Download or read book Jock Lewes Co founder of the SAS written by John Lewes and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2000-03-30 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jock Lewes was a dashing young Welsh Guards officer who created a new approach to modern warfare in the SAS with less than two year's experience as a soldier. By the age of twenty-seven Jock co-founded the SAS with David Stirling. Jock was in reality the trainer and 'brains' behind this now legendary fighting force and this stunning biography describes the extent of his contribution. Jock was brought up in Australia during the Depression and later educated at Oxford. Life was rarely dull and he packed it with action and achievement. His Presidency of the Oxford University Boat Club saw Oxford breaking Cambridge University's succession of thirteen wins. Preparing for a job at the Foreign Office, Jock spent several seasons in Berlin. The record of his passion for two women, one a Nazi, the other a young linguist at Somerville College, Oxford, are part of a teeming richness of writing which he left in letters, journals and poems. His death was no less dramatic than his life: after successful raids on enemy aerodromes with his invention of Lewes Bombs, he was hunted down by a Messerschmitt 110 fighter. A highly important addition to ever popular SAS literature. Jock Lewes was the brain behind the formation of the Special Air Service.
Download or read book Joy Street written by Barford and published by Little Brown. This book was released on 1996-01-04 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a series of letters between 19-year-old Miriam (Mirren) Barford, an Oxford student, and Lieutenant John (Jock) Lewes, who had joined the Welsh Guards at the outbreak of war in 1939. Mirren had met Jock at the wedding of his sister Elizabeth the previous year. Their developing love affair is chronicled in a narrative that reaches a tragic conclusion when Jock is killed in action on 30th December 1941. Jock Lewes was one of the co-founders of the original S.A.S.
Download or read book Keystone of 22 SAS written by Alan Hoe and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-03-30 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This British military biography tells the full story of the Lieutenant Colonel who helped turn the 22nd SAS into the world’s leading special forces unit. Despite its successes during World War II, the future of the British Army’s Special Air Service was uncertain for years afterward. In the 1950s, it was resurrected as the 22nd SAS Regiment to take part in the Malayan Emergency, and over time evolved into one of the British military’s most important units. This renaissance was brought about by a small group of highly motivated officers. Of these, Lieutenant Colonel John Woodhouse stood out for his energy, expertise, and courage. Written by an SAS insider, this biography demonstrates how Woodhouse played a pivotal role in transforming the 22nd SAS into an elite fighting force. Woodhouse led the regiment through campaigns in Oman, Borneo, Radfan and South Arabia, as it built its unrivaled reputation. After leaving the Army, Woodhouse became a sought-after counter-terrorist consultant taking an advisory and active role in operations worldwide. While Colonel Sir David Stirling publicly acknowledged Woodhouse as a cofounder of the 22nd SAS, the full story of his role has not been widely recognized. As this fascinating book reveals, without his efforts there would probably be no 22nd SAS today.
Download or read book Joy Street written by Mirren Barford and published by Little Brown & Company. This book was released on 1995 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Letters trace the growing romantic relationship between an Oxford University student and a lieutenant in the Welsh guards
Download or read book David Stirling written by Gavin Mortimer and published by Constable. This book was released on 2022-05-26 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aristocrat, gambler, innovator and special forces legend, the life of David Stirling should need no retelling. His formation of the Special Air Service in the summer of 1941 led to a new form of warfare and Stirling is remembered as the father of special forces soldiering. But was he really a military genius or in fact a shameless self-publicist who manipulated people, and the truth, for this own ends? In this gripping and controversial biography Gavin Mortimer analyses Stirling's complex character: the childhood speech impediment that shaped his formative years, the pressure from his overbearing mother, his fraught relationship with his brother, Bill, and the jealousy and inferiority he felt in the presence of his SAS second-in-command, the cold-blooded killer Paddy Mayne. Stirling lived until old age, receiving a knighthood and plaudits from military forces around the world before his death in 1990. Yet as Mortimer dazzlingly shows, while Stirling was instrumental in selling the SAS to Churchill and senior officers, it was Mayne who really carried the regiment in the early days. Stirling was at best an incompetent soldier and at worst a foolhardy one, who jeopardised his men's live with careless talk and hare-brained missions. Drawing on interviews with SAS veterans who fought with Stirling and men who worked with him on his post-war projects, and examining recently declassified governments files about Stirling's involvement in Aden, Libya and GB75, Mortimer's riveting biography is incisive, bold, honest and written with his customary narrative panache. Impeccably researched and with the courage to challenge the mythical SAS 'brand', Mortimer brings to bear his unparalleled expertise as WW2's premier special forces historian to dig beneath the legend and reveal the real David Stirling, a man who dared and deceived.
