The covert, clandestine operations of the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), from the jungles of Malaya, Borneo and Brunei to the deserts and mountains of the Middle East have always been the focus of intense fascination, stoked by the regiment's 'closed' organization and secretive activities. Yet no period of activity has remained more secret than the vital years in the immediate aftermath of World War Two. Official histories have it that the SAS was disbanded in October 1945 and it took the Malaya emergency to resurrect it. However, Tim Jones's fascinating history pieces together the evidence to show that while the Malaya emergency undoubtedly re-established the SAS as a unique source of counter-guerilla expertise, the regiment never disbanded, and was covertly involved in the Greek Civil War 1945-49 on the anti-communist side. Here the SAS fought its most important and difficult battle - the battle for survival - when salvation depended on a few dedicated visionaries and persistent champions. The author draws upon a mass of unpublished evidence and also reveals hitherto unknown plans for SAS forces in Libya and Iraq, as well as covert activities in Palestine, Korea and Malaya. Revealing important military secrets and shedding new light on post-war history, this book will be essential reading for enthusiasts of twentieth-century and military history.

Specializing in covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism and hostage rescue, the SAS is one of the world's most famous, feared and respected elite fighting forces. This book tells the full, fascinating story of the regiment, from formation in the sand dunes of Africa during World War II to present action in the Middle East, and incorporates jungle, desert and urban warfare, counter-terrorism and an insider's view at the selection and training methods employed by this usually secretive unit. As well as an insightful foreword by Andy McNab – one of the most famous members of the SAS – this revised, updated edition includes completely new chapters, features and information, including Key Missions in WWII, The Battle of Mirbat, Iranian Embassy Siege, Kenyan Hotel Rescue and Victoria Cross Awards.

The authorised illustrated history of the SAS by the number one bestselling author of Dunkirk, Joshua Levine. With never-before-seen photographs and unheard stories, this is the SAS’s wartime history in vivid and astonishing detail.

“Who Dares Wins”. The world’s most legendary special forces unit - and a history of action you will barely believe. This is the extraordinary, secretive story of how the SAS evolved from an unconventional handful of soldiers, operating behind enemy lines in North Africa in 1941, into the world’s most disciplined and respected professionals, up to their daring and dangerous exploits in the Iranian Embassy siege and the Falkland Islands. We see them during the latter years of the Second World War, in the numerous post-war security campaigns in the Middle and Far East, and in the difficult circumstances of urban terrorism. Above all, we see how the regiment’s founder David Stirling’s emphasis on The Man has not changed at all. Here indeed are men who dare to excel - and in General Strawson they have a worthy chronicler of their remarkable activities both in wartime and in the “savage wars of peace”. In the first history of the SAS ever published, we see their unique courage on full display - a courage that changed the British Army, and the world.

THE BOOK BEHIND THE UPCOMING BBC SERIES SAS: ROGUE HEROES, STARRING JACK O'CONNELL, ALFIE ALLEN AND DOMINIC WEST. From the secret SAS archives and bestselling author Ben Macintyre: The first ever authorized history of the SAS. 'A master at setting the pulse racing' Daily Mail ________________ In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, has a vision for a new kind of war: attacking the enemy where they least expect it - from behind their own lines. Despite the intense opposition of many in British High Command, Winston Churchill personally gives Stirling permission to recruit the toughest, brightest and most ruthless soldiers he can find. And so begins the most celebrated and mysterious military organisation in the world: the SAS. With unprecedented access to the SAS secret files, unseen footage and exclusive interviews with its founder members, SAS: Rogue Heroes tells the remarkable story behind an extraordinary fighting force, and the immense cost of making it a reality. ________________ 'Thorough and highly entertaining. It would be nigh on impossible to praise it too highly' Daily Express 'Impeccably researched, superbly told - by far the best book on the SAS in World War II' Antony Beevor 'Told with deceptive brilliance . . . one the finest books of its kind' Evening Standard

In the world of military history there is no brand as potent as that of the SAS. They burst into global prominence in 1980 with their spectacular storming of the Iranian Embassy, and there have been hundreds of books, films, documentaries and even reality TV shows about them. But what there hasn't been is a guide to the scenes of some of their most famous Second World War operations. That is why Gavin Mortimer’s vivid two-volume account of their daring missions in German-occupied France in 1944 is such compelling reading. SAS actions in France delayed German reinforcements reaching the battlefront in Normandy, later sewing confusion among the Germans as they withdrew. The SAS trained the French Maquis and helped to turn them from an indisciplined rabble into an effective fighting force. Their exploits inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans, and they left a trail of destruction and disorder in their wake. In this second volume focusing on 2 SAS he describes in graphic detail operations Loyton, Wallace and Hardy, and Rupert, all of which were carried out in eastern France. Using previously unpublished interviews with SAS veterans and members of the Maquis as well as rare photographs, Gavin Mortimer blends the past and present, so that readers can walk in the footsteps of SAS heroes and see where they lived, fought and died.

A pictorial history of the SAS over the 18 years that Barry Davies served with them. The photographs, taken by Barry and his contemporaries, are accompanied by an explanatory text and show training, specialist duties and operational activities from around the world, including the Gulf War.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The incredible untold story of World War II’s greatest secret fighting force, as told by the modern master of wartime intrigue—now a limited series on Epix! “Reads like a mashup of The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape, with a sprinkling of Ocean’s 11 thrown in for good measure.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “Rogue Heroes is a ripping good read.”—Washington Post (10 Best Books of the Year) Britain’s Special Air Service—or SAS—was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young aristocrat whose aimlessness belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a World War II battlefield map and saw a protracted struggle, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite men, he could parachute behind Nazi lines and sabotage their airplanes and supplies. Defying his superiors’ conventional wisdom, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war, but the nature of combat itself. Bringing his keen eye for detail to a riveting wartime narrative, Ben Macintyre uses his unprecedented access to the SAS archives to shine a light on a legendary unit long shrouded in secrecy.

I've written this book to help you – the soldier – kill the enemy when you get the chance and, most importantly, come back home in one piece. To achieve this aim I've covered combat training from boot camp up to the level required of a Special Forces soldier. And then gone on to add a few tricks of my own. I've done a bit of soldiering (Northern Ireland, SAS deployments, Bush Wars in Africa, life as a merc) and been in my fair share of fire-fights. I've only been wounded twice and learnt from both occasions. I'm going to use my experience to teach you to play the game. I'm not going to teach you how to survive in snowy mountains for a month with only one tea-bag or how to kill a room full of people with only a toothpick. There are plenty of books that do that already. This book will teach you how to fight and survive war in the 21st century from the tools of the trade, to avoiding getting shot or blown-up, from surviving an interrogation to defending a position This is a book not for the faint hearted. But then neither is war.