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 the...

A critically acclaimed historian reveals the heroism and perseverance of a US Army special ops unit during one of the most overlooked campaigns of WWII.In August of 1943, a call went out for American soldiers willing to embark on a "hazardous and dangerous mission" behind enemy lines in Burma. The war department wanted 3,000 volunteers, and it didn't care who they were; they would be expendable, with an expected casualty rate of eighty-five percent. The men who took...

Details the daring missions of the SAS in Sicily and Italy during World War II, blending firsthand accounts and personal documents.The SAS is the most famous regiment in the world and the subject of countless books, documentaries and TV dramas, including the BBC mini-series Rogue Heroes. Much of the action of the second season of Rogue Heroes is located in Italy, where both 1SAS and 2SAS took part in many daring operations in 1943.The third volume of Gavin ...

The author of Stirling's Men recounts the WWII exploits of Britain's legendary special forces unit in thefirst volume of this authoritative history.The British Army's Special Air Service was formed during World War II as a commando unit for operations behind enemy lines. Their exploits in France inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans and left a trail of destruction and disorder in their wake. In 1944, they trained the French Maquis into an effective figh...

Leading expert Gavin Mortimer tells the remarkable origin story of a wartime special forces unit that defied the odds.Z Special Unit, one of the most intrepid but arguably the most unsung of Allied Special Forces of the Second World War waged a guerrilla war against Japan for two years in the south-west Pacific. On some of their 81 operations Z Special Unit slipped into enemy harbours in canoes and silently mined ships before vanishing into the night; on others the...

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 ...

On the night of 10-11 May 1941, the Blitz reached its terrifying peak in the skies over London.Over 500 aircraft and thousands of Luftwaffe aircrew took off for England, laden with hundreds of tonnes of bombs to drop indiscriminately on the capital's civilians. In a matter of hours, 1,486 Londoners were killed, 11,000 houses were destroyed, and millions of lives were changed for ever.This attack almost brought Britain to military collapse. Using extensive survivors' testi...

Drawing on recently declassified files and interviews with veterans, this is a fascinating history of Bill Stirling and 2SAS – pioneering founders of modern special forces.David Stirling is the name synonymous with the wartime SAS, but the real brains behind the operation was in fact Bill Stirling, David's eldest brother. Bill was described in the SAS War Diary as a 'man from the shadows'; it was an apt description for, unlike his attention seeking...

An incredible history of the American WWI pilots who refused to be grounded, enlisting in the British Royal Air Force and fighting for Allied forces.In The First Eagles, award-winning historian Gavin Mortimer engagingly profiles the determined American aviators who grew tired of waiting for the their country to establish an aerial military force during World War I. It was these men who enlisted in Britain's desperate and battered Royal Flying Corps. After ...

A major illustrated history of the Long Range Desert Group from the foremost expert on British wartime special forces.Formed in June 1940 for the purpose of gathering intelligence behind enemy lines, the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) played a secretive but vital role in North Africa during World War II.Highly trained in mechanized reconnaissance and specializing in desert operations, the unit provided support to the Special Air Service (SAS) in missions ac...

In the world of military history there is no brand as potent as that of the SAS. They burst into global prominence in 1980 with their spectacular storming of the Iranian Embassy, and there have been hundreds of books, films, documentaries and even reality TV shows about them. But what there hasn't been is a guide to the scenes of some of their most famous Second World War operations. That is why Gavin Mortimer's vivid two-volume account of their daring missions in German-occupied France in...

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 ...