SAS
The History of the SAS
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Narrated by:
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Dan Morgan
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By:
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Joshua Levine
About this listen
The authorised history of the SAS by the number one bestselling author of Dunkirk, Joshua Levine. With unheard stories, this is the SAS’s wartime history in vivid and astonishing detail.
The SAS began as a lie, a story of a British parachute unit in the North African desert, to convince the Axis they were under imminent threat. The lie was so effective that soon a small band of men were brought together to make it real. These recruits were the toughest and brightest of their cohort, the most resilient, most dynamic and most self-sufficient. Their first commanders, David Stirling and Paddy Mayne, would go down in history as unorthodox visionaries. Yet this book tells much more than the usual origin story of the unit and seeks out less well-known leaders like Bill Fraser, who was essential in helping the SAS achieve fame for their devastating raids. By looking beyond the myth, this book brings back to life a group of men who showed immense bravery and endured unimaginable risks behind enemy lines.
Written with the full cooperation of the SAS and with exclusive access to SAS archives, Levine draws on individual stories and personal testimony, including interviews with veterans and family members. The book gives a visceral sense of what it was like to fight and train in the SAS in both North Africa and Europe during the Second World War, focusing on their failures as well as their successes.
This book is vivid with the characters of the men, their eclectic personalities, their strengths, weaknesses and many disagreements. Levine has uncovered a remarkable portrait of this enigmatic unit with stories long thought lost to history
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 Joshua Levine (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Andre Scheepers grew up on a farm in Rhodesia, learning about the bush from his African childhood friends, before joining the army. A quiet, introspective thinker, Andre started out as a trooper in the SAS before being commissioned into the Rhodesian Light Infantry Commandos, where he was engaged in fireforce combat operations. He then rejoined the SAS. Andre writes vividly about his experiences, his emotions, and his state of mind during the war, and reflects candidly on what he learned and how war has shaped his life since.
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The tragic story behind the story
- By wade on 02-07-21
By: Hannes Wessels, and others
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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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Crete 1941
- The Battle and the Resistance
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Nazi Germany expected its airborne attack on Crete in 1941 to be a textbook victory based on tactical surprise. Little did they know that the British, using Ultra intercepts, had already laid a careful trap. It should have been the first German defeat of the war, but a fatal misunderstanding turned the battle around.
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Engrossing
- By Jean on 02-01-16
By: Antony Beevor
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Churchill's Shadow Raiders
- The Race to Develop Radar, World War II's Invisible Secret Weapon
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Nigel Carrington
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In the winter of 1941, as Britain faced defeat on all fronts, an RAF reconnaissance pilot photographed an alien-looking object on the French coast near Le Havre. The mysterious device - a “Wurzburg Dish” - appeared to be a new form of radar technology: ultra-compact, highly precise, and pointed directly across the English Channel.
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Great Listen
- By 3D RWC on 05-13-20
By: Damien Lewis
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Sicily '43
- The First Assault on Fortress Europe
- By: James Holland
- Narrated by: Al Murray
- Length: 19 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 10, 1943, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted took place, larger even than the Normandy invasion 11 months later: 160,000 American, British, and Canadian troops came ashore or were parachuted onto Sicily, signaling the start of the campaign to defeat Nazi Germany on European soil. Operation HUSKY, as it was known, was enormously complex, involving dramatic battles on land, in the air, and at sea. Yet, despite its paramount importance to ultimate Allied victory, and its drama, very little has been written about the 38-day Battle for Sicily.
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Great writing, great narration, interesting topic
- By ItalCali on 08-02-21
By: James Holland
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In Mortal Combat
- Korea, 1950-1953
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 27 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In this brilliant narrative of America's first limited war, Toland lets both the events and the participants speak for themselves, employing scrupulous archival research and interviews as the bases for the drama and accuracy of his writing. In Mortal Combat reveals Mao's prediction of the date and place of MacArthur's Inchon landing, Russia's indifference to the war, Mao's secret leadership of the North Korean military, and the true nature of both sides' treatment and repatriation of POWs.
