Grandson tells the story of Theo Ionides who was picked for Ian Fleming's commando unit

The family of this unsung war hero had only recently discovered that whilst he was telling his wife he was engaged in harmless desk work, he was actually handpicked by would-be 007 creator Ian Fleming for a top secret assignment.

Theo Ionides became a member of the now well-documented, or at least well-fictionalised, 30 Assault Unit.

Room 39 of the Old Admiralty Building was where the Unit's life commenced. Here Fleming was assistant to Admiral John Godfrey whose focus was on being about to keep up, technologically, with Nazi war tactics. Fleming boldly proposed that he assemble a unit to steal certain pieces of valued tech.

Read more about the Assult Unit and Ionides' involvement in this BBC magazine article.

Thanks to David for the alert.

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