Heroes Of The SAS: True Stories Of The British Army's Elite Special Forces Regiment

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My neighbour Chris is now in his late 50s and saw 15 years' service in Northern Ireland, Colombia, Africa, the Balkans and elsewhere.

I thoroughly the enjoyed each geographical SAS adventure and this made the book even more interesting per the many SAS missions and in the great detail of each mission per all the lead and supporting characters . This was an informative book about the SAS, the British Special Air Service, formed in WWII, in North Africa. It was the brainchild of David Stirling, an eccentric Scottish aristocrat who was not a very good soldier in the traditional sense. But his offbeat, unusual mind came up with the idea of a small mobile force that go behind German lines and wreak havoc on the unprepared Afrika Corps.But while attempting to be accepted as a don at Oxford's Worcester College, he finds fate has other plans for him. In all this was a very good book with only a few slow spots. Having served in both heavy mechanized Army units and special operations units, I do not think that Ben MacIntyre puts the role of the SAS fully into context with regard to the wider war. There is no doubt that the SAS made a real contribution, especially in North Africa, but it was the many thousands of regular British, US, and French Army tank and artillery and infantry units that won the war. The SAS did make permanent the idea that "irregular" forces, deployed correctly, can carry out lightning strikes that disorient or demoralize the enemy, and in certain cases, they can carry out "surgical strikes" to capture or destroy an important target. Their legacy is the many special operations units which have been established in Canada, Australia, France, and in the US (Delta Force). Those kinds of units have a valid place in the inventory of great nation's military units, but they can't be expected to do everything, or to perform miracles, as Hollywood so likes to make it seem. To use a current example, the outcome of the war in Ukraine is being determined by artillery and tanks, not by special operators. Peter Davis was a young officer who joined the SAS at the end of 1942 and served with the regiment throughout the rest of the war. Shortly after the end of the war he wrote an account of operations in Sicily and Italy based on his diaries but for decades his memoir remained unpublished. In 2015, twenty years after Davis’s death, his son published his father’s memoir, providing readers with a vivid picture of operations in the Mediterranean, although contrary to the subtitle, Davis was not an SAS ‘Original’, the collective name given to the first 66 recruits of the regiment in the summer of 1941. Davis was particularly strong in conveying the physical and temperamental characteristics of his fellow soldiers. Of the great and fearsome Paddy Mayne, he wrote: ” Under great jutting eyebrows, his piercing blue eyes looked discomfortingly at me, betraying his remarkable talent of being able to sum a person up within a minute of meeting him.” I have heard of some ex-SAS men who have turned to drink or drugs (which is rare), but it's more common for them to seek isolation and a simple life deep in the Herefordshire countryside – or even to turn to religion.

Well, this is the one where James Bond has to go out to Jamaica and investigates the disappearance of Strangways, the head of Station J in Kingston. What I really like about all his books is the attention to detail. It was all based on his experiences when he worked for naval intelligence during the war. He could use terminology like Sit Rep. Many people had never heard of Sit Rep before but in Special Forces if you want to know what’s going on in a place you ask for a Sit Rep, which means a situation report. And then there is all the specialised equipment which you can get from Q. We have the same set-up in the SAS called Ops Research, where all new gadgets are tested and demonstrated and taken out into the field to be used, so he really was writing from real life experience. In real life, it is true that leaving the Regiment for civvy street is often the hardest thing these men will do.

On successful completion of their consolidated SOPTAC training, candidates will be loaded onto a Continuation training program. It unflinchingly captures both the romance and the tragedy of being involved in the Special Forces.

Gavin Mortimer is the author of Stirling’s Men, The SAS in Occupied France, The SAS in World War Two and The Men Who Made the SAS. Mr Craighhead, who served in the Army for 28 years, said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph: “It’s not the book people were waiting for, I know that, but I’m extremely proud of it. This book is not a response to not being allowed to publish another book – this is a different project.” Zero Six Bravo is a fantastic record of special forces soldiering but, more than that, it sets the record straight about this controversial operation. A must read. Was it a similar deal when you were celebrating your successful mission to release the hostages from the Iranian Embassy in London and Margaret Thatcher came to visit you? Well, it’s typical SAS – let’s get down the pub and get pissed. Once you are on the booze you can tell us the story down there! So that is basically what happens.The Day of the Programmer is not enough time to celebrate our favorite code-creators. That’s why at SAS, we celebrate an entire week with SAS Programmer Week! If you want to extend the fun and learning of SAS Programmer Week year-round, SAS Press is here to support you with books for programmers at every level. The book is well written and I feel that it is well researched and I understand why the author uses fictive names on the people involved. If you like me is interested in the gray side of military operations in history I strongly recommend this book. NetGalley, Abibliofob (Booknerd) Just as diverse as the soldiers were the many campaigns they engaged in. Essentially, each chapter of the book is a concise narrative of a major operation undertaken by the SAS. As these were generally carried out by small groups, there are brief synopses of the key figures involved, followed by a dramatic recounting of the action. Although this renders the structure of the book episodic, it is engrossing nontheless, particularly as the accounts are laced with flashes of humor and genuine drama. In fact, I found myself wondering how many of these exploits had already been mined (or will be mined) by Hollywood scripwriters. I was totally immersed from the get-go with Major Pete and his SAS team starting with their covert operations in Cambodia till the final chapter on the Islamic terrorists on Aussie soil . It sounds horrifying but so does being dug into a hole in the ground behind enemy lines, spotting for air or artillery strikes for several weeks.