History of the SAS

Stirling's Men: The Inside History of the SAS in World War II. Today the most admired and imitated of the world’s special forces, the SAS owes its origins and early growth to the drive and initiative of one man : the remarkable and eccentric aristocratic Scottish soldier David Stirling. This book gives the whole thrilling story of the birth of the SAS, or the Long Range Desert Group as it was originally dubbed when it was born in the heat of the North African campaign. The two things that the varied recruits to the new force had in common was their unconventionality and their desire to get to grips with the enemy on ground of their own choosing. Gavin Mortimer interviewed more than 60 surviving WW2 SAS veterans, including many who have never spoken before. They tell gruelling stories of the hard training that broke all but the toughest; of raids on German desert airfields; of derailing trains in Italy and France where, in 1944, the tiny number of SAS men accounted for more than 8,000 enemy casualties. FOInally, as the fighting moved into Germany proper the SAS faced their most formidible enemy yet - the fanatical troops of the SS. Belongs on the shelves of all those interested in the elite force whose daring so often bought victory. Stirling's Men: The Inside History of the SAS in World War II (Cassell Military Paperbacks).