SAS Zero Hour: The Secret Origins of the Special Air Service

by Tim Jones

Overview

‘The most comprehensive and enlightening version of these seminal events yet.’
~Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Britain’s elite Special Air Service Regiment, the SAS, is one of the most revered – and feared – special-ops units in the world. Its high-profile operations include the spectacular storming of the Iranian Embassy in London on 5 May 1980 and the hunt for Osama bin Laden in southern Afghanistan following 9/11. The regiment has become a byword for the highest possible standards in both conventional and unorthodox methods of warfare.

But where did it all begin? In this compelling book, Tim Jones tackles this fascinating question from a fresh perspective. It is commonly held that the regiment was the brainchild of just one man, David Stirling. While not dismissing Stirling’s considerable contribution to the regiment’s genesis, Jones’s insightful investigation identifies all of the major factors that played a part in shaping the SAS, including the role of such notables as Dudley Clarke, Archibald Wavell and Claude Auchinleck, among others.

Drawing extensively on primary sources, as well as reassessing the more recent regimental histories and memoirs, SAS Zero Hour is an illuminating and provocative account of how this renowned regiment came into being.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526713513
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	01/18/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	794,093
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

TIM JONES is a noted specialist on the SAS whose previous publications include _Post-War Counter-Insurgency and the SAS_, _1__945–1952: A Special Kind of Warfare_ and _SAS, the First Secret Wars: The Unknown Years of Combat and Counter-Insurgency_.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 9

Foreword 11

Preface: SAS The Untold Story 13

Acknowledgements 21

List of Abbreviations 23

Chapter 1 The Legend and the Man 27

Chapter 2 Stalin's War 41

Chapter 3 The Independent Companies 48

Chapter 4 The Kommandos 57

Chapter 5 The Desert Raiders 66

Chapter 6 Striking Back: Europe 81

Chapter 7 Target: Fortress Europe 88

Chapter 8 Striking Back: The Middle East 111

Chapter 9 Bardia or Bust 148

Chapter 10 Searching for a Role 159

Chapter 11 The Originals 186

Chapter 12 The First Raids 197

Chapter 13 The Godfathers of the Regiment 207

Notes 211

Bibliography 231

Index 238