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Slightly disappointed
- By Patrick on 09-02-19
By: John Toland
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Taking Paris
- The Epic Battle for the City of Lights
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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May 1940: The world is stunned as Hitler's forces invade France with a devastating blitzkrieg aimed at Paris. Within weeks, the French government has collapsed, and the City of Lights, revered for its carefree lifestyle, intellectual freedom, and love of liberty, has fallen under Nazi control — perhaps forever.
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Incorrectly titled
- By Mike From Mesa on 01-11-22
By: Martin Dugard
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Scholars of Mayhem
- My Father's Secret War in Nazi-Occupied France
- By: Daniel C. Guiet, Timothy K. Smith
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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When Daniel Guiet was a child and his family moved country, as they frequently did, his father had one possession, a tin bread box, that always made the trip. Daniel was admonished never to touch the box, but one day he couldn't resist. What he found astonished him: a .45 automatic and five full clips; three slim knives; a length of wire with a wooden handle at each end; thin pieces of paper with random numbers on them; several passports with his father's photograph, each bearing a different name.
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Better than fiction!
- By M. Galloway on 04-04-21
By: Daniel C. Guiet, and others
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The Force
- The Legendary Special Ops Unit and WWII's Mission Impossible
- By: Saul David
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In December of 1943, as Nazi forces sprawled around the world and the future of civilization hung in the balance, a group of highly trained US and Canadian soldiers from humble backgrounds was asked to do the impossible: capture a crucial Nazi stronghold perched atop stunningly steep cliffs. The men were a rough-and-ready group, assembled from towns nested in North America's most unforgiving terrain, where many of them had struggled through the Great Depression relying on canny survival skills and the fearlessness of youth.
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well Done
- By Barbara on 11-18-19
By: Saul David
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Dunkirk
- By: Joshua Levine
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The Battle of Dunkirk, in May/June 1940, is remembered as a stunning defeat yet a major victory as well. The Nazis had beaten back the Allies and pushed them across France to the northern port of Dunkirk. In the ultimate race against time, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were daringly evacuated across the Channel. This moment of German aggression was used by Winston Churchill as a call to Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war.
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I am so pissed
- By SCOTT on 07-04-17
By: Joshua Levine
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Brothers in Arms
- One Legendary Tank Regiment’s Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day
- By: James Holland
- Narrated by: Al Murray
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the last cavalry units to ride horses into battle, the Sherwood Rangers were transformed into a “mechanized cavalry” of tanks in 1942. After winning acclaim in the North African campaign, they spearheaded one of the D-Day landings in Normandy and became the first British troops to cross into Germany. Their courage, skill, and tenacity contributed mightily to the surrender of Germany in 1945.
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All the details
- By GY on 01-03-22
By: James Holland
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The Battle for Okinawa
- A Japanese Officer's Eyewitness Account of the Last Great Campaign of World War II
- By: Colonel Hiromichi Yahara, Frank B. Gibney
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This critically acclaimed account of the Battle for Okinawa is told through the eyes of Colonel Hiromichi Yahara, the senior staff officer of the 32nd Japanese Army. It features segments on the Japanese preparation for battle, the American assault, and a summary of how the battle ended. Following the events that occurred in the life of Colonel Hiromichi Yahara, journalist Frank Gibney is able to lay out the importance of the battle and the ways in which both parties fought hard and strategically.
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Blessed HEAVEN—An Actual Japanese Person Narrating
- By Nicholas Robinson on 10-06-21
By: Colonel Hiromichi Yahara, and others
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Marine!
- The Life of Chesty Puller
- By: Burke Davis
- Narrated by: Bill Thatcher
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the glorious chronicles of the US Marine Corps, no name is more revered than that of Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller. The only fighting man to receive the Navy Cross five separate times - a military honor second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor - he was the epitome of a professional warrior.
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good book, God awful reading.
- By Amazon Customer on 12-28-21
By: Burke Davis