great book
Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War|28503837]
The incredible untold story of WWII s greatest secret fighting force, as told by our great modern master of wartime intrigue
Britain s Special Air Service or SAS was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II s African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel s desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war material. Paired with his constitutional opposite, the disciplined martinet Jock Lewes, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war, but the nature of combat itself. He faced no little resistance from those who found his tactics ungentlemanly or beyond the pale, but in the SAS s remarkable exploits facing the Nazis in the Africa and then on the Continent can be found the seeds of nearly all special forces units that would follow.
Bringing his keen eye for psychological detail to a riveting wartime narrative, Ben Macintyre uses his unprecedented access to SAS archives to shine a light inside a legendary unit long shrouded in secrecy. The result is not just a tremendous war story, but a fascinating group portrait of men of whom history and country asked the most
What did I think:
five stars
First off I want to that this is an authorized history ,not an official one and that the author himself worked with and was aided by the SAS Regimental Association at every stage of its production, now that I've said that lets get to what I thought of the book, at first I wasn't sure if I wanted to pick it up , I have nothing against the book but at the time I kept thinking I already had a big TBR for October, but the more I kept coming back to read the synopsis of it I already know that I was going to request it and see if I could get a copy to review , one of the things that made me want to take it up was that the synopsis it kept bring to my mind my all time favorite WW2 movie called The Devil's Brigade ( 1968) that's about the 1st elite American-Canadian commando unit in World War II, under command of the United States Fifth Army. Which our modern American and Canadian special operations forces can trace their heritage to that unit, this book isn't about them but about Britain's Secret Special Forces which to this day is the grandfather to the US Delta Force and Nave Seals and with out them we would never have those types of heroes. and just like the movie The Devil's Brigade movie is a movie you have to watch ,this is a book that any WW2 buff will have to pick up and add to their book shelf, because its a great reference source for a group (the SAS) that's not well known or recognized. Plus the author himself doesn't just stick to conspiracy and espionage aspects of their story , he brings to life the more straightforward military history of the SAS in its first incarnation , and creation , to the solders that joined and the ones that lost their lives , to the ones that was captured and lost , to the their missions whither they was a successful or not, to the lives they lived doing and between missions , the friend ships that grew ,and so much more, so once again I can not tell you that this is a book that need to be read, so go and pick it up either for your self or for a friend or family member. say that I received this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for my honest opinion and review and that these are 100 % my own thoughts to what is truly a great book
