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The Men Who Invented The Sas
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Download or read book Rogue Heroes written by Ben Macintyre and published by Crown. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The incredible untold story of World War II’s greatest secret fighting force, as told by the modern master of wartime intrigue—now a limited series on Epix! “Reads like a mashup of The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape, with a sprinkling of Ocean’s 11 thrown in for good measure.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “Rogue Heroes is a ripping good read.”—Washington Post (10 Best Books of the Year) Britain’s Special Air Service—or SAS—was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young aristocrat whose aimlessness belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a World War II battlefield map and saw a protracted struggle, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite men, he could parachute behind Nazi lines and sabotage their airplanes and supplies. Defying his superiors’ conventional wisdom, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war, but the nature of combat itself. Bringing his keen eye for detail to a riveting wartime narrative, Ben Macintyre uses his unprecedented access to the SAS archives to shine a light on a legendary unit long shrouded in secrecy.
Book Synopsis Jock Lewes: Co-founder of the SAS by : John Lewes
Download or read book Jock Lewes: Co-founder of the SAS written by John Lewes and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2000-03-30 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jock Lewes was a dashing young Welsh Guards officer who created a new approach to modern warfare in the SAS with less than two year's experience as a soldier. By the age of twenty-seven Jock co-founded the SAS with David Stirling. Jock was in reality the trainer and 'brains' behind this now legendary fighting force and this stunning biography describes the extent of his contribution. Jock was brought up in Australia during the Depression and later educated at Oxford. Life was rarely dull and he packed it with action and achievement. His Presidency of the Oxford University Boat Club saw Oxford breaking Cambridge University's succession of thirteen wins. Preparing for a job at the Foreign Office, Jock spent several seasons in Berlin. The record of his passion for two women, one a Nazi, the other a young linguist at Somerville College, Oxford, are part of a teeming richness of writing which he left in letters, journals and poems. His death was no less dramatic than his life: after successful raids on enemy aerodromes with his invention of Lewes Bombs, he was hunted down by a Messerschmitt 110 fighter. A highly important addition to ever popular SAS literature. Jock Lewes was the brain behind the formation of the Special Air Service.
Book Synopsis The Men Who Made the SAS by : Gavin Mortimer
Download or read book The Men Who Made the SAS written by Gavin Mortimer and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2015-06-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Established in June 1940, the Long Range Desert Group was the inspiration of scientist and soldier Major Ralph Bagnold, a contemporary of T.E Lawrence who, in the inter-war years, explored the North African desert in a Model T Ford automobile. Mortimer takes us from the founding of the LRDG, through their treacherous journey across the Egyptian Sand Sea and beyond, offering a hitherto unseen glimpse into the heart of this most courageous organisation, whose unique and valiant contributions to the war effort can now finally be recognized and appreciated. Praise for Gavin Mortimer: "With unparalleled access to SBS's archive, Mortimer draws on private papers to produce the definitive account of the SBS's extraordinary exploits in WWII." Sunday Telegraph "The SBS is finally being recognised thanks to a remarkable new book. Author Gavin Mortimer spent more than a decade interviewing veterans, scrutinising SBS archives and poring over recently declassified documents to write The SBS in World War 2." Daily Mirror "This gripping first-hand account of the raid is one of many previously unpublished resources that Mortimer's book draws on." The Times "Mortimer deserves full credit for assembling a mountain of material and presenting it with lucidity and balance" Philip Ziegler, Daily Mail
Download or read book Stirling's Men written by Gavin Mortimer and published by Canelo. This book was released on 2025-02-06 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the greatest Special Forces unit the world has ever seen, told by the men who fought together. In 1941, maverick officer David Stirling – adventurer, gambler, rake – created the Special Air Service. The soldiers came from all walks of life: miners, desert explorers, Guardsmen, bored clerks in the pay corps. All felt frustrated by the conventional army and were determined to make their mark on the war. Together they created a tradition that would survive the capture of their leader, the death of so many of their comrades and even the disbanding of the SAS after the end of the war. With the co-operation of the regimental association, Gavin Mortimer interviewed nearly sixty veterans, including many of the desert ‘Originals’, many of whom had never before revealed their role. They spoke openly, with honesty and humour, about life in the SAS; the gruelling training that broke all but the toughest; the thrill of raiding desert airfields; the danger of parachuting into occupied France; and the fear of being caught by the Germans, knowing that Hitler had ordered the ‘liquidation’ of captured SAS soldiers. This is the SAS at war, in their own words.
