
Paddy Mayne
Lt Col Blair 'Paddy' Mayne, 1 SAS Regiment
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Narrated by:
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Alan Turkington
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By:
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Hamish Ross
About this listen
‘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.
Mayne's achievements attracted attention, and after his early death legends emerged, based largely on anecdote and assertion. Hamish Ross's closely researched biography challenges much of the received version, using contemporary sources, the official war diaries, the chronicle of 1 SAS, Mayne's papers and diaries, and a number of extended interviews with key contemporaries. It has the support of the Mayne family and the SAS Regimental Association.
In Ross's analysis Mayne is a dynamic, yet principled and thoughtful man, committed to the unit's original concepts; not flawless, but whose leadership qualities and tactical brilliance in the field secured the reputation of the SAS.
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Superlative
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 05-24-21
By: Damien Lewis
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The Nazi Hunters
- The Ultra-Secret SAS Unit and the Hunt for Hitler's War Criminals
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late summer of 1944, 80 British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers undertook a covert commando raid, parachuting behind enemy lines into the Vosges Mountains in occupied France to sabotage Nazi-held roads, railways, and ammo dumps, and assassinate high-ranking German officers, undermining the final stand of Hitler's Third Reich. Despite their successes, more than half the men were captured, tortured, and executed. After the war ended, a top-secret black ops unit was formed to hunt down the SS commanders who had murdered their special forces comrades....
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Fascinating and little known WW2 story
- By Paul Atwater on 10-16-20
By: Damien Lewis
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Churchill's Hellraisers
- The Secret Mission to Storm a Forbidden Nazi Fortress
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Matt Bates
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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It is the winter of 1944. Allied forces have succeeded in liberating most of Axis-occupied Italy - with one crucial exception: the Nazi headquarters north of the Gothic Line. Heavily guarded and surrounded by rugged terrain, the mountain fortress is nearly impenetrable. But British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is determined to drive a dagger into the "soft underbelly of Europe." The Allied's plan: drop two paratroopers into the mountains-and take the fortress by storm....
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Researching the facts and players
- By OBXCO on 12-26-24
By: Damien Lewis
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A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men
- The Forgotten British Special Operations Soldiers of World War II
- By: Shannon Monaghan
- Narrated by: George Weightman
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The untold story of four special operations officers who fought together behind enemy lines across multiple theaters of World War II, and then continued to serve, officially and unofficially, for decades after in the hottest parts of the Cold War.
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Disappointing
- By thecol on 10-16-24
By: Shannon Monaghan
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The Siege
- A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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As the American hostage crisis in Iran boiled into its seventh month in the spring of 1980, six heavily armed gunman barged into the Iranian embassy in London, taking twenty-six hostages. What followed over the next six days was an increasingly tense standoff, one that threatened at any moment to spill into a bloodbath.
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Another brilliant book by MacIntyre
- By ian on 09-29-24
By: Ben Macintyre
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Churchill's Band of Brothers
- WWII's Most Daring D-Day Mission and the Hunt to Take Down Hitler's Fugitive War Criminals
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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On the night of June 13th, 1944, a 12-man SAS unit parachuted into occupied France. Their objective: hit German forces deep behind the lines, cutting the rail-tracks linking Central France to the northern coastline. In a country crawling with enemy troops, their mission was to prevent Hitler from rushing his Panzer divisions to the D-Day beaches and driving the Allied troops back into the sea. It was a Herculean task, but no risk was deemed too great to stop the Nazi assault.
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Fascinating story of incredible bravery.
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 10-02-21
By: Damien Lewis
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Double Cross
- The True Story of the D-Day Spies
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. A stunning military achievement, it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, tricked the Nazis into believing that the Allied attacks would come in Calais and Norway rather than Normandy.
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Are You Sure Ben Macintyre Wrote This?
- By Sheila Quaid on 08-01-12
By: Ben Macintyre
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A Handful of Hard Men
- The SAS and the Battle for Rhodesia
- By: Hannes Wessels
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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It is difficult to find another soldier's story to equal Captain Darrell Watt's in terms of time spent on the field of battle and challenges faced. Even by the lofty standards of the SAS and Special Forces, one has to look far to find anyone who can match his record of resilience and valor in the face of such daunting odds and with resources so paltry. In the fight, he showed himself to be a military maestro. After 12 years in the cauldron of war, his cause slipped from beneath him, and Rhodesia gave way to Zimbabwe.
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Fantastic Story- Title says it all... Hard Men
- By rowca on 10-05-17
By: Hannes Wessels
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Forged in Hell
- The Gripping True Story of the Special Forces Heroes Who Broke the Nazi Stranglehold
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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July 1943: The largest invasion fleet ever assembled sailed for fortress Europe, aiming to bulldoze its way onto Nazi shores. At its vanguard went a few hundred elite forces soldiers. The Royal Navy warship carrying them-a former passenger ferry transformed for battle-bore the iconic winged dagger emblem carved on its prow, plus the motto 'Who Dares Wins,' painstakingly fashioned with the most rudimentary tools by Sergeant William 'Bill' Deakins, the foremost explosives expert on board and a Royal Engineer by trade.