Download or read book He Who Dared and Died written by Gearoid O'Dowd and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brought up in poverty in the West of Ireland, Chris ODowd ran away to join the Irish Guards aged 18. In no time he tasted bitter action in Norway, but hungry for more he volunteered for the newly formed Commandos. After intensive training he sailed for Egypt, serving with Churchills son Randolph, novelist Evelyn Waugh and, most significantly, David Stirling.When Stirling got the go-ahead to form the SAS, his handpicked team included the young Chris ODowd. After his part in the early SAS behind-the-lines raids on enemy airfields, ODowd was promoted to Lance-Sergeant and awarded the Military Medal.When Colonel David Stirling was captured, the SASs future was in danger (it was always threatened by enemies within the Army) but Ulsterman Major Paddy Mayne managed to keep it alive. ODowds courage and toughness typified the spirit of the SAS and he became a key member of this elite band.The SAS spearheaded the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and then was ordered to the Italian mainland. Tragically Chris ODowd was killed in action along with fourteen others in October 1943.
Download or read book Paddy Mayne written by Hamish Ross and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-08-26 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The best biography I've read recently' – Colin Bateman, Sunday Independent An excellent examination of Mayne... Ross corrects many of the myths about him that have flourished over the years - History of War magazine 'This welcome reassessment, officially backed and well-researched, sets the record straight' – Soldier Magazine 'Paddy' Mayne was one of the most outstanding special forces leaders of the Second World War. Hamish Ross's authoritative study follows Mayne from solicitor and rugby international to troop commander in the Commandos and then the SAS, whose leader he later became and whose annals he graced, winning the DSO and three bars, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'Honneur. Mayne's achievements attracted attention, and after his early death legends emerged, based largely on anecdote and assertion. Hamish Ross's closely researched biography challenges much of the received version, using contemporary sources, the official war diaries, the chronicle of 1 SAS, Mayne's papers and diaries, and a number of extended interviews with key contemporaries. Ross's analysis shows Mayne to be a dynamic, yet principled and thoughtful man, committed to the unit's original concepts. He was far from flawless, but his leadership and tactical brilliance in the field secured the reputation of the SAS, proving he was every bit a rogue hero.
Download or read book The Playground of Europe written by Leslie Stephen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in 1894, this is a revised collection of articles, sharing the author's long-standing passion for the Alps and alpinism.
Download or read book The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare written by Damien Lewis and published by Quercus. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning historian, war reporter, and author Damien Lewis (Zero Six Bravo, Judy) comes the incredible true story of the top-secret "butcher-and-bolt" black ops units Prime Minister Winston Churchill assigned the task of stopping the unstoppable German war machine. Criminals, rogues, and survivalists, the brutal tactics and grit of these "deniables" would define a military unit the likes of which the world had never seen. When France fell to the Nazis in spring 1940, Churchill declared that Britain would resist the advance of the German army--alone if necessary. Churchill commanded the Special Operations Executive to secretly develop of a very special kind of military unit that would operate on their own initiative deep behind enemy lines. The units would be licensed to kill, fully deniable by the British government, and a ruthless force to meet the advancing Germans. The very first of these "butcher-and-bolt" units--the innocuously named Maid Honour Force--was led by Gus March-Phillipps, a wild British eccentric of high birth, and an aristocratic, handsome, and bloodthirsty young Danish warrior, Anders Lassen. Amped up on amphetamines, these assorted renegades and sociopaths undertook the very first of Churchill's special operations--a top-secret, high-stakes mission to seize Nazi shipping in the far-distant port of Fernando Po, in West Africa. Though few of these early desperadoes survived WWII, they took part in a series of fascinating, daring missions that changed the course of the war. It was the first stirrings of the modern special-ops team, and all of the men involved would be declared war heroes when it was all over. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare focuses on a dozen of these extraordinary men, weaving their stories of brotherhood, comradely, and elite soldiering into a gripping narrative yarn, from the earliest missions to Anders Lassen's tragic death, just weeks before the end of the war.
