Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War (57 page)

Read Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War Online

Authors: Ben Macintyre

Tags: #World War II, #History, #True Crime, #Espionage, #Europe, #Military, #Great Britain

Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be happy to make good in future editions any errors of omission or commission brought to their attention.

All photographs are from the SAS Regimental Association Archive unless otherwise noted.

FIRST PHOTO INSERT

1
: © IWM

2
: © National Museums Scotland

3
: © National Museums Scotland

4
: Getty Images/Popperfoto

5
: private collection

6
: Alison Smartt [née Pleydell]

7
: © National Museums Scotland

8
: private collection

9
: Getty Images/Keystone-France

10
: John Lewes Archive

11
: © IWM

12
: Getty Images/Keystone

13
: Nicola von Lutterotti

14
: Alison Smartt [née Pleydell]

15
: private collection

16
: Getty Images/Keystone

SECOND PHOTO INSERT

17
: private collection

18
: private collection

19
: De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images

20
: private collection

21
: © IWM

22
: Getty Images/Universal History Archive

23
: Getty Images/George Rodger

24
: © IWM

25
: SAS Regimental Association Archive/Mirrorpix

26
: The National Archives UK WO 204/13021

27
: private collection

28
: © IWM

29
: © IWM

A unique opportunity to acquire one of the few remaining full-scale reproductions of this extraordinary record of SAS history, published in a never-to-be-repeated limited edition to mark the seventieth anniversary of the SAS and to raise funds for its Regimental Association
.

In early 1946, only months after the end of the Second World War, a former SAS soldier undertook a final mission. His task: to find and preserve whatever documentation he could before the SAS was forgotten and its story lost forever.

The soldier tracked down and copied the top secret order authorizing the very first SAS operation. He sought out photographs of the original members of 1SAS and somehow acquired the after-action reports from the few who survived. Then, with more photographs, operational orders, reports, and maps, he traced the story of the SAS through North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France, all the way to Berlin, and to the final march-past when the SAS was briefly disbanded in October 1945.

By mission end, that soldier had produced something extraordinary—the first ever history of the SAS, in their own words.

He collected his work in a single massive war diary, measuring 17” × 12” × 4” and weighing over twenty-five pounds. He bound it in a leather casing “liberated” from Nazi Germany and then gave it to the SAS Regimental Association. Its existence remained a secret for sixty-five years.

In 2011, Extraordinary Editions published the diary, with the Regimental Association, who agreed to publication so that the stories of their wartime members would be properly acknowledged. The diary started that process, and now Ben Macintyre’s magnificent authorized history has concluded it.

Every page of the original diary has been scanned and then printed on specially made, heavyweight, archival-quality acid-free paper, in order to reproduce it as closely as possible, in full size and with stunning clarity.

Each copy is hand-bound in a full-leather binding replicating the original and then blocked with a new design featuring the regimental badge and wings.

There are six different editions of the diary, all individually numbered, and they range in price from £975 for the Anniversary Edition to £2,500 for the magnificent signed and boxed Originals Edition. Most are in the hands of special forces families, institutions, and collectors worldwide, and only a few remain for sale.

The lion’s share of the proceeds goes to the welfare fund of the SAS Regimental Association.