By: Damien Lewis
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The Long Range Desert Group and SAS
- The History and Legacy of Great Britain’s Most Elite Secret Units in North Africa During World War II
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Mark Norman
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The fighting in North Africa during World War II is commonly overlooked, aside from the famous battle at El Alamein that pitted the British under General Bernard Montgomery against the legendary "Desert Fox", Erwin Rommel. But while the Second Battle of El Alamein would be the pivotal action in North Africa, the conflict in North Africa began all the way back in the summer of 1940, when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared Italy’s entrance into the war, seeing an opportunity for Italy to enlarge its colonial holdings in Africa by seizing portions of the British Empire.
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Sunday Bloody Sunday
- A Soldier's War in Northern Ireland, Rhodesia, Mozambique and Iraq
- By: Gregory Michael Budd, Jake Harper-Ronald
- Narrated by: Pat Devon
- Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Men in the furnace of adversity… Step into the extraordinary life of Jake Harper-Ronald, a man whose childhood dream of becoming a soldier led him on an unparalleled journey. In 1966, he fulfilled his ambition as a conscript in the Royal Rhodesia Regiment, only to embark on a series of adventures that most soldiers can only imagine. From early days in the elite Parachute Regiment in the UK to his pivotal role as the official photographer during the infamous 'Bloody Sunday' in Northern Ireland, Jake's path was one of courage and resilience.
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Incredible life story
- By Sandra L. Bowling on 03-25-25
By: Gregory Michael Budd, and others
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Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
- The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat
- By: Giles Milton
- Narrated by: Giles Milton
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: Its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler's war machine through spectacular acts of sabotage. The guerrilla campaign that followed was every bit as extraordinary as the six men who directed it. One of them, Cecil Clarke, was a maverick engineer who had spent the 1930s inventing futuristic caravans. Now his talents were put to more devious use: He built the dirty bomb used to assassinate Hitler's favorite, Reinhard Heydrich.
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Rip-Roarin' Tale of Devoted 'Cads'!
- By Gillian on 02-08-17
By: Giles Milton
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Agent Sonya
- Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her three children and her husband, who worked as a machinist nearby. Ursula Burton was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. By all accounts, she seemed to be living a simple, unassuming life. Her neighbors in the village knew little about her. They didn’t know that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. They didn’t know that her husband was also a spy, or that she was running powerful agents across Europe.
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Wanted to love it
- By Robert Bell on 09-30-20
By: Ben Macintyre
What listeners say about Paddy Mayne
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Steve Adams
- 02-27-25
Rugby player, scholar, and soldier
I had read about Paddy Mayne and some other works, dealing with the covert operations and the Genesis of the special air services during the second world war. His name and exploits figure very prominently in SAS lore. It’s an interesting study of a man who led an extra extraordinary life.
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- William T.
- 09-18-24
The full real story of an iconic WWII hero
I highly recommend this book to any and all WWII History Buffs, especially those interested in one of the founders of SAS’s full story, Paddy Mayne. This book dispels a lot of the inaccurate myths surrounding Mayne, and shows him as a thoughtful, highly intelligent, complex leader. This book is great. If you are a fan of some of the works by more well known current authors who write a lot about the SAS in WWII, then you must listen to this book.
I will say though that at times this book can be dry and long, especially when listening to the after action debrief reports, and towards the end going over the analysis of his leadership. However, you have to take that in to context, and pair it with other more dramatic accounts by other modern authors. When you do that this book shines and is refreshing, as it offers real stories without embellishing them and goes in to great lengths about Mayne’s post war life.
I would highly recommend this book.
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- Monte G.
- 09-05-24
High recommend
Insightful, extremely well done and inspirational. This man and his story are humbling…a wonderful story or a true hero, leader and great man.
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- Michael Johnston
- 03-29-25
The true story of Lt.Col. Paddy Mayne
Forget what you saw on the BBC's "Rogue Heroes". This is actual story of Paddy's life and service. The model for Special Forces Operators around the world. This book dispels the myths and exaggeration attributed to Paddy.
The author gives first hand accounts, sometimes Paddy's own writings.
Fantastic read about a complex man.
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- Greg
- 03-13-25
Fascinating, possibly a bit defensive?
I gained a fascination about Paddy Mayne after watching the first two seasons of Rogue Heroes and reading Mac. It's clear that Paddy Mayne was actually far different from his depiction in the series. The book is a solid biography of a figure that truly did write history, using his blood as ink (one of my favorite lines/scenes from the show).
I could care less whether Colonel Paddy Mayne was straight or gay or some combination thereof... Yet, I'm a bit suspicious that one of the motivations for this book was to attempt to demonstrate that Paddy was decisively heterosexual, as if homosexuality is shameful. And in this seeming motivation, the effort seems wasted. There wasn't any real evidence that Paddy was gay or straight... only that the person he seemed to care most about, other than his family, was a man.
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