Download or read book The Special Operations Executive SOE in Burma written by Richard Duckett and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mountains and jungles of occupied Burma during World War II, British special forces launched a series of secret operations, assisted by parts of the Burmese population. The men of the SOE, trained in sabotage and guerrilla warfare, worked in the jungle, deep behind enemy lines, to frustrate the puppet Burmese government of Ba Maw and continue the fight against Hirohito's Japan in a theatre starved of resources. Here, Richard Duckett uses newly declassified documents from the National Archives to reveal for the first time the extent of British special forces' involvement - from the 1941 operations until beyond Burma's independence from the British Empire in 1948. Duckett argues convincingly that `Operation Character' and `Operation Billet' - large SOE missions launched in support of General Slim's XIV Army offensive to liberate Burma - rank among the most militarily significant of the SOE's secret missions. Featuring a wealth of photographs and accompanying material never before published, including direct testimony recorded by veterans of the campaign and maps from the SOE files, The SOE in Burma tells a compelling story of courage and struggle in during World War II
Download or read book Double Agent Celery written by Carolinda Witt and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This personal biography reveals the incredible true story of the British secret agent who posed as a Nazi spy during WWII. With Britain braced for a German invasion, MI5 recruited Walter Dicketts, a former officer of the Royal Naval Air Force—and a known con artist—as a double agent. Codenamed Celery, Dicketts was sent to Lisbon with the mission of persuading the Germans he was a traitor and then extracting crucial secrets. Once there, the Nazis brought Dicketts to Germany, where he had to outwit his interrogators in Hamburg and Berlin before returning to Britain as, in the Nazis’ eyes, a German spy. Even before he left for Germany, Celery knew that he had been betrayed by a fellow agent. Yet somehow he not only got back to Lisbon, but persuaded a German Intelligence Officer to defect before spending nine months undercover in Brazil. A mixture of hero and crook, Dicketts was smart, worldly and charismatic. Sometimes rich and sometimes poor, his private life was a complicated web of deception. Using both family and official documents, as well as police records, newspaper articles and personal memories, Carolinda Witt—Dicketts’s granddaughter—unravels the incredible yet true story of Double Agent Celery.
Download or read book Rogue Warrior of the SAS written by Martin Dillon and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-10-14 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than half a century after his death, Lt Col. Robert Blair Mayne is still regarded as one of the greatest soldiers in the history of military special operations. He was the most decorated British soldier of the Second World War, receiving four DSOs, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'honneur, and he pioneered tactics used today by the SAS and other special operations units worldwide. Rogue Warrior of the SAS tells the remarkable life story of 'Colonel Paddy', whose exceptional physical strength and uniquely swift reflexes made him a fearsome opponent. But his unorthodox rules of war and his resentment of authority would deny him the ultimate accolade of the Victoria Cross. Drawing on personal letters and family papers, declassified SAS files and records, together with the Official SAS Diary compiled in wartime and eyewitness accounts from many who served with him, the picture emerges of a soldier who, although a flawed hero, was unquestionably one of the most distinctive combatants of the campaigns in the Western Desert and Europe.
