Gavin Mortimer Boeken

The Special Boat Squadron was Britain's most exclusive Special Forces unit during World War II. Highly trained, and totally secretive, the SBS was established as an entity in its own right in early 1943. With the interviews of the surviving members of the unit, this title gathers the forgotten dramatic exploits of this fighting force.

With a wealth of photographs, many from the SAS Regimental Archives, this book captures the danger and excitement of the initial SAS raids against Axis airfields during the Desert War, the battles in Italy and those following the D-Day landings, the dramatic final push into Germany itself and the discovery of such Nazi horrors as Belsen.

The story of Ernest Shackleton, A British explorer who with 28 men attempted to cross the continent aboard his ship the Endurance in 1914 is a story of survival against all odds.

From one of the foremost experts on wartime British special forces, a new volume exploring the Long Range Desert Group

"A history of the Special Air Service's lightweight, heavily armed vehicles and their combat use, ranging from the famous 1942 airfield raids of North Africa, the SAS Brigade's jeep-borne operations in Europe after D-Day, and 22 SAS's postwar adoption of much-modified Land Rovers for desert operations. The SAS, the world's most famous special operations unit, made its name in the desert of North Africa, shooting up Axis airfields from specially modified Willys jeeps. Following the start of the El Alamein offensive in October 1942, the SAS used jeeps effectively in reconnoitring and ambushing the retreating Afrika Korps. After the conclusion of the North African campaign, the Willys underwent several small but significant changes, including the introduction of the .303 Browning machine gun. Between June and October 1944, the SAS brigade operated deep inside Occupied France, harassing Germans reinforcements heading to Normandy, calling up air strikes on installations, and carrying out reconnaissance missions - all made possible with jeeps dropped by the RAF. Jeeps were also used in the push into Germany in the spring of 1945. Transported across the Rhine in "Buffalo" amphibious landing craft, they formed part of the vanguard of the Allied advance, and their agility, speed, and firepower proved crucial in crushing fanatical pockets of Nazi resistance."--Amazon.ca

"The Long Range Desert Group was one of the most famous special units of World War II, operating heavily modified vehicles deep behind enemy lines to gather intelligence and support the raids of David Stirling's new Special Air Service. When war broke out, a pre-war explorer and army officer, Ralph Bagnold, convinced Middle East Command of the need for a reconnaissance force to penetrate into Italian-held desert. Bagnold tested four types of vehicles over rocks and through soft sand to find the best one for his new unit. Bagnold selected the Chevrolet WB (30 CWT) as the signature vehicle of the Long Range Desert Group because it is "fast, simple and easy to handle". With left-hand steering, horizontal grill and round fenders on the rear wheels, these trucks proved themselves popular and effective. The durability of the Chevrolets was demonstrated in January 1941 with an audacious raid on the Italian fort/air strip at Murzuk, hundreds of miles behind enemy lines. This book explains the detail of all the vehicles of the LRDG, as well as their modifications, driving techniques, and special kit for surviving behind enemy lines in one of the most hostile environments on earth."

The night of July 26, 1942 saw one of the most audacious raids of World War II, just as the outcome of that conflict hung in the balance. Featuring full- colour artwork, and incisive analysis, this study recounts the origins, planning, execution and aftermath of the daring raid that made the name of the SAS at the height of World War II.

The biography of David Stirling, founder of the SAS

"Z Special Unit, one of the most intrepid but arguably the most unsung of Allied Special Forces of the Second World War waged a guerrilla war against Japan for two years in the south-west Pacific. On some of their 81 operations Z Special Unit slipped into enemy harbors in canoes and silently mined ships before vanishing into the night; on others they parachuted into the dense Borneo jungle to fight with headhunters against the Japanese and on one occasion they landed on an Indonesian island and smuggled out the pro-Allied sultan from under Japanese noses. The Japanese weren't the only adversary that Z Special Unit encountered in the brutal terrain of the Pacific. In the mango swamps of Borneo and the dense jungle of Papua New Guinea they were faced with venomous snakes, man-eating crocodiles, and deadly diseases. But it was the enemy soldiers who proved the most ruthless foe, beheading those Z Special Unit commandos who fell into their hands. "Z was a different operation to anything else," recalls veteran Jack Tredrea. "You were never told what you were going to do. You weren't allowed to talk about what you were training for in case any of us were caught. You could have been tortured and divulged information." Drawing on veteran interviews as well as operational reports and recently declassified SOE files, Gavin Mortimer explores the incredible history of this remarkable special forces unit and the band of commandoes that defied the odds." --Amazon.com

British Commandos attempted to assassinate Rommel, the Desert Fox, in a daring special forces raid in North Africa during World War II. On the night of 13 November 1941 two British submarines surfaced off the Libyan coast 250 miles behind German lines. It was dark and stormy, and the 28 commandos on board Torbay had great difficulty climbing into their rubber dinghies and paddling towards the shore. Disaster struck the second submarine, Talisman, when a giant wave swept eleven commandos waiting on deck overboard. At dawn on the morning of 13 November the depleted raiding party was finally ashore, cold, wet and exhausted, but determined nonetheless to press on with their audacious mission - the assassination of General Erwin Rommel, commander of the German forces in North Africa. The raid made headlines round the free world. It was a shining example of British pluck and daring, proclaimed the papers, and to prove the point, Keyes was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. Yet in truth the raid had been a glorious failure, a mission bedevilled by bad planning and poor intelligence. Yet crucial lessons were learned by subsequent special forces' operations, particularly by the SAS who carried out their first mission on the same night as the raid on Rommel's HQ. By the end of World War II the British special forces were the best in the world.