Asher - Regiment : The Real Story of the SAS

My sincere thanks to David List, formerly of 21 SAS Regiment (Artists), currently the leading authority on the SAS and one of very few SAS historians to appreciate the distinction between history and hagiography. Much of the new material presented here on the early years of the Regiment is due to his refusal to accept myths at face value, and his painstaking research over many years.

I am also grateful to Nigel Morris, for his interviews, especially with Major Clive Fairweather, former second-in-command, 22 SAS Regiment. I would like to thank Major General Tony Jeapes, CB OBE MC, former commanding officer, 22 SAS Regiment, for his assistance. I am grateful for the help of Lorna Almonds Windmill, both in correspondence and for the diary of her father, Major Jim Almonds MC and bar, of L Detachment and 1 SAS Regiment. I would like to thank Major Peter Ratcliffe DCM, former Regimental Sergeant Major, 22 SAS Regiment, both for Eye of the Storm possibly the best book of memoirs ever written on 22 SAS and for personal contributions. My thanks also go to John Kerbotson, formerly of B Squadron, 23 SAS Regiment, for his support.

My deepest thanks to my long-standing editor at Penguin, supreme professional Eleo Gordon, and to my ever-patient agent, Anthony Goff of David Higham Associates, and his assistant Georgia Glover. I would also like to thank my wife, Mariantonietta, and my children, Burton and Jade, for their understanding.

Michael Asher
Frazione Agnata, Sardinia
and Langata, Nairobi

NON-FICTION

In Search of the Forty Days Road: Adventures with Nomads of the Desert

A Desert Dies

Impossible Journey: Two Against the Sahara

Shoot to Kill: A Soldiers Journey Through Violence

Thesiger: A Biography

The Last of the Bedu: In Search of the Myth

Lawrence: The Uncrowned King of Arabia

The Real Bravo Two Zero

Get Rommel: The Secret British Mission to Kill Hitlers Greatest General

Khartoum: The Ultimate Imperial Adventure

Sands of Death: An Epic Tale of Massacre and Survival in the Sahara

Sahara (with Kazuyoshi Nomachi)

Phoenix Rising: The United Arab Emirates, Past, Present and Future (with Werner Forman)

FICTION

The Eye of Ra

Firebird

Rare Earth

Sandstorm

The Last Commando

The Flaming Sword

Highroad to Hell

Code of Combat

Night and Fog

Asher, Michael, Shoot to Kill: A soldiers journey through violence, London, 1990.

Ballinger, Adam, The Quiet Soldier: On selection with 21 SAS, London, 1992.

Beaumont, Roger A., Military Elites, Indianapolis, 1974.

Beckwith, Charlie A., Delta Force the Armys Elite Counter-Terrorist Unit, San Diego, 1983.

Byrne, J. V., The General Salutes a Soldier: With the SAS and Commandos in World War Two, London, 1986.

Calvert, Michael, Fighting Mad: One mans guerrilla war, London, 1964.

Chin Peng, My Side of History: Recollections of the guerrilla leader who waged a 12-year war against the British in the jungles of Malaya, Singapore, 2003.

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Mather, Carol, When the Grass Stops Growing, London, 1997.

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McNab, Andy, Bravo Two Zero: The true story of an SAS patrol behind enemy lines in Iraq, London, 1993.

Moorehead, Alan, African Trilogy: The desert war 19401943, London, 1944.

Mortimer, Gavin, Stirlings Men the inside history of the SAS in World War II, London, 2004.

Ratcliffe, Peter, with Botham, Noel, and Hitchen, Brian, Eye of the Storm: Twenty-five Years in Action with the SAS, London, 2000.

Rennie, James, The Operators: On the streets with Britains most secret service, Barnsley, 2004.

Ryan, Chris, The One That Got Away, London, 1995.

Spence, Cameron, Sabre Squadron, London, 1997.

Spencer Chapman, Frederick, The Jungle is Neutral, London, 1949.

Stevens, Gordon, The Originals: The secret history of the birth of the SAS in their own words, London, 2005.

Stokes, Brummie, Soldiers and Sherpas: A taste for adventure, London, 1988.

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Thesiger, Wilfred, A Life of My Choice, London, 1987.

Timpson, Alastair, with Gibson-Watt, Andrew, In Rommels Backyard: A memoir of the Long Range Desert Group, Barnsley, 2000.

Wellsted, Ian, SAS with the Maquis: In action with the French resistance JuneSeptember 1944, London, 1994.

Almonds Windmill, Lorna, Gentleman Jim: The wartime story of a founder of the SAS & special forces, London, 2001.

Almonds Windmill, Lorna, A British Achilles: The story of George, 2nd Earl Jellicoe KBE DSO MC FRS, Barnsley, 2005.

Asher, Michael, Thesiger: A Biography, London, 1994.

Asher, Michael, The Real Bravo Two Zero: The truth behind Bravo Two Zero, London, 2003.

Asher, Michael, Get Rommel: The secret British mission to kill Hitlers greatest general, London, 2004.

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