Gentleman Jim: The Wartime Story of a Founder of the SAS and Special Services

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I know that each one of you has made a personal decision to be here and I am delighted to have you on board. In July, after the Allied landings in the south, Almonds was sent to Campo 70, Monturano, near Ancona. After a spell in Ethiopia training the emperor’s army, it felt good to be back in action, to smell cordite and hear the crack of rifles. Yet, later, as the US forces advanced, Almonds decided to let Fritz live, choosing his moment to allow him to slip away back to the German lines so that he would not be shot by the American forces or accused of fraternisation with the enemy by his own side.

They needed basic items like tents, the bigger the better, camp beds and chairs, small tables, receptacles such as bowls, jugs and any medium-sized luxury items they could find like mirrors, wash stands and so on. Set in wartime England, the western desert, Italy and France, it seeks to capture the spirit of the young soldiers at war in the newly emerging SAS. Leaving three soldiers with their mules and provisions, the remaining dozen Field Force men ran the last ten miles to their target. Stirling later brought the “Tobruk Four” into L Detachment of the SAS Brigade, formed in the summer of 1941. When the Americans linked up with them, they refused to believe that Almonds had acquired an American Jeep legitimately and he was marched off to General George Patton.The son of a Lincolnshire smallholder, my father had left school at fourteen without any educational qualifications.

He was repatriated to the UK a few weeks later and re-joined the SAS under the request of then Lt-Colonel Paddy Mayne, who had taken command of the SAS after the capture of Stirling. So they would aim for the highest, most testing levels of endurance and performance when they were undergoing training. Twelve men lay on their stomachs around a camp fire, facing outwards, with their feet towards the glowing embers. He was awarded the Military Medal and Bar (the equivalent of two MMs) but I have no doubt that his relentless bravery was worthy of the Victoria Cross (VC), Britain and the Commonwealth’s most prestigious gallantry medal.

Rommel was preparing to unleash his forces in one massive attempt to breach the Allies' flimsy defences and sweep into Cairo, Egypt and beyond. At a personal level, it reveals more of the enigma of this quiet-spoken Special Forces hero and the kind of family life experienced my brother, my sister and me, as we grew up in an SAS family. On the way back, the brigands passed the camp cinema tent and relieved it of the first few rows of easy chairs reserved for the officers. Mr Almonds, born and bred in Stixwould, near Woodhall Spa, was one of the original members of the fledgling Special Air Service (SAS), who unleashed guerrilla war on enemy airfields and ports. The cabin’s Perspex windows were standing up well to the beating of the seas and rain but he was ready to board them up.