Macintyre - Rogue Heroes

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 perhaps a different 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 raiding force in the North African desert, 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 afterward, 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SAS, has been written with full and unprecedented access to the SAS regimental archivesan astonishingly rich trove of unpublished material including top secret reports, memos, private diaries, letters, memoirs, maps, and hundreds of hitherto unseen photographs.

The most important single source has been the SAS War Diary. This is an extraordinary compilation of original documents, gathered by an SAS officer in 1945, bound in a single, leather-clad volume of more than five hundred pages. Held in secrecy for the next seventy years, it is now preserved in the SAS regimental archives.

This is an authorized history, not an official one; I have been generously aided by the SAS Regimental Association at every stage of its production, but the views expressed herein are entirely my own, and not those of the regiment. It is not a comprehensive history. If such a thing were possible, it would be unreadable. For reasons of space and continuity, I have tended to focus on key individuals and events; many men who played gallant roles in the early days of the regiment do not appear in these pages; a few major operations have been omitted, to avoid repetition, as have many minor ones. I have also given more prominence to the British elements of the SAS than their French, Greek, and Belgian counterparts. This is not a specialist military history but a book for the general reader, and I have tried to keep to a minimum the particulars of rank, unit numbers, medal awards, and other military details when these are not essential to the narrative. A full list of wartime SAS operations and the regiments roll of honor is included at the end.