in this book, Sanderson played little or no role with MI6.

A truly awesome book. Intrigue, double dealing, suspense, espionage, this had it all. If you are a fan of a military biography that reads like a novel (think Agent zigzag but with bells on it) then this is for you.I would highly recommend this book to anyone and if a film deal isn't in the offing then let the good Lord swat me like a mayfly.

Utterly compelling reading. If you have even a passing interest in how intelligence work is undertaken, this book is a must. The fact it also contains some eye widening exploits is a bonus. Fantastic reading and well researched.

This is a well researched and written book delivered with unique personal insight. I found myself amazed at some of the exploits that were undertaken by our secret service.Absolutely worth a read.