Book Synopsis The Phantom Major by : Virginia Cowles
Download or read book The Phantom Major written by Virginia Cowles and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2011-06-13 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An action-packed biography of “one of the legitimate storybook heroes of World War II” and the special forces regiment he founded (The New York Times). In the dark and uncertain days of 1941 and 1942, when Rommel’s Afrika Korps was sweeping toward Egypt and the Suez Canal, a small group of daring raiders made history for the Allies. They operated deep behind German lines, driving hundreds of miles through the deserts of North Africa. They hid by day and struck by night, destroying aircraft, blowing up ammunition dumps, derailing trains, and killing many times their own number. These men were the Special Air Service. The SAS was the brainchild of David Stirling, a deceptively mild-mannered man with a brilliant idea. Under his command, small teams of resourceful, highly trained men penetrated beyond the front lines of the opposing armies and wreaked havoc where the Germans least expected it. From Virginia Cowles, whose biographies have been praised as “splendidly readable” (Sunday Times) and “fascinating” (Kirkus Reviews), this is a classic account of these raids, an amazing tale of courage, impudence, and daring packed with action and high adventure. Her narrative, based on the eyewitness testimony of the men who took part, gives a compelling insight into the early years of the SAS.
Download or read book David Stirling written by Gavin Mortimer and published by Constable. This book was released on 2022-05-26 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aristocrat, gambler, innovator and special forces legend, the life of David Stirling should need no retelling. His formation of the Special Air Service in the summer of 1941 led to a new form of warfare and Stirling is remembered as the father of special forces soldiering. But was he really a military genius or in fact a shameless self-publicist who manipulated people, and the truth, for this own ends? In this gripping and controversial biography Gavin Mortimer analyses Stirling's complex character: the childhood speech impediment that shaped his formative years, the pressure from his overbearing mother, his fraught relationship with his brother, Bill, and the jealousy and inferiority he felt in the presence of his SAS second-in-command, the cold-blooded killer Paddy Mayne. Stirling lived until old age, receiving a knighthood and plaudits from military forces around the world before his death in 1990. Yet as Mortimer dazzlingly shows, while Stirling was instrumental in selling the SAS to Churchill and senior officers, it was Mayne who really carried the regiment in the early days. Stirling was at best an incompetent soldier and at worst a foolhardy one, who jeopardised his men's live with careless talk and hare-brained missions. Drawing on interviews with SAS veterans who fought with Stirling and men who worked with him on his post-war projects, and examining recently declassified governments files about Stirling's involvement in Aden, Libya and GB75, Mortimer's riveting biography is incisive, bold, honest and written with his customary narrative panache. Impeccably researched and with the courage to challenge the mythical SAS 'brand', Mortimer brings to bear his unparalleled expertise as WW2's premier special forces historian to dig beneath the legend and reveal the real David Stirling, a man who dared and deceived.
Book Synopsis The SAS in World War II by : Gavin Mortimer
Download or read book The SAS in World War II written by Gavin Mortimer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-06-20 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping history of the SAS in World War II, supported by a collection of rare images from the SAS Regimental Association. The SAS are among the best-trained and most effective Special Forces units in existence. This book is the incredible story of their origins, told in their own words. During the summer of 1941, a young Scots Guard officer called David Stirling persuaded MEHQ to give its backing to a small band of 60 men christened 'L Detachment'. With a wealth of stunning photographs, many from the SAS Regimental Association, the book captures the danger and excitement of the initial SAS raids against Axis airfields during the Desert War, the battles in Italy and those following the D-Day landings, as well as the dramatic final push into Germany itself and the discovery of such Nazi horrors as Belsen. An exhaustive account of an elite organization's formative years, The SAS in World War II is the fruit of Gavin Mortimer's expertise and his unprecedented access to the archives of the SAS Regimental Association. Incorporating interviews with the surviving veterans, it is the definitive account of the regiment's glorious achievements in the years from 1941 to 1945.
Book Synopsis The Last Gentleman of the SAS by : John Randall
Download or read book The Last Gentleman of the SAS written by John Randall and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-03-27 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1945, John Randall was the first Allied officer to enter Bergen-Belsen – the concentration camp that would reveal the horrors of the Holocaust to the world. Randall was one of that league of extraordinary gentlemen handpicked for suicidally dangerous missions behind enemy lines in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany throughout the Second World War. He was a man of his class and of his times. He hated the Germans, liked the French and was unimpressed by the Americans and the Arabs. He was an outrageous flirt, as might be expected of a man who served in Phantom alongside film stars David Niven and Hugh Williams. He played rugby with Paddy Mayne, the larger-than-life colonel of the SAS and winner of four DSOs. He pushed Randolph Churchill, son of the Prime Minister, out of an aeroplane. He wined and dined in nightclubs as part of the generation that lived for each day because they might not see another. This extraordinary true story, partly based on previously unpublished diaries, presents a different slant on that mighty war through the eyes of a restless young man eager for action and adventure.
