Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Ivor Porter took a job in Romania teaching English and became so involved in the political events of the capital, Bucharest, that he was to feature later in Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy. Porter left the country in 1940 when Romania became a satellite of the Axis powers, but returned three years later as part of an SOE plot to overthrow the pro-German government of Marshal Antonescu. Operation Autonomous and the subsequent coup not only hastened the end of the European war by six months, but were to have a profound effect on the post-war settlement of Eastern Europe. Combining the author's own adventures and experiences with detailed military and diplomatic history, this book examines an often neglected but crucial military operation of the war.