Rogue Heroes

Rogue Heroes, The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special forces Unit that Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War, by Ben Macintyre, Crown 2016

The subtitle of this magnificent and entertaining work says it all - Great Britain again pioneered a new kind of war, not quite what we've seen in James Bond, but close, really close.  

From the rogue group's first founding in the deserts of the Middle East, to a well-honed, explosively expert group of special fighters taking commando missions to the Nazis, these Brits's stories were confidential until now.  The details of the players and their incredible acts of bravery and toughness were never completely public.... until Ben Macintyre was somehow chosen to dig the archives and conduct interviews among the survivors.  

Readers will love the supporting Appendix documents - lists of original SAS member names, the battles and engagements they fought in WWII, as well as detailed portraits of veterans "Afterlives."  And the photos!  Withers, the unit's canine mascot, driving into his next engagement; troopers learning how to parachute atop a thirty-foot high rickety wooden platform, soldiers recuperating from war wounds at base camp - there is a grittiness and reality that rings true with these black and white shots.

From the deserts of the Middle East, to North Africa, Italy, France and finally heartland Europe, these rogues carried out seemingly impossible missions.  Although women were not recruited, a certain brave and ruthless Italian female partisan, nicknamed "Noris," "as brave and dangerous as a tigress and completely devoted to the British company,"   worked with the SAS corps.  

These were not ordinary men, drafted recruits.  They were handpicked and for some, the unit became their only solace.  Many did not do well in civilian life, some were haunted by demons, subject to violent rages, but they all fit together.  Somehow the commanders knew what they had, and how to form a band of rogues into a clandestine killing machine.