Download or read book Geordie written by Geordie Doran and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-08-26 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Geordie Doran ranks as one of the most remarkable fighting soldiers of the twentieth century. Growing up in Jarrow during the Depression years of the 1930s, Geordie signed up as a private soldier in 1946 and embarked on a career spanning 40 years. He saw active service in Germany, Cyprus, the Korean War and Suez; he became an expert in jungle warfare in Malaya and in Borneo, as well as on key special operations in the deserts of Oman and Yemen, and Colonel Gaddafi's Libya. After returning to England in the early 1970s, a serious road accident curtailed his frontline soldiering career; however, he found a new and vital role as a permanent staff instructor with 23 SAS (TA) training the cream of recruits. He left the SAS in 1972, but could not settle into civilian life and found himself a job as a storeman in the SAS Quartermaster's stores – a job which lasted another 12 years, during which time he equipped many famous SAS characters for their famous clandestine missions.
Book Synopsis Across an Angry Sea by : Cedric Delves
Download or read book Across an Angry Sea written by Cedric Delves and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early summer 1982--winter in the South Atlantic--Argentina's military junta invades the Falklands. Within days, a British Royal Navy Task Force is assembled and dispatched. This is the story of D Squadron, 22 SAS, commanded by Cedric Delves. The relentless tempo of events defies belief. Raging seas, inhospitable glaciers, hurricane-force winds, helicopter crashes, raids behind enemy lines--the Squadron prevailed against them all, but the cost was high. Eight died and more were wounded or captured. Holding fast to their humanity, D Squadron's fighters were there at the start and end of the Falklands War, the first to raise a Union Jack over Government House in Stanley. Across an Angry Sea is a chronicle of daring, skill and steadfastness among a tight-knit band of brothers; of going awry, learning fast, fighting hard, and winning through.
Book Synopsis True Stories of the SAS by : Robin Hunter
Download or read book True Stories of the SAS written by Robin Hunter and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The soldiers of the SAS are among the most ruthless and efficient in the world. Their daring and determination have made Britain's top-secret military unit one of the most feared and respected special forces in existence. True Stories of the SAS is a history of the deeds done by these lethal men as they faced danger with calm courage. From the parachute raids and jeep attacks of World War II to covert activity in the Gulf War, the SAS have fought in each major conflict of the last fifty years. Their every mission is a tale of inspired strategy and decisive action, from the fight for the German-held islands of the Aegean to the struggle against the Communists in the Malayan jungle and their spectacular success at the Iranian Embassy siege in London. These astonishing stories reveal the bravery, endurance and sheer military brilliance that have made the SAS truly a force to be reckoned with.
Book Synopsis A Handful of Hard Men by : Hannes Wessels
Download or read book A Handful of Hard Men written by Hannes Wessels and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2015-10-19 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the WestÕs great transition into the post-Colonial age, the country of Rhodesia refused to succumb quietly, and throughout the 1970s fought back almost alone against Communist-supported elements that it did not believe would deliver proper governance. During this long war many heroes emerged, but none more skillful and courageous than Captain Darrell Watt of the Rhodesian SAS, who placed himself at the tip of the spear in the deadly battle to resist the forces of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. It is difficult to find another soldierÕs story to equal WattÕs in terms of time spent on the field of battle and challenges faced. Even by the lofty standards of the SAS and Special Forces, one has to look far to find anyone who can match his record of resilience and valor in the face of such daunting odds and with resources so paltry. In the fight he showed himself to be a military maestro. A bush-lore genius, blessed with uncanny instincts and an unbridled determination to close with the enemy, he had no peers as a combat-tracker (and there was plenty of competition). But the Rhodesian theater was a fluid and volatile one in which he performed in almost every imaginable fighting role; as an airborne shock-trooper leading camp attacks, long range reconnaissance operator, covert urban operator, sniper, saboteur, seek-and-strike expert, and in the final stages as a key figure in mobilizing an allied army in neighboring Mozambique. After 12 years in the cauldron of war his cause slipped from beneath him, however, and Rhodesia gave way to Zimbabwe. When the guns went quiet Watt had won all his battles but lost the war. In this fascinating biography we learn that in his twilight years he is now concerned with saving wildlife on a continent where they are in continued danger, devoting himself to both the fauna and African people he has cared so deeply about.
