Ben Macintyre - Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britains Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War

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This book was made possible by the full cooperation and assistance of the SAS Regimental Association. I am particularly grateful to Chris Dodkin, Howard Ham, Tracy Hawkins, Terri Hesmer and the SAS Association Archivist. Gavin Mortimer kindly read the manuscript at various stages of writing, and Alan Hoe and Gordon Stephens cast expert eyes over it at the end, identifying a number of important errors and omissions. The remaining mistakes are entirely my own. I would also like to thank the following for contributing, variously, their expertise, hospitality, memories and other assistance in the making of this book: Kildare and Sarah Bourke-Borrowes, Robert Hands, Keith Kilby, John Lewes, John McCready, Martin Morgan, Mike Sadler, Alison Smartt, Archie Stirling and Edward Toms, as well as the numerous individuals who helped but have asked not to be named. Caroline Wood performed great feats of picture research. My publishers at Viking and Crown have been remarkable in their efficiency, imagination and patience: Joel Rickett, Venetia Butterfield, Poppy North, Peter James, Molly Stern and Kevin Doughton. It has been a pleasure to tackle this project in concert with a most talented BBC team: Matthew Whiteman, Eamon Hardy, Katie Rider and Martin Davidson. Ed Victor, my agent, has been, as ever, a fund of enthusiasm and good judgement. I am indebted to my friends and colleagues on The Times for their encouragement, and above all to my beloved family, for their unfailing tolerance, support and humour.

Like war itself, battlefield courage takes many forms. This is a book about a style of warfare that was quite different from anything that preceded it, an unexpected species of hero, and an unusual sort of bravery.

The Special Air Service pioneered a form of combat that has since become a central component of modern warfare. It began life as a small raiding force, but grew into the most formidable commando unit of the Second World War and the prototype for special forces across the world, notably the US Delta Force and Navy SEALs.

Yet throughout the war, and for many years afterwards, the activities of this specialized regiment were a closely guarded secret. This book, describing the origins and wartime evolution of the SAS, has been written with full and unprecedented access to the SAS regimental archives an astonishingly rich trove of unpublished material including top-secret reports, memos, private diaries, letters, memoirs, maps and hundreds of hitherto unseen photographs.