Scott Michael - Special Forces Commander : the Life and Wars of Peter Wand-Tetley, OBE MC Commando, SAS, SOE and Paratrooper

The year 2010 was the seventieth anniversary of the formation, in 1940, of the Special Operations Executive, the Army Commandos and the Parachute Regiment, with the Special Air Service Regiment formed from the Commandos the following year. All owe their existence in large part to Churchills vision and determination to hit back at Hitlers Germany by unconventional as well as conventional means. I should therefore like to thank Pen and Sword, and its staff, especially Henry Wilson, Richard Doherty, Jon Wilkinson, Emma Howe and Matt Jones for publishing this book to mark this special anniversary and Peter Wand-Tetleys odyssey through these four unique organizations.

I should like to thank General Sir David Richards, Chief of the Defence Staff, for writing the Foreword to this book. This is the second of my books for which he has considerately taken the time to pen a kind word or two, and his wholehearted support is very much appreciated.

My gratitude also goes to Philip Best who has spent countless hours checking the typescript. This is the second occasion upon which he has gallantly volunteered for the guardroom in this respect. I should like to thank him for his considerable care and patience, for the book is undoubtedly a great deal better for his numerous suggestions, corrections and wise counsel. Nonetheless any mistakes made, which given the sweep of history is a distinct possibility, are entirely mine.

Charles Owen of The Daily Telegraph is warmly thanked for drafting Peter Wand-Tetleys obituary. My gratitude also goes to Ron Youngman, General Secretary of the Commando Association, who was most helpful in my early research enquiries at the time of Peter Wand-Tetleys death, and to Jim Condon at the Army Medal Office, who was so helpful in sorting out the matter of Peter Wand-Tetleys missing medals.

Many thanks to Terry Rogers, Archivist to Marlborough College, for his hospitality and assistance, and I am also most grateful to him and Marlborough College for allowing me to reproduce the photograph of the Colleges victorious Shooting VIII of 1935. Thanks also to Kate Thompson, Archivist to Downing College, Cambridge University, who was more than helpful, and to Justine Taylor, Archivist to the Honourable Artillery Company, who was similarly obliging. I am indebted to the staff at the National Archives, and to the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, who kindly permitted me to make use of a number of photographs from their collection.

My thanks go to Michael Cornwell, Curator of the Rifles Museum, Salisbury, for allowing me access to the Wiltshire Regiment archives. My gratitude goes to Bob Kelly, Curator of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps Museum, Aldershot, for his kind assistance, and also to Ted Molyneux, Curator of the National Rifle Association Museum, Bisley. Thank you to Chris Dodkin and Grenville Bint at the SAS Regimental Association for their assistance. I am also very grateful to Jon Baker and Becks Skinner at the Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford, and to John Greenacre for related Parachute Regiment research advice. I also wish to thank John Skliros for rising to the challenge of producing a prototype dust jacket for the book at very short notice.

The family have been unstintingly supportive, particularly Peter Wand-Tetleys widow, Felicia, his son, Charles, and his cousin, Angela Carter, all of whom helped me with the first and last chapters of the book and allowed me to reproduce family photographs. My wife, Debby, did sterling work in producing the maps for the book, for which I owe her a debt of gratitude, and thanks also go to the remainder of my family for their support and encouragement throughout.

Mike Scott
Khartoum
January 2011