10 Badass War Heroes You've Never Heard Of‏

5. Ian Fleming And Christopher Lee

Okay, so if you're reading WhatCulture.com there's a good chance you've heard of both Ian Fleming and Christopher Lee. The former was creator and writer of the original James Bond novels, the latter the star of countless films including the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, and together they were actually step-cousins, which we didn't realise was a thing. Besides the relation and Lee's appearance as villain Scaramanga in Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun, the two also teamed up to be secret war time heroes as part of the covert Baker Street Irregulars group of super spies.

Named for the group of fictional characters featured in the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Baker Street Irregulars were tasked by Winston Churchill to "set Europe ablaze" during World War II, and we rather think they were up to the task. Fleming had already proven himself an integral part of MI5's operations, having been called up by the Director of Naval Intelligence himself to get involved in some tactical espionage action. The Irregulars weren't so much recruited for their spying skills, however, so much as their ability to be charming as heck: along with Fleming and Lee were Roald Dahl, Noel Coward and Gone With The Wind star Leslie Howard.

The aim of the group was to bring powerful and influential people around to Britain's way of anti-Nazi thinking, at a time when nobody was particularly eager to stand up to the Hitler war machine (including the US). They also did a bit of spying, but usually whilst they were sleeping with foreign dignitaries' wives and girlfriends. They also slipped dodgy evidence to FDR to convince America to enter the battle, so therefore were somewhat instrumental in ending World War II?

As well as being instrumental in giving Fleming enough material to make a phenomenally successful franchise.