Michael 'Mike' Lees was a British soldier and member of the Special Operations Executive during World War 2, who operated behind enemy lines supporting Italian and Yugoslavian partisan forces. The chief planner of Operation Tombola, an attack on the headquarters of the Wehrmacht's14th Army near Reggio Emilia in contravention of orders from his superiors, he was subsequently denied recognition for his role. Lees was the son of Bernard Percy Turnbull Lees, who served with distinction in World War 1 with the Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry, winning a Military Cross; and grandson of Sir Elliott Lees, the first Baronet Lees, a Major in the Dorset Yeomanry who fought in the Boer War and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps and joining the Dorset Yeomanry, as war broke out he volunteered for airborne services and was posted to Egypt where, in 1943, he joined the Special Operations Executive. He was sent to join Serbian nationalistChetniks fighting with Tito's Communist-led Yugoslav partisans. In September 1944 he was sent to Italy and joined SOE agents fighting alongside Italian partisans in the Apennine mountains. Alerted by a deserter to the German 14th Army headquarters in two heavily defended villas in Botteghe, Lees hatched a plan to raid the headquarters. Linking up with reinforcement from the Special Air Service led by Major Roy Farran, they launched a raid on the night of 27 March 1945. Ordered to stand downen route to the attack but convinced that there wouldn't be another opportunity, Lees and Farran ignored the command and successfully completed the mission with an attack on the two villas, completely destroying one, badly burning the other and killing multiple senior enemy officers. Badly injured in the attack, Lees was eventually smuggled from behind enemy lines to Florence and repatriated to England, but was subsequently denied the Military Cross recommended by Farran and blocked from a post-war career with MI6.
