Author: Ian Wellsted
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 1526745720
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 186
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Book Description
With the SAS: Across the Rhine is the story of the latter part of Captain Ian Wellsted’s military career with the Special Air Service, the first part of which was detailed in his well-received SAS: With the Maquis. This is a very personal account, revealing the many emotional as well as physical strains placed upon men in the fighting line. The author takes us back to his time employed with the 79th armored Division (the famous ‘Hobart’s Funnies’) preparing for D-Day and his desire for more exciting action, which led first to the Parachute Regiment and then the SAS. Whilst we learn a little of his time with the maquis, the main focus of the story is his part in Operation Archway. A British special forces mission which involved the 1st and 2nd Special Air Service Regiments acting in support of the advance of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's Allied 21st Army Group in operations Varsity and Plunder, this crossing of the Rhine was one of the largest and most diverse operations ever carried out by the SAS. In this offensive, the SAS teams were thrust deep into German territory, often having to battle their way through the enemy lines to get back to safety. ‘I quickly learned that there was no way to control an SAS battle,’ Wellsted wrote of his first major encounter in charge of a patrol. ‘The din was deafening – seventy odd Vickers and half a dozen Brownings all chattering together. The screech of ricochets and the fire of the enemy made my voice sound like the squeak of a mouse against a church organ. I was helpless.’ In one of these encounters, as the war was drawing to a close, Wellsted’s troop found itself surrounded. In the ensuing firefight, Wellsted was wounded, bringing his active front line career to an end.
Author: Damien Lewis
Publisher: Citadel
ISBN: 0806542705
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 439
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Book Description
With riveting combat writing and masterful research, award-winning historian and #1 internationally bestselling author Damien Lewis delivers the remarkable true story of Britain’s infamous Special Air Service (SAS) forces, their legendary commander, and the impossibly daring, historic mission to liberate Europe via the largest invasion fleet ever assembled. By the author of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare - now a major motion picture. July 1943: The largest invasion fleet ever assembled sailed for fortress Europe, aiming to bulldoze its way onto Nazi shores. At its vanguard went a few hundred elite forces soldiers. The Royal Navy warship carrying them—a former passenger ferry transformed for battle—bore the iconic winged dagger emblem carved on its prow, plus the motto ‘Who Dares Wins,’ painstakingly fashioned with the most rudimentary tools by Sergeant William ‘Bill’ Deakins, the foremost explosives expert on board and a Royal Engineer by trade. Led by the SAS commander Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne, these war-bitten, piratical raiders were tasked with the impossible—to be the first among the fleet—the very tip of the spear—to bludgeon their way through the most heavily defended enemy shoreline, enabling the ensuing forces to follow on. If they succeeded, it would mark the turning point in the war. If they failed, the consequences were unthinkable. Against all odds, outnumbered some fifty-to-one, and facing a ferocious series of cliffside defenses, they would have to dare all as never before. So begins the true story of the SAS’s incredible mission, an endeavor replete with surprise, shock, action, heroism, and glory, not to mention treachery, dismay—and the longstanding personal aftershocks of brutal and bloody years spent at war.
Author: Gavin Mortimer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472856724
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274
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Book Description
Drawing on recently declassified files and interviews with veterans, this is a fascinating history of Bill Stirling and 2SAS – pioneering founders of modern special forces. David Stirling is the name synonymous with the wartime SAS, but the real brains behind the operation was in fact Bill Stirling, David's eldest brother. Bill was described in the SAS War Diary as a 'man from the shadows'; it was an apt description for, unlike his attention seeking brother, Bill shunned the spotlight. Now for the first time the truth – and the triumph – of 2SAS is revealed. Having originally joined the SOE in March 1940, Bill Stirling sailed for Cairo in 1941 and there had the idea for a small special forces unit to be led by his mercurial brother. But despite some success, David allowed the legendary 1SAS to drift under his leadership. Following his capture, Bill re-directed 2SAS, under his personal command, to the strategy he had originally envisaged: parachuting behind enemy lines to gather intelligence. Fully illustrated with rare and previously unpublished photographs, this compelling history details how 2SAS fought with ingenuity and aggression, from Italy and then into France before heading through Holland into Germany. The unit was capable of attacking by parachute, jeep or landing craft, establishing a template for future special forces' operations. Their feats have been overshadowed by the many books that have focused on David and 1SAS. 2SAS corrects this oversight, revealing that the real innovator was Bill Stirling – the true pioneer of Who Dares Wins.
