McNab's gripping account of the troubled Bravo Two Zero patrol is full of fascinating detail, including insights into the planning and execution of SAS missions. A controversial examination of the events as told by McNab and Ryan in their memoirs. Asher, a former territorial SAS member, repudiates the more gung ho aspects of the B20 myth with eye witness accounts from Iraqis. I would say, 'Oh, I'm going away with the Regiment for two years,' and I had no idea that would be a problem for them," he smiles. His psychopathy also helped him to endure torture. Struggling against a strong tide and headwind, they took more than an hour to reach the outer harbour where they paddled in a prone position to avoid being spotted. A party was in progress and they were almost hit by a beer bottle thrown into the water. Before the pandemic, I went to Belfast to do a fundraiser for injured police officers. We had a female officer with an MP5 in her bag and a covert convoy," he says.

It is incredibly refreshing to read of these fabulously daring missions: of men of astonishing courage blowing up bridges, surveying invasion beaches, sinking ships in harbour and making clandestine rendezvous with secret agents – all by canoe and midget submarine …This is a terrific book, written with all the gusto, thrills and heady excitement these SBS operations richly deserve. It really is one of the most enjoyable histories I’ve read in many a year’ This is the story of a unit that seems very difficult to tell. Part of the problem may be the missions of the unit itself. The other part may be the secrecy that the unit maintains; but telling the story of the Special Boat Service seems to be quite problematic.The training regime in Courtney's SBS was brutal and relentless. One punishing exercise lasted three days and nights, remembered recruit Stan Weatherall, as they paddled the more than 80 miles across the Firth of Clyde where they "effected a landing at Craignish Point". During the allied invasion of Iraq in 2003, SBS teams, working with US Navy Seals, secured and scouted the beaches on the Al Faw Peninsula, paving the way for amphibious landings. Other SBS teams secured the southern oil fields. One Land Rover column of around 60 SBS men, operating in the North, were ambushed by Iraqi forces and had to fight their way out of trouble. The book is a mix of chapters between planning/organizational and operations. I'd say 65% of the book was devoted to operations. And these are the star of the show. On their last operation together, Wilson almost drowned in freezing water. "Wetsuits were in the future," commented a submarine officer. It was an unlikely partnership. Courtney was a big-picture person "with a flair for improvisation in a tight corner", while Willmott was a details man. This combination of vision and precision would be the making of the SBS.

In March 1941, the two men were transported by submarine from Alexandria in Egypt to a point off the coast of the Italian-held Rhodes where they paddled in by canoe and took it in turns to swim ashore and carry out a clandestine survey of the closely guarded shore as preparation for an amphibious assault. Training begins with endurance exercises in the Brecon Beacons in Wales – where three would-be recruits died from heatstroke after taking part in lengthy marches during one of the hottest days of 2013. Training then moves to the jungles of Belize, where candidates have to demonstrate survival skills over long periods. The Special Boat Service is perhaps less well known than its special forces cousin the SAS. Both were formed due to the requirements of the second world war. In the SBS's case to sabotage ships and coastal installations and to survey beaches ahead of landings. Just after midnight on April 12 1942, a single canoe, made of wood and canvas and known as a “folbot”, was lowered into the English Channel from a Royal Navy motor launch three miles from Boulogne. The two-man crew, Captain Gerald Montanaro and his paddler, Sergeant Freddie Preece, were equipped with their wits and eight limpet mines, each with a four-hour delay fuse. Their target: a 4,000-ton German tanker full of copper ore moored in Boulogne’s outer harbour. A terrific book … It really is one of the most enjoyable histories I’ve read in many a year’ JAMES HOLLANDMcNab tells me he "didn't want it to sound like a History Channel documentary", and it is certainly as refreshingly informal and compellingly immediate as his other books.

A hard man to replace, Wilson has been a model for SBS operators ever since: small-framed but deceptively strong, a team player but capable of independent action, an intelligent problem solver, eager to embrace new technology and as brave as a lion. Another prominent early SBS man was Major Gerald Falconer continues to write books and screenplays. In 2017 the film Stratton, [4] based on the main character of his books, was released. It stars Dominic Cooper as Stratton as well as Connie Nielsen, Derek Jacobi and Thomas Kretschmann. There were, however, lighter moments. Determined to train his men how to live off the land, Courtney invited an elderly eccentric called Jim Branson, the great-uncle of Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson, to show his men how to survive on plants. A week later, a "gnome-like old gentleman" arrived at Ardrossan on an ancient bicycle. The operation is recounted