Showing titles in Special & Elite Forces

War in the desert has always carried with it a certain mythology. Vast, open landscapes stretching beyond the horizon, the shimmer of heat rising from endless sand, and the sense that movement itself becomes both freedom and danger. In such an environment, conventional warfare struggles to take root. Supply lines grow fragile, navigation becomes uncertain, and survival depends as much on understanding the land as it does on confronting the enemy.

Brought to you by Penguin. THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER On April 30, 1980, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian embassy on Princes Gate, overlooking Hyde Park in London. There they took 26 hostages, including embassy staff, visitors, and three British citizens. A tense six-day...

Many aspire to serve with the Special Air Service, arguably the world's most prestigious regiment, but few achieve their aim. In this inspiring memoir veteran Tony Shaw recounts how he left school without any qualifications and embarked on a 30 year career much of it spent in Hereford, including four years in 'The Regiment'. Against the odds he rose through the ranks before being commissioned and eventually retiring as a Major. A brilliant and important account of one man's unique career which provides a fascinating insight into elite special forces soldiering.

Brought to you by Penguin. A frightened boy pursued by racist bullies who grew up to become a trailblazing soldier in the British Army and then the SAS, Melvyn Downes was one of the first British-born Black men to join the elite regiment. During his 24 years of service, he was involved in secret...

Brought to you by Penguin. THE BOOK BEHIND THE HIT BBC SERIES SAS: ROGUE HEROES, STARRING CONNOR SWINDELLS, JACK O'CONNELL, ALFIE ALLEN AND DOMINIC WEST In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, has a vision for a...

January 1991. IRAQ. Eight members of the SAS regiment embark upon a top secret mission to infiltrate deep behind enemy lines. Under the command of Sergeant Andy McNab, they are to sever a vital underground communication link and to seek and destroy mobile Scud launchers. Their call sign: BRAVO...

The young Welshmen selected grew to become the closest of friends as they navigated their way through the difficult sniper cadre. After losing one of their own to the Taliban shortly after the course, Ted and the rest of the lads deployed to Helmand Province and the raging war for the second time. As the tour in Afghanistan came to an end, Ted began to feel the effects of what will later be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, and it quickly took over his life, sending him on a downward spiral.

Forged to fight guerrillas in the sweltering jungles of Malaya. Tasked with storming mountain strongholds in the desert. Trained to hunt down the world's most wanted terrorists. This is the extraordinary story of 22 SAS. The history of the modern SAS is one of the great successes of post-war...

So secret was this mission, the SAS seizure of a train to raid deep into enemy territory to liberate a concentration camp, that it wasn't until 1968 - twenty-seven years after the formation of the SAS - that a short mention of it was made in the Rover and Wizard annual, under the headline 'Who Dares Wins'. No further published record exists. Best-selling author Damien Lewis has unearthed the full incredible story from long-hidden files and first hand-testimony, his latest elite forces narrative delivering a scintillating tale of bravery, daring and determination which simply beggars belief.

A Green Beret's gripping memoir of American Special Forces in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.    

Following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in 2003, the SAS launched one of the most intense and secretive operations in its history: Task Force Black. BBC journalist Mark Urban uncovers the sensational story of this operation and the extraordinary men who carried it out.

On 28 May 1982, 450 men of the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment—2 Para—went into action to retake the settlement of Goose Green on East Falkland, where more than 1,000 Argentine soldiers were holding 119 Falkland Islanders—men, women, children and one baby—in squalid conditions. Forty years on, Goose Green is still the biggest and bloodiest battle the British Army has fought in modern times. This book is the living narrative of the battle told by the very men who fought it.

Operation Rolling Thunder was meant to be controlled. It was designed as a measured use of air power, a campaign that could pressure North Vietnam without triggering a wider war and without requiring the United States to commit to an all-consuming ground conflict. On paper, it looked like a modern solution to a Cold War problem: apply force from the air, send a message, disrupt supply, and persuade an opponent to change course.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘A terrific book … It really is one of the most enjoyable histories I’ve read in many a year’ JAMES HOLLAND ‘Riveting … A brilliant account’ DAILY MAIL THE FIRST AUTHORISED HISTORY OF THE SBS. Britain’s SBS – or Special Boat Service – was the...

Des Powell left school with no qualifications and little in the way of formal education. At nineteen he signed up to join the Parachute Regiment. Famously, the Paras is home to the UK military's second-toughest training regime after the SAS. Des Powell knows all about both. In fact, Des knows SAS selection better than anyone because he's done it twice. In SAS: Trial by Fire he tells the story of those gruelling tests: how Para training turned him into a soldier but, more crucially, how the SAS process turned him into a member of the elite.

Deep in the shadowed jungles of the Amazon and the chaotic streets of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, Brazil’s elite warriors fight a war that most of the world never sees. Warriors of the Amazon takes listeners behind the camouflage and into the heart of one of the most complex and formidable special operations communities on Earth — a world forged in heat, secrecy, and sacrifice.

Steve Brown joined the army in 1993 as a troubled teenager and left as a respected sergeant-major in 2020. After passing the gruelling Parachute Regiment recruit process and selection for the elite Pathfinder Platoon he travelled the world, deployed on multiple operations, and pushed himself beyond breaking point, both physically and mentally. His story provides a unique insight into Britain's elite airborne forces, including their training, ethos, and indomitable mindset.

Acclaimed military writer Mark Urban explores the extraordinary story of these military pioneers; the toughest and deadliest infantrymen in Wellington's Army. Immortalised in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels, the 95th Rifles were skirmishers tasked with acting as Wellington's advanced guard. It was new technology for the warfare of the time: they travelled light, moved rapidly, armed with the accurate rifles that would allow them to take shots from distance. The 95th Rifles were the prototype of the modern infantryman.

‘Paddy’ Mayne was one of the most outstanding special forces leaders of the Second World War. Hamish Ross’s authoritative study follows Mayne from solicitor and a rugby international to troop commander in the Commandos and then the SAS, whose leader he later became and whose annals he graced, winning the DSO and three bars, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d’Honneur.

They were like a band of brothers... In 1983 Andy McNab was assigned to B Squadron, one of the four Sabre Squadrons of the SAS, and within it to Air Troop, otherwise known as SEVEN TROOP. This is Andy McNab's gripping account of the time he served in the company of a remarkable group of men -...