Just finished: Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That

[FSogol]

Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben MacIntyre

Hilarious telling of the origin and WWII exploits of the SAS

Publisher's description:

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.

[dameatball]

1. Sounds like a good read. Thanks for the info.

[Nitram]

2. How effective were the SAS against Rommel's forces in N. Africa?

Were they instrumental in Rommel's defeat?

[FSogol]

3. Very effective, they destroyed a lot of Rommel's support, disrupted supplies, and killed German

moral. If you are interested in the subject, I highly recommend the book.

[Zorro]

4. You might also want to check out Ill Met by Moonlight by Stanley Moss

It's the true but little-known story of British agents kidnapping the commanding general of all German troops on the island of Crete during WWII.

[FSogol]

5. I will, thanks. n/t