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For a long time after the end of the Second World War the S.A.S. was largely invisible, but that all changed in 1980 as a result of the Iranian Embassy Siege. This book thus covers the period after the S.A.S. was back in the public eye, including the last years of the troubles in Ulster, operations in the Balkans and the post 2000 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One key thing that emerges here is the important of proper planning, combined with an understanding of the best way to us Special Forces. We see what happens when this goes wrong during the First Gulf War, and the ‘Bravo Two Zero’ story, where three S.A.S. units were sent in to ‘road watch’, with limited time to plan for the terrain. As a result only one of the three teams managed to get safely into Iraq, one abandoned the mission, and one was famously discovered and suffered an embarrassing defeat.
Some of these operations were pretty controversial, in particular during the Troubles. It must be said that the controversy looks pretty artificial when examined from a distance – it’s hard to find any real sympathy for active terrorists who were either planning to commit murders, or in the middle of attempting to commit murder. However there are more troubling incidents from Afghanistan, which could have done with being covered.
Some of the pictures suggest that if the S.A.S. has one weakness, it’s mingling covertly with other military units – there always seems to be something of a mix of uniforms or equipment that gives the game away! This book covers just over thirty years, so the equipment used changed quite a bit, and we get plenty of interesting pictures showing just how varied S.A.S. troopers could look!
This is a useful look at the role of the S.A.S. in a period when its specialist services were in great demand, and there were plenty of high value targets best dealt with by units with the Regiment’s special skills.
Chapters
Introduction: The Pilgrims
Operations:
Special Projects
Ulster
The Balkans, 1994-c.1999
Operation 'Barras', 2000
Afghanistan, 2001-2006
Iraq, 2003-2009
Afghanistan, 2006-c.2014
New Wars
Author: Leigh Neville
Edition: Paper
Pages: 64
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2016