The stories in this book come from first-hand experiences of the men of the Australian Special Air Service Regiment as they conduct their operations in Borneo and South Vietnam.
The British Army's SAS--the Special Air Service--is recognized as one of the world's premier special operations units. During the Gulf War, deep behind Iraqi lines, an SAS team was compromised. A fierce firefight ensued, and the eight men were forced to run for their lives. Only one, Chris Ryan, escaped capture--by walking nearly 180 miles through the desert for a week. The One That Got Away is his breathtaking story of extraordinary courage under fire, of narrow escapes, of highly trained soldiers struggling against the most adverse of conditions, and, above all, of one man's courageous refusal to lie down and die.
They were like a band of brothers... In 1983 Andy McNab was assigned to B Squadron, one of the four Sabre Squadrons of the SAS, and within it to Air Troop, otherwise known as SEVEN TROOP. This is Andy McNab's gripping account of the time he served in the company of a remarkable group of men - from the day, freshly badged, he joined them in the Malayan jungle, to the day, ten years later, that he handed in his sand-coloured beret and started a new life. The links they forged then bound them inextricably together, but the things they saw and did during that time would take them all to breaking point - and some beyond - in the years that were to follow. He who dares doesn't always win...
The exploits of the British Army's elite 22nd Special Air Service Regiment - the regiment of the SAS that forms part of the Regular army - are shrouded in mystery and myths abound about its members. But what is the truth behind the public facade of clinical professionalism? How has such a small regiment attracted so many weighty legends? And what is the purpose of the SAS in the 21st century? "Special Force" provides an original and unusually critical overview of the activities of the SAS from the Malayan Emergency of 1950 to the present day. In the context of a detailed and often controversial analysis of the post-war activities of the Regiment, MacKenzie establishes that the Regiment's almost legendary professional competence is often not backed up by reality. Far from being part of a structured deployment of strategic military assets, MacKenzie argues that the use of the SAS in recent years has been primarily driven by the 'entrepreneurial' actions of a few SAS commanding officers. "Special Force" not only offers a revelatory history of the SAS in the modern period, it is also a disturbing expose of the truth behind the myth. It will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the British military - past, present and future.
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.
The new SAS epic from bestselling military historian Damien Lewis We share the triumphs and tragedies of a group of elite soldier trailblazers as they commit daring raids behind enemy lines in 1944, manage an against the odds escape to victory, and then seek post-war retribution for the terrible murder of their captured comrades. SAS BAND OF BROTHERS is replete with action, peppered with great characters, and features two of the most daring escapes of WWII. It ends with the hunted becoming the hunters - a group of men intent on seeking out the Nazis responsible for their brethren's deaths, on an ultra-deniable SAS mission to avenge a war crime. This is the new bestseller from Damien Lewis. It bears all his hallmarks - an epic, page-turning special forces narrative based on hitherto unavailable personal testimony and private family archives.
This personal account of Terry O'Farrell's career as an SAS soldier vividly captures not only the military actions of his time in Vietnam, but the human aspects of surviving the intense selection process and training to dealing with the ever-present fear of combat. The horrors of long tense stretches on patrol in the jungle and being caught by surprise by the enemy are recounted. Also included are colorful tales of experiences off the battlefied--the larrakin pranks during training and the friendships that form between soldiers.
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.
Tracking originated with man’s need for food; he needed to understand what he was following and what the rewards would be if he was successful. Little has changed over time about the terms of tracking. We still track game for sport and food, but we have also found other uses for tracking. Border police patrol to stop illegal immigrants from entering their country; the military tracks down wanted terrorists or enemy forces. Tracking has become a military skill. In the SAS Tracking Handbook, former SAS soldier and British Empire Medal (BEM) award–winner Barry Davies teaches not only how to survive in the outdoors with the skills of tracking, but how to use these skills from a military standpoint. Included in this book are many helpful tips on topics including: The types of dogs used for tracking. Traps for catching wild animals. Modern military tracking. Using your surroundings to your advantage. And much more. The success or failure of the modern tracker is dependent on the personal skills of the individual tracker. Training is vital in learning tracking skills, and continuous exercise the best way to interpret signs. These skills are rarely found, but they remain hidden deep within all of us. So whether you’re already a skilled tracker or a novice in the field, the SAS Tracking Handbook will be your guide to mastering this old and respected art.
A concise illustrated history of the Special Air Service's lightweight, heavily armed vehicles and their combat use. The SAS, the world's most famous special operations unit, made its name in the desert of North Africa, shooting up Axis airfields from specially modified Willys jeeps. Following the start of the El Alamein offensive in October 1942, the SAS used jeeps effectively in reconnoitring and ambushing the retreating Afrika Korps. After the conclusion of the North African campaign, the Willys underwent several small but significant changes, including the introduction of the .303 Browning machine gun. Between June and October 1944, the SAS brigade operated deep inside Occupied France, harassing Germans reinforcements heading to Normandy, calling up air strikes on installations, and carrying out reconnaissance missions - all made possible with jeeps dropped by the RAF. Jeeps were also used in the push into Germany in the spring of 1945. Transported across the Rhine in 'Buffalo' amphibious landing craft, they formed part of the vanguard of the Allied advance, and their agility, speed and firepower proved crucial in crushing fanatical pockets of Nazi resistance. 22SAS in 1952, the regiment adopted the Series 1 Land Rover - introduced in 1948 - as the successor to the Willys jeep. A decade later the Regiment updated to the Series IIA 90 Land Rover, which saw service in the Oman and Aden, where its distinctive colour led to the 'Pink Panther' nickname. In the 1970s, the SAS begin using Range Rovers for covert operations while the Land Rover 110 HCPU became the SAS's new Desert Patrol Vehicle (DPV) in the 1991 Gulf War. This book describes the successful deployment of these combat vehicles in SAS operations from the Second World War to the present day and gives a rare insight into one of the most prestigious and secret forces of modern times.