Stirling's Men, by Gavin Mortimer

Stirling's Men: The Inside History of the SAS in World War II, by Gavin Mortimer
Cassell, 2004
364 pages plus 24 b&w photos on glossy paper, bibliography and index.
Library: 940.541241 MOR


Description
Today, the SAS is the most famous fighting force in the World. But for most of WWII no one knew very much about them.

Gavin Mortimer has interviewed nearly sixty of the wartime SAS soldiers, including many veternans who have never before revealed their role in the legendary regiment. We follow them on raids against German airfields in North Africa, through Siciliy and Italy where they derailed trains and stormed coastal gun emplacements, into France in 1944 where 8,000 enemy personnel were killed or wounded by the SAS, and finally Germany when the fighting against fanatical SS troops was merciless.

Along the way we meet the incredible characters thrown together by war, including the Irish rugby international who won four DSO's, the Lancashire miner who escaped from a Nazi firing squad, and of course, Stirling himself: the man responsible for founding the greatest Special Forces unit the world has ever seen.

Table of Contents
Map list
Maps
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Main Players
Foreword
1. North Africa 1941-2
2. Sicily and Italy 1943
3. France 1944
4. The End in Sight 1945
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index