Download or read book Colonel Paddy written by Patrick Marrinan and published by . This book was released on 2013-11-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic story of Blair Mayne, late commanding officer of the first Special Air Service Regiment. He was an Air-Commando, a leader of the most daredevil and dangerous regiment in the British Army - the SAS. The scourge of the Nazis, Hitler ordered that he was to be shot on sight. The personification of Irish courage, he is also still the most de
Download or read book Anders Lassen VC MC of the SAS written by Mike Langley and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Anders Lassen is one of the most amazing and heroic of the Second World War – indeed in the history of the British armed services. He was awarded no less than three Military Crosses and the SAS regiment’s only Victoria Cross. From the day he stalked and killed a stag armed only with a knife, Lassen had been recognized as quite unique. He took part in a series of extraordinary strikes against the Axis powers in West Africa, Normandy, the Channel Islands, the Aegean and Greece, the Balkans and, finally, in Italy. This classic biography of a remarkable warrior, which was first published in 1988, is based on interviews with Lassens fellow soldiers and a wealth of original research. It covers each stage of Lassens short, brilliant career in vivid detail and offers a penetrating insight into the exceptional courage, confidence and single-minded motivation that lay behind Lassens extraordinary exploits. Mike Langley also reconstructs, using the testimony of survivors, the operation in which Lassen was killed and for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Download or read book A Spy After All written by John Lewes and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-22 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: JOCK STEEL, THE SAS SPY With an ability to survive in the merciless desert that puts other well-known agents into the shade, Steel doesn't worry if there is nowhere to run and hide. But there is always a price to be paid. Jock Steel is a young British army officer who knows more than most about his Nazi opponents. He is also passionately in love with Madeleine McLean. Determined to bring his new form of warfare behind enemy lines, Steel is persuaded to serve Britain as a spy in order to safeguard MI6 secrets in the fight against Rommel in North Africa. As Madeleine leaves Oxford to work in MI5 to get closer to Steel, she uncovers dark secrets at the heart of British Intelligence. Steel abandons Madeleine to fend for herself while he tracks traitors behind enemy lines. Will his revolutionary ideas for a new kind of secret war outwit enemies at home and abroad? Now that they have been torn apart, can their love survive?
Download or read book The Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Greatest Raid written by Giles Whittell and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2022-03-17 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I loved this book, as I love any good adventure story sublimely told . . . a gloriously exciting high, followed by a crushing realisation of war's enormous waste' Gerard deGroot, The Times 'Absorbing . . . The extraordinary bravery of the participants shines out from the narrative' Patrick Bishop, Sunday Telegraph _________________________________ FROM THE AUTHOR OF BRIDGE OF SPIES: A dramatic and colourful new account of the most daring British commando raid of World War Two In the darkest months of the Second World War, Churchill approved what seemed to many like a suicide mission. Under orders to attack the St Nazaire U-boat base on the Atlantic seaboard, British commandos undertook "the greatest raid of all", turning an old destroyer into a live bomb and using it to ram the gates of a Nazi stronghold. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded -- more than in any similar operation. Drawing on official documents, interviews, unknown accounts and the astonished reactions of French civilians and German forces, The Greatest Raid recreates in cinematic detail the hours in which the "Charioteers" fought and died, from Lt Gerard Brett, the curator at the V & A, to "Bertie" Burtinshaw, who went into battle humming There'll Always be an England, and from Lt Stuart Chant, who set the fuses with 90 seconds to escape, to the epic solo reconnaissance of the legendary Times journalist Capt Micky Burn. Unearthing the untold human stories of Operation Chariot, Bridge of Spies author Giles Whittell reveals it to be a fundamentally misconceived raid whose impact and legacy was secured by astonishing bravery. _________________________________ 'Enthralling . . . the heroism on display that night was unsurpassed, and Whittell is right to call his book The Greatest Raid' Simon Griffith, Mail on Sunday 'A compelling page-turner, the work of a master storyteller. The drama of the March 1942 operation is cinematic in its sweep and detail -- and Whittell's detective work on the real reasons for the raid is extraordinary. Beautifully written' Matthew d'Ancona
