![]() ![]() During their first operation, they parachuted in, but after a disastrous failure, they looked for a better entry. Their initial setup included very little, so they just stole what they needed from a nearby New Zealand regiment away on maneuvers. Their founder, David Stirling, built a group of guerrillas who planned to get behind enemy lines for quick, effective attacks. They fought a new sort of war, one without rules, based on a concept of stealth and economy. As Macintyre clearly shows, the SAS fighters were rowdy, undisciplined, inspiring men who were more harnessed than controlled, and they were to function as a small, independent army inflicting damage out of all proportion to their size. In 1941, the war was not going well, especially in North Africa. ![]() The author makes engaging use of those archives. ![]() Times (London) writer at large Macintyre ( A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, 2014, etc.) was given full access to SAS archives and particularly the “War Diary,” an invaluable compilation of original documents gathered in 1946. An “authorized” but not “official” or “comprehensive” history of Britain’s swashbuckling Special Air Service. ![]()
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