Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
The incredible untold story of WWII's greatest secret fighting force, as told by our great modern master of wartime intrigue
Britain's Special Air Service-or SAS-was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war material. Paired with his constitutional opposite, the disciplined martinet Jock Lewes, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war, but the nature of combat itself. He faced no little resistance from those who found his tactics ungentlemanly or beyond the pale, but in the SAS's remarkable exploits facing the Nazis in the Africa and then on the Continent can be found the seeds of nearly all special forces units that would follow.
Bringing his keen eye for psychological detail to a riveting wartime narrative, Ben Macintyre uses his unprecedented access to SAS archives to shine a light inside a legendary unit long shrouded in secrecy. The result is not just a tremendous war story, but a fascinating group portrait of men of whom history and country asked the most.
Related to Rogue Heroes
Related audiobooks
The Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe: The U.S. Army Air Forces Against Germany in World War II Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Churchill's Shadow Raiders: The Race to Develop Radar, World War II's Invisible Secret Weapon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51901 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Red Line: The Gripping Story of the RAF’s Bloodiest Raid on Hitler’s Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Raid of All: Operation Chariot and the Mission to Destroy the Normandie Dock at St Nazaire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blackett's War: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elite: The Story of Special Forces – From Ancient Sparta to the Gulf War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Remembering the World Wars in Britain: The History and Legacy of British Commemorations and Their Social Memory of the Conflicts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLike Wolves on the Fold: The Defense of Rorke's Drift Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wandering Army: The Campaigns that Transformed the British Way of War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpecial Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956–1990 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Duel Under the Stars: The Memoir of a Luftwaffe Night Pilot in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa: Beda Fomm to Operation Crusader, 1940-41 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAce of Aces: The Incredible Story of Pat Pattle-The Greatest Fighter Pilot of WWII Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jutland: The Unfinished Battle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crew Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tank Killers: A History of America's World War II Tank Destroyer Force Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes of the Somme Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBrute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Air Force Blue: The RAF in World War Two – Spearhead of Victory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crete 1941: The Battle and the Resistance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Germany vs. Great Britain in the Air: The History of the Enemy Air Forces in World War I and World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Air Force during the World Wars: The History of the Imperial German Air Service and the Luftwaffe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistory Revealed: SAS Secret Heroes of World War II: Episode 13 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
European History For You
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Teutonic Knights: A Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War on the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Hideous Progeny: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whose Middle Ages?: Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Napoleon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Rogue Heroes
7 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outstanding review of one of the most elite forces In military history. Formed by a bunch of brave and eccentric men, the SAS wrote the very first books of this unconventional type of warfare. Me McIntyre nails it again with this excellent and well researched book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Very listenable if gossipy history of the sas during ww2. As as an entertainment it is interesting but as a history it is poor with many innuendos and unsourced “it was believed” and “some thought that...” frequently spoiling the factual narrative. Add a very labored effort to reorient the leading personalities sexually as in “some believed he was homosexual” or “his blatant heterosexuality may have been a cover for suppressed homosexual urges dah dah dah” and it became at times very hard to throw off the sense of being fed a hidden gay agenda. The narrator is excellent and overall it is an enjoyable if unreliable glimpse at ‘the regiment’ in embryo.