Author: Dare Wilson
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1781597332
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364
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Book Description
General Dare Wilson saw action in France 1940 (Dunkirk), Italy and North West Europe (where he won his MC) with the Northumberland Fusiliers and later the Recce Regiment. He then served in Palestine and Korea which he rates as the most vicious war he fought in. He was picked to command 22 SAS and was responsible for basing them at Hereford. His account of the world record-breaking free fall jump free falling from 34,000 feet makes thrilling reading one member died. He went on to fight the Mau Mau in Kenya and was in the last party to leave Aden when we withdrew in 1968. Dare then learnt to fly helicopters and commanded the fledgling Army/Air Corps. We believe that this is one of the most enthralling of the many superb memoirs we have published. Certainly it is the widest in its scope and makes for thrilling reading.
Author: James M. Fenelon
Publisher: Scribner
ISBN: 1501179381
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448
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Book Description
“Compellingly chronicles one of the least studied great episodes of World War II with power and authority…A riveting read” (Donald L. Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Masters of the Air) about World War II’s largest airborne operation—one that dropped 17,000 Allied paratroopers deep into the heart of Nazi Germany. On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than two thousand Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war’s largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized. The invasion smashed Germany’s last line of defense and gutted Hitler’s war machine; the war in Europe ended less than two months later. Four Hours of Fury follows the 17th Airborne Division as they prepare for Operation Varsity, a campaign that would rival Normandy in scale and become one of the most successful and important of the war. Even as the Third Reich began to implode, it was vital for Allied troops to have direct access into Germany to guarantee victory—the 17th Airborne secured that bridgehead over the River Rhine. And yet their story has until now been relegated to history’s footnotes. In this viscerally exciting account, paratrooper-turned-historian James Fenelon “details every aspect of the American 17th Airborne Division’s role in Operation Varsity...inspired” (The Wall Street Journal). Reminiscent of A Bridge Too Far and Masters of the Air, Four Hours of Fury does for the 17th Airborne what Band of Brothers did for the 101st. It is a captivating, action-packed tale of heroism and triumph spotlighting one of World War II’s most under-chronicled and dangerous operations.
Author: Gavin Mortimer
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526769638
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
The author of Stirling’s Men recounts the WWII exploits of Britain’s legendary special forces unit in thefirst volume of this authoritative history. The British Army’s Special Air Service was formed during World War II as a commando unit for operations behind enemy lines. Their exploits in France inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans and left a trail of destruction and disorder in their wake. In 1944, they trained the French Maquis into an effective fighting force, delayed German reinforcements at Normandy, and sewed confusion for the German withdrawal. In this volume, historian Gavin Mortimer focuses on 1 SAS, describing operations Titanic, Houndsworth, Bulbasket, Gain, Haggard and Kipling in graphic detail. Using previously unpublished interviews with SAS veterans and members of the Maquis as well as rare photographs, Mortimer allows readers to walk in the footsteps of SAS heroes and see where they lived, fought and died.
Author: G.G. Norton
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 147381751X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307
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Book Description
From Bruneval to North Africa, from Normandy to Suez, by parachute and glider the men of the Airborne Forces have gone by air to battle. But their activities have by no means been confined to purely airborne operations- the Special Air Service performed prodigies of valor behind the German Lines in the Western Desert and Italy; the Glider Pilot Regiment fought beside their infantry comrades in Normandy, at Arnhem and across the Rhine. Their post-war successors, maintaining these traditions, have stood between Jew and Arab in Palistine; fought and sweltered in the jungles of Malaya and Borneo; sweated in the Persian Gulf and the Radfan; chocked on the summer dust of Cypriot roads; tasted the grit and sand of Egypt and Jordan in their mess mess tins; spent more then a decade facing terrorist ambush, bombs and bullets in Northern Ireland; experienced subzero temperatures and biting arctic winds in the South Atlantic and 'tabbed' across the Falklands to spearhead victory in 1982. Now should the aircrews who flew them be forgotten, or the air supply dispatches who maintained them, or the units who supported them. With well over 100 photographs and illustrations this book is a comprehensive single-volume history of the Airborne Forces. Accounts are given of the airborne actions fought by the British Army, whilst the development of the parachute assault and the use of the glider-borne troops can be followed from their infancy to the massive coup de main technique employed in the Rhine crossing.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : France
Languages : en
Pages : 136
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Book Description
Author: Damien Lewis
Publisher: Citadel Press
ISBN: 0806542691
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 421
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Book Description
From a critically acclaimed and #1 internationally bestselling author, the most riveting WWII story of Churchill's legendary SAS, the special forces unit of the British Army, chronicling one close-knit band of warriors from the SAS foundation through to the Italian landings—which truly turned the tide of war. In 1941, as World War Two raged, scores of men stepped forward to answer Winston Churchill’s call for volunteers for Special Service, a high-risk opportunity to undertake the most hazardous, top-secret duties of war. Comprised of some of the finest fighting units in the entire British Army, these warriors longed to leave behind their mind-numbing garrison duties for battle. They hungered to pit themselves against a seemingly omnipotent enemy and brave a bloody and bruising baptism by fire. A rightfully proud regiment with an unrivalled esprit de corps, they were disavowed as unruly by top brass, unyieldingly vaunted by Churchill, and courageously loyal to the clandestine “butcher and bolt” raids that made their sacrifices—and their triumphs—legendary. But even as the combat-worn ranks of the SAS risked all to deliver the first resounding defeats on Nazi Germany, there were well-founded fears that their fortunes would change. In Brothers in Arms, Damien Lewis pays tribute to the mavericks and visionaries who founded elite-forces soldiering—the SAS. Exhaustively researched from an invaluable trove of never-before-seen documents, wartime letters, diaries, mission reports, rare photos, undeveloped film, plus interviews with WWII veterans and their surviving families, Damien follows one close-knit band of men from the founding of the SAS through to the Italian landings, which truly turned the tide of the war. It is a breathtaking narrative of do-or-die action and unbelievable daring chronicling the exploits of some of the most fearless, revered, and under-the-radar soldiers of the 20th century.
Author: Antony Beevor
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101531657
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 573
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Book Description
The #1 internationally bestselling history of D-Day—now enhanced with rare video footage from the NBC News Archives for the ultimate narrative of the battle for Normandy Chosen by Time as one of the top 10 nonfiction books of the year Antony Beevor—the man who “single-handedly transformed the reputation of military history” (The Guardian, U.K.)—presents the first major account of the Normandy invasion and the liberation of Paris in more than twenty years. D-Day: The Battle for Normandy is the first book to describe not only the experiences of the American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers but also the terrible suffering of the French civilians caught up in the fighting. Beevor draws upon research from more than thirty archives in six countries, going back to original accounts and interviews conducted by combat historians just after the action. The result is the consummate account of the invasion and the ferocious offensive that led to Paris’s liberation. Enhanced with rare film and newsreel footage from the NBC News Archive the D-Day: The Battle for Normandy Deluxe eBook will put you on the beach for the Normandy landings, in the air for Allied bombing runs and will give you a front-row seat for the liberation of Paris. D-Day: The Battle for Normandy Deluxe includes the following features: · 26 film clips embedded into the text, giving the reader a seamless reading and viewing experience · Video of the Allied commanders, paratroopers suiting up and jumping into action, Allied troops landing on the Normandy beaches, firefights in the deadly bocage hedgerows and through bombed-out towns, Allied bombing runs, the liberation of Paris, the German fortifications on the Normandy coast and much more · Rarely seen video from the NBC News Archive, including original NBC and Universal newsreels · The original NBC Radio broadcasts announcing the D-Day invasion · Rare color footage shot by journalist Jack Lieb, who worked for newsreel company News of the Day and shot from the D-Day landings to the liberation of Paris · Detailed maps and photographs included in the original book · An easy-to-read table of equivalent military ranks across the American, British, Canadian, and German armies