Book Synopsis Eye of the Storm by : Peter Ratcliffe
Download or read book Eye of the Storm written by Peter Ratcliffe and published by Michael O'Mara Books. This book was released on 2012-05-18 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fastpaced, earthy, dramatic, funny, occasionally disturbing, Eye of the Storm is laced with firsthand descriptions of ferocious and bloody fighting and peopled with a cast of extraordinary individuals.
Book Synopsis Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by : Giles Milton
Download or read book Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare written by Giles Milton and published by Picador. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six gentlemen, one goal: the destruction of Hitler's war machine In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler's war machine through spectacular acts of sabotage. The guerrilla campaign that followed was every bit as extraordinary as the six men who directed it. One of them, Cecil Clarke, was a maverick engineer who had spent the 1930s inventing futuristic caravans. Now, his talents were put to more devious use: he built the dirty bomb used to assassinate Hitler's favorite, Reinhard Heydrich. Another, William Fairbairn, was a portly pensioner with an unusual passion: he was the world's leading expert in silent killing, hired to train the guerrillas being parachuted behind enemy lines. Led by dapper Scotsman Colin Gubbins, these men—along with three others—formed a secret inner circle that, aided by a group of formidable ladies, single-handedly changed the course Second World War: a cohort hand-picked by Winston Churchill, whom he called his Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Giles Milton's Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a gripping and vivid narrative of adventure and derring-do that is also, perhaps, the last great untold story of the Second World War.
Book Synopsis Rogue Warrior of the SAS by : Martin Dillon
Download or read book Rogue Warrior of the SAS written by Martin Dillon and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-10-14 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than half a century after his death, Lt Col. Robert Blair Mayne is still regarded as one of the greatest soldiers in the history of military special operations. He was the most decorated British soldier of the Second World War, receiving four DSOs, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'honneur, and he pioneered tactics used today by the SAS and other special operations units worldwide. Rogue Warrior of the SAS tells the remarkable life story of 'Colonel Paddy', whose exceptional physical strength and uniquely swift reflexes made him a fearsome opponent. But his unorthodox rules of war and his resentment of authority would deny him the ultimate accolade of the Victoria Cross. Drawing on personal letters and family papers, declassified SAS files and records, together with the Official SAS Diary compiled in wartime and eyewitness accounts from many who served with him, the picture emerges of a soldier who, although a flawed hero, was unquestionably one of the most distinctive combatants of the campaigns in the Western Desert and Europe.
Download or read book Ghost Force written by Ken Connor and published by Phoenix. This book was released on 1998 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Containing explosive details of operations unknown even to 99% of serving SAS men, this is the definitive history of the regiment written by an ex-SAS soldier of 23 years' experience. Connor reveals how the assassination of President Kennedy gave the SAS truly global significance. He tells the truth about SAS involvement in the Falklands War and the Gulf War and about their operation against the IRA in Gibraltar. Compiled from personal experience and the eye-witness accounts of friends and colleagues, this book reveals the inside story of SAS operations in both conventional war and counter-terrorist operations. 'Controversial, blistering and unique' - Andy McNab
Book Synopsis The SBS in World War II by : Gavin Mortimer
Download or read book The SBS in World War II written by Gavin Mortimer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-09-20 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping history of Britain's Special Boat Squadron in World War II, drawing on veteran interviews and including rare photographs from the SAS Regimental Association. The Special Boat Squadron was Britain's most exclusive Special Forces unit during World War II, and yet its exploits have been largely forgotten. This book tells its story. Highly trained, totally secretive and utterly ruthless, the SBS was established as an entity in its own right in early 1943. Unlike its sister unit, which numbered more than 1,000 men, the SBS never comprised more than 100. Led by men such as the famed Victoria Cross recipient Anders Lassen, the SBS went from island to island in the Mediterranean, landing in the dead of night in small fishing boats and launching savage hit and run raids on the Germans. Through unrivalled access to the archives of the SAS Regimental Association and interviews with the surviving members of the unit, Gavin Mortimer has pieced together the dramatic feats of this elite fighting force. In this new and updated paperback edition, featuring additional content including new text and photographs, the unit and its members are finally granted the recognition that they so richly deserve.
