Name: Savage Heroes
ISBN: 9781101904169

Ben Macintyre

A History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War

Savage Heroes

Andrew John Kinney

Ever since I was a child, I've been interested in the North African war in WW2 - too much time spent watching Rat Patrol re-runs, I guess. Rogue Heroes is the real story of the origin of the SAS in the desert war and their activities afterwards in Europe, and it is the story of the peculiar cast of characters who were its founding members. David Stirling is generally credited as the founder of the unit, and without doubt, he did the most to keep it in being, by pulling strings via upper-class connections, when the "real" Army wanted it disbanded. But it was Jock Lewes who instilled discipline into the unit, and who filtered out those with insufficient grit or intelligence, and Stirling treated Lewes as his equal in every way. Lewes' early death in combat made Stirling the better known of the two, but Lewes' imprint on the SAS was indelible. 

The SAS was initially conceived as a paratroop commando unit to operate behind enemy lines, but it quickly became apparent to Stirling (after a disastrous first airborne operation) that by far the better way to approach their prime targets, German airfields, was to drive through the desert to those objectives with the help of the British Long Range Desert Group. Using this method, and newly devised plastic explosive bombs with timers, the SAS destroyed hundreds of German aircraft on the ground by infiltrating German installations at night, and occasionally in broad daylight. This had helpful effects for the Allies beyond the destruction of German planes; the Germans had to divert resources to defend against the SAS raids, and German morale suffered. Ultimately the increased German vigilance and search-and-destroy patrolling by German forces looking for SAS made the raids almost impractical, but by then, Rommel had been defeated by the combined British/US forces.

The best parts of the book are the anecdotes about Stirling and interesting people he attracted to SAS like Fitzroy Maclean (a sitting member of Parliament), Lord George Jellicoe, Randolph Churchill, and others, including a whole squadron of Free French troops. At one point, Stirling's squadron captured an aristocratic German doctor, Markus Lutterotti, (Rommel's personal physician) and the doctor, on meeting George Jellicoe, said, "Say, aren't you Lord Jellicoe? I believe you may know my wife." Hauptman Lutterotti's wife was of the Austrian nobility and had spent a good deal of time in London where she met Jellicoe. Another time, Stirling met with Churchill in Cairo and convinced the PM to give full support to the build-up of the SAS in North Africa. Stirling also took Churchill's son into the unit on an ad hoc basis, mostly to garner support from his father, but Randolph Churchill ended up, quite by chance, participating in one of the more dangerous SAS missions undertaken in Africa. One of the funniest bits is the greeting given to the SAS' first medical officer by David Stirling, quoted verbatim by the doctor in a book he published later about his experiences in the desert.

Once the SAS moved to Sicily, higher commanders misused the unit as shock troops, and terrible casualties resulted. By this point Stirling had been captured, in one of the last North African raids, and so was unable to advocate for the proper use of the force as a behind the lines raiding unit. Once the focus of operations moved to France after D-Day, the SAS began to function in a manner more appropriate to Stirling's conception; as heavily armed support for the French Resistance, participating in many operations to disrupt the Germans' rear area and to delay the progress of German units toward Normandy. SAS units were parachuted into France and linked up with the Resistance to carry out these missions.

In all this was a very good book with only a few slow spots. Having served in both heavy mechanized Army units and special operations units, I do not think that Ben MacIntyre puts the role of the SAS fully into context with regard to the wider war. There is no doubt that the SAS made a real contribution, especially in North Africa, but it was the many thousands of regular British, US, and French Army tank and artillery and infantry units that won the war. The SAS did make permanent the idea that "irregular" forces, deployed correctly, can carry out lightning strikes that disorient or demoralize the enemy, and in certain cases, they can carry out "surgical strikes" to capture or destroy an important target. Their legacy is the many special operations units which have been established in Canada, Australia, France, and in the US (Delta Force). Those kinds of units have a valid place in the inventory of great nation's military units, but they can't be expected to do everything, or to perform miracles, as Hollywood so likes to make it seem. To use a current example, the outcome of the war in Ukraine is being determined by artillery and tanks, not by special operators.

This book is highly recommended, if only for the stories of the SAS in the desert campaign.

Savage Heroes A History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War

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