Product Description

Containing explosive details of operations unknown even to 99% of serving SAS men, this is the definitive history of the regiment written by an ex-SAS soldier of 23 years' experience. Connor reveals how the assassination of President Kennedy gave the SAS truly global significance. He tells the truth about SAS involvement in the Falklands War and the Gulf War and about their operation against the IRA in Gibraltar. Compiled from personal experience and the eye-witness accounts of friends and colleagues, this book reveals the inside story of SAS operations in both conventional war and counter-terrorist operations. 'Controversial, blistering and unique' - Andy McNab

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75407 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

About the Author
Ken Connor was a serving soldier in the SAS for 23 years and the key figure in the creation of the anti terrorist unit responsible for storming the Iranian embassy. He is currently a much sought after television and radio commentator on the Afghan crisis.

Customer Reviews

Some Truth Behind The Shadows
This book is a must for anyone with any interest in Special Forces and Operations. I think it would also be invaluable to anyone who thinks the CIA as the lone evil entity in the world.

The text covers all major and unknown conflicts the SAS have been involved in since their re-formation following WW2. From the deserts of the Oman, the jungles of the Malayan Emergency, the colds of the Falklands, all the way back to the desert, this time in Iraq. What I personally like about the book, is that the text in the chapters reads as a fact based text book. Preceeding each chapter is preceeded by a short personal tale of the conflict at hand, but it is by far the best written SpecForces book out there, as the other ex-SAS etc soldiers tend to write in a less than exemplurary manner.

The final chapter in the book covers what the future might hold for the SAS, amid a world of air superiority and digital battlefields. His statements on the topic are sweeping and brink on controversy. He may seem out-spoken, but he has a good point. It is however worth bearing in mind that the book was written pre 9/11, so there is no coverage or opinion on the "War On Terrorism". I think this completely changes the complexion of the final pages of this book, as the world we live in now, is already completely different to the one we knew in 2000.

If you had any pre-conceptions that the British Government is or has ever been a 'clean' institution, prepare your view to be smashed. Told with unflinching honesty and attention to detail, Ken Connor dispels all the thoughts we might have had, Proving to us all, that there's life in the old British dog yet.

A cracking read.

Top notch
Without a doubt the best history of the SAS whys rather than the usual dull campaign by campaign list of some lesser authors.

It covers the key stuff, but is most useful for the insights into how the SAS has altered throughout the regiment's history.

The asides into the foreign and miltary policies of the western powers is by far the best I've ever read concerning 20th century Britain, and the influences it's had for the men on the ground.

I trust a few of the movers and shakers out there study this for those valuable lessons alone.

Way better than the cover would lead you to think
I'm not a fan of the Andy McNab type of gee-whiz, aren't-the-SAS-cool book, preferring solid scholarship and proper research, and I only bought this because I was doing research on special forces units for something I was writing and this looked a bit more sober than the usual type of thing.

There's a quote on the back from the SAS journal 'Mars and Minerva' saying 'This book should not have been published', although that doesn't necessarily mean that Connor is really saying things that the regiment would prefer him not to say; it could mean that the book is just wildly inaccurate. It has to be said, though, that Connor's understanding of the history and politics of the conflicts that the SAS has been involved in is a lot deeper and more sympathetic than you get from most books written by soldiers. Presumably a lifetime spent fighting some of the British government's dirtiest wars has given him an acute bull***t detector. The details of SAS selection and training are very interesting, the accounts of the battles are vivid and visceral and what comes across most is the author's respect for his comrades and his deep scepticism about the myth of the SAS as a super-cool, ultra-efficient fighting force; it's so deep that he ends the book with the suggestion that the SAS has simply become too famous to be any use anymore, and that it ought to be either scrapped completely or kept on as a tourist attraction while a new, more secret, 'ghost force' is formed that can retain the unit's old qualities of obscurity and deniability.

Not a book if you just want gung-ho war stories about the SAS, this is a thoughtful and critical history of how the regiment has been deployed over the years and an essay on what its future role might be. Important for anyone interested in contemporary military history.