During the Cold War the Soviets' elite naval spetsnaz units earned the grudging respect of the world's special operations forces as the Eastern Bloc's toughest, best-trained commandos. Available for the first time in the West, this book tells the dramatic, action-packed story of the World War II forerunners of those spetsnaz - the naval ground reconnaissance detachments - as they led the Soviet advance through the Crimea with the Black Sea Fleet and through southeastern Europe with the Danube Flotilla.

Readers follow the expert swimmers, parachutists, skiers, mountain climbers, marksmen, and hand-to-hand combat specialists on one impossible mission after another, working behind German lines to gather intelligence and conduct partisan and diversionary-demolition operations.

With prices on their heads, and hounded by ever growing numbers of German SS troops, the commandos lived by their wits and off the land, fighting their way out of every dangerous situation, blowing up bridges and fortifications, ambushing German patrols, snatching prisoners, and reporting enemy strengths. Commandos from the Sea reads like the best action/adventure fiction.

1. Based on interviews and archival research, this unique contribution to the history of special operations is a moving human drama of unorthodox characters who volunteer for suicide missions out of love for country, each other, and their commander, Senior Lieutenant Viktor Kalganov - known as "The Beard." Mr. Strekhnin's is the only account in English that details this little-known special warfare unit.