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

This is one of the most detailed books to ever explore the origins of the SAS and the first to do so with not only it’s blessing but full access to it’s library of notes, recordings, maps and an incredible amount of first hand accounts. It makes for compelling and unforgettable reading.

It unflinchingly captures both the romance and the tragedy of being involved in the Special Forces.

“It took one sort of courage to attack an enemy airfield in the middle of the night, but quite another to kill a little boy with his insides blown out”

Indeed the hardest moments to read are the ones where the readers hope that this is all daring raids and heroic rescues is torn brutally apart by the death of a man whose passing simply does not fit the narrative. In the majority of fiction the good guys win and the bad guys lose, the side characters come and , but the one constant throughout this read was the loss of good men for no good reasons. Bad weather blowing entire planes off course and scattering the sticks, injured men having to be left in the desert or the jungle with their only hope of survival being capture; simply doing their jobs resulted in unfathomable losses.

At any time proposing and implementing a new system of warfare has the potential to be a dangerous course of action but in the middle of a war the incredibly high stakes amplifies everything. Something new and untested is being attempted and it’s failure or success will have a huge bearing on both the direction of the war and the future existence of the Unit. Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War is a powerful and unforgettable reading experience. Ben Macintyre does a superb job capturing the sense of adventure that inspired these men to fight a different way and the intensity and commitment with which they did so.

Very highly recommended. 4.5 Stars

A review copy was provided to me by Crown Publishing that in no way affected this review.