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|title=Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy 1943 - 1945

|author=David Stafford

|genre=History

|rating=3.5

|borrow=Yes

|isbn=978-0099531838

|pages=416

|publisher=Vintage Books

|date=March 2012

|summary=David Stafford's Mission Accomplished is a fair and official compilation of the efforts of the Special Operations Executive in wartime Italy, which describes successes without shying away from failures. It strives to present the bigger picture but isn't always successful.

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The work of the secret services is always going to be shady, dark and murky. Books like David Stafford's ''Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy 1943 - 1945'' make an effort to shine a light on the shadows and bring the facts into view. Stafford's admirably honest introduction claims that he has 'done [his] best to ensure that what appears here is accurate and truthful', but reminds his reader that 'history is indeed intrinsically messy'; even more so when his sources were writing with secrecy in mind.

David Stafford has compiled the story of the SOE and Italy, and of documenting events that were crucial both to the war and to the redemption of Italy after Fascism. ''Mission Accomplished'' is a fair and honest account. But – as is the nature of war – it's hard to make out the overall picture and to place all of those events in their right context.

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