The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare isn’t just based on Damien Lewis’ 2014 book Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII, but also on the real-life Operation Postmaster.
Directed by Guy Ritchie, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare provides a heavily fictionalized – and cinematically stylized – version of true events, with several key differences between reality, prose, and film.
Is The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare based on a true story?
As with most historical action epics, Guy Ritchie’s latest film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, is based – loosely – on both a Damien Lewis book and real-life events that transpired in 1940s Europe during World War 2.
The movie focuses on the height of the second World War, with the United Kingdom struggling to stop or push back against NaziGermany.
With the US yet to join the war, and the UK’s supplies and aid ships continuously sunk by German U-Boats, Brigadier Colin Gubbins, with the secret support of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, prepares for Operation Postmaster.
Operation Postmaster is an off-the-books, classified mission intended to sabotage the Nazis’ U-Boat resupply operation in Fernando Po, known in the present day as Bioko, then a Spanish controlled island off West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea.
The mission was carried out by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) in January 1942.
The mission’s objective was to board Italian and German ships docked in the harbor, and sail them to Lagos.
While British authorities in the ships’ area refused to back the raid, the Foreign Office in London eventually gave the SOE and the SSRF permission to carry out the mission.
The SOE and SSRF took their chance on January 14, 1942, while the ships’ officers were attending a party arranged by one of their own agents.
The raid ended up being a success, resulting in two captured boats along with 30 captured German and Italian crew members.
The SOE’s reputation skyrocketed as a result, and demonstrated their ability to plan and conduct secret operations to both their allies and enemies.
What are the differences between the book and movie?
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is based on Damien Lewis’ 2014 nonfiction work, Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII.
Lewis released a rebooted, deluxe version of the book in 2016, titled Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops.
Lewis is a British author and filmmaker.
He’s written over 15 books, produced nearly 20 films and documentaries, and worked as a war correspondent between 1991 and 2005.
He specialized in writing about conflict zones across the world, and in investigating and exposing environmental and human rights violations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
While Guy Ritchie’s film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, is based on both of Lewis’ works, and on the real-life Operation Postmaster, the film isn’t a 100% accurate historical portrayal.
Instead, Ritchie takes liberties with the story’s cast, the film’s action-heavy plot, and humorous, witty dialogue, amongst other items.
As all movies based on a true story, the movie version pumps up the drama, pacing, and general subplots to make for an epic viewing experience.
“The story itself and the elements are true,” Arash Amel, one of the film’s writers, said, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
He said that some characters have been removed, added, or become amalgamations of each other, combining key individuals to fit the film’s two-hour runtime.
“Not only was it untold history, with men on a mission against all odds who became the forerunners of James Bond, but it was a coming together of this multicultural coalition of the misfits.”
“It wasn’t just your classical story of the British fighting the Germans,” he added.
The film, written by Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Amel, said they tried to depict the overall outline of the mission as close to its real-life experience.
Ritchie, meanwhile, infused the film’s script with his own improvisational flair.
In the film, for instance, the mission’s objective is to seize, capture, and destroy Germany and Italy’s ships.
In real life, however, the operatives stole and sailed a trawling vessel and transport ship, intending to pretend to “discover” them in international waters.
Similarly, onscreen, Ritchie depicts a bloody raid on an enemy camp to free one of the UK’s own agents.
In real life, however, the raid happened – albeit with less blood and gore, and also during a second, follow-up mission, Operation Dryad.
One of the film’s stand-out scenes of decadence, excess, and over-the-top theatrics culminate at a party thrown by SEO and SSRF agents to distract the ships’ captains and crew.
“All of that is pretty much as it happened,” Lewis, the book’s author, said.
“The big crazy party at the end — that’s exactly what the guy did on the ground.”
“They even had a trial party to check out that it would work. And blowing the electricity station — all of that took place.”
Part of what makes The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare such a success is its commitment to its campy, exaggerated take on reality.
“The crazier it is, the better,” Alan Ritchson, one of the film’s actors, said, referencing the movie’s theatrics.
“I wanted everything to have life-and-death stakes, but I didn’t want it to take itself so seriously that the audience couldn’t enjoy it.”
“The cake is the reality of this saga and the men behind it, but the icing is how much fun we can make it.”
Who is in the cast?
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare features an ensemble cast of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
The spy action comedy movie is directed by Guy Ritchie, who is best known for his British gangster films, including his feature-length debut, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).
He also directed Sherlock Holmes (2009) and its sequel, along with the films The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) and The Gentlemen (2019), which was also remade into a 2024 Netflix series of the same name.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare stars Henry Cavill as Gus March-Phillips, the founder of the British Army‘s No. 62 Commando and the man who launched Operation Postmaster in 1942.
Cavill is best known for playing Superman in the DC Extended Universe, Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher, and Charles Brandon in The Tudors.
He’s also starred in the Netflix films Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2.
Alan Ritchson stars as Anders Lassen, a highly decorated Danish soldier, and the only non-Commonwealth recipient of the British Victoria Cross in World War 2.
Ritchson is known for his appearances in Blue Mountain State (2010 – 2012), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), Titans (2018 – 2021), and Fast X (2023).
Alex Pettyfer stars as Geoffrey Appleyard, a British Army Officer who served in the Commandos and Special Air Service during WW2.
Pettyfer is best known for his roles in I Am Number Four (2011), Beastly (2011), Magic Mike (2012), and Elvis & Nixon (2016).
The film also stars Eiza Gonzalez as Marjorie Stewart, Henry Golding as Freddy Alvarez, Babs Olusanmokun as Mr. Heron, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Henry Hayes.
Gonzalez is known for her roles in the films Baby Driver (2017), Bloodshot (2020), and Ambulance (2022), and the new science-fiction Netflix series, 3 Body Problem (2024).
Golding is best known for his starring roles in Crazy Rich Asians (2018), A Simple Favor (2018), and The Gentlemen (2019).
Olusanmokun, a Nigerian-American actor, is best known for his role as Jamis in Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024), along with a starring role as Dr. Joseph M’Benga in the 2022 TV series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Fiennes portrays Graham “Henry” Hayes, a British Command in the Small Scale Raiding Force.
He is best known for his portrayal of Hardin Scott in the After series, and for playing a young Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Fiennes’ uncles, Ralph and Joseph Fiennes, are also actors.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare also features:
- Cary Elwes as Brigadier Gubbins “M”
- Til Schweiger as Heinrich Luhr
- Henrique Zaga as Captain Binea
- Rory Kinnear as Winston Churchill
- Danny Sapani as Kambili Kalu
- Freddie Fox as Ian Fleming
- Olaf Kayhan as Train Nazi
- Mert Dincer as Compound Nazi
- Koray Tarman as Train Nazi
The majority of the film’s characters are based on real-life individuals, including Gus March-Phillips, Anders Lassen, Geoffrey Appleyard, Henry Hayes, Brigadier Gubbins “M,” Winston Churchill, and Ian Fleming.
All actors, however, are playing fictionalized versions of each person, taking liberties for the movie’s plot and pacing.