For an outfit with a justified reputation for ruthless efficiency, the SAS was born in chaos. It came about as the result of bedside chats between two maverick Scottish officers, David Stirling and Jock Lewes, hospitalised with injuries and illness in the north African desert war in 1941. They conceived the idea of small mobile teams infiltrating enemy lines, tasked with doing damage out of all proportion to their numbers.
Securing the all-important support of Winston Churchill, the pair used their upper-crust connections to persuade a reluctant high command to recruit men for a unit that has since become the template for special forces around the world.
Though they suffered horrendous casualties, their raids destroyed Axis aircraft and installations by the score, and contributed significantly to the allied victory in the second world war. What comes over most starkly in this gripping history is the eccentricity – often amounting to sheer lunacy – of the first SAS soldiers, their contempt for military rank and tradition, and their raw, suicidal courage.
Bestselling historian Ben Macintyre won exclusive access to the famously secretive regiment’s wartime archives to write this superbly researched story of the SAS’s early campaigns in Africa, Italy, and the liberation of western Europe from Nazi rule.
He brings his familiar mix of thrilling anecdotes, meticulous accuracy and bizarre humour to a book that should appeal to many readers beyond military history buffs. In today’s world, where the SAS and their imitators play an ever more important – if controversial – role in combating terrorism and waging asymmetrical warfare, it is an instructive, as well as an engrossing, read.
• SAS Rogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre is published by Viking (£8.99). To order a copy for £7.64 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
