Summary and Analysis of Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War: Based on the Book by Ben Macintyre
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This short summary and analysis of Rogue Heroes includes:
- Historical context
- Chapter-by-chapter overviews
- Profiles of the main characters
- Detailed timeline of events
- Important quotes and analysis
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- Glossary of terms
- Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work
Ben Macintyre’s Rogue Heroes is a gripping account of the inception of the British SAS, or Special Air Service, during World War II, which became the forerunner to modern military special forces.
In mid-1941, the Axis attack on Europe and North Africa knocked Great Britain onto the ropes. Facing the brilliant German general Erwin Rommel, the “Desert Fox,” British forces in North Africa were fighting a losing campaign.
An iconoclastic young officer named David Stirling conceived an entirely new form of warfare, based on daring attacks by small groups of highly trained soldiers on large strategic targets, striking deep from behind enemy lines. This revolutionary unit became the SAS and changed the nature of warfare itself.
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
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Summary and Analysis of Rogue Heroes - Worth Books
Contents
Context
Overview
Summary
Timeline
Cast of Characters
Direct Quotes
Trivia
What’s That Word?
Critical Response
About Ben Macintyre
For Your Information
Bibliography
Copyright
Context
In the modern world, asymmetrical warfare and special forces are a military arsenal’s specialized dagger, a weapon honed over decades of evolution and refinement. US Navy SEALS, Delta Force, and the Green Berets are all the descendants of the British Special Air Service (SAS), a unit formed on a shoestring and a wild dream in the deserts of North Africa in the early days of World War II. These modern incarnations of the Special Warrior did not exist before mid-1941, when an iconoclastic British officer named David Stirling conceived a new kind of warfare and almost single-handedly created a fighting force that would change the rules of combat.
Rogue Heroes is the first book to examine the early days of Great Britain’s Special Air Service. It follows the unit from its birth in North Africa, harrowing the supply lines of the German Afrika Korps, to the invasion of Italy and finally of Germany itself. It details the lives and exploits of Stirling, and the men who built the SAS and nurtured it through its infancy into one of the most celebrated—and effective—military units in modern warfare. They fought, they died, they were captured, and they escaped to fight again. The descriptions of these men and their exploits form a portrait of the special-operations fighter that is valid even today.
Overview
At the height of World War II, Nazi Germany had driven Great Britain back onto its heels. The German Afrika Korps, led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, was sweeping across North Africa towards Egypt, driving British forces before them. France, Belgium, and Poland had already fallen. It was a war of great armies clashing on clear battlefields, as war had always been.
Into the middle of this traditional warfare came a young, visionary British officer named David Stirling, a gadabout
with little respect for military traditions and ways of thinking, and little interest in chain-of-command and regular channels. As the Germans tore across North Africa, Stirling conceived a new way of striking the Germans, a way that lay far outside the bounds of conventional warfare. His idea was to send a small force of men parachuting behind enemy lines to harry and harass, disrupt and demoralize, and to sabotage airplanes and sever supply lines.
Partnered with the disciplined, hard-charging soldier Jock Lewes, Stirling convinced his superiors to give him a few men and a handful of supplies. He then proceeded to create a fighting force that would revolutionize the nature of modern warfare—the Special Air Service (SAS).
Working autonomously in a kind of half-organized free-for-all, Stirling and Lewes recruited a group of fighters who would become legendary for their exploits—and for their sacrifice. Despite failures and missteps, the SAS became a thorn in the side of the Afrika Korps, destroying planes, interdicting supply lines, providing intelligence, and becoming a noisy, distracting drain on German resources. The SAS was instrumental in turning the tide of the war in North Africa.
With victory in Africa complete, the SAS became the tip of the spear in the Allied invasion of Italy, France, and ultimately Germany. As the war claimed the SAS’s commanders, one by one, and the British top brass still did not know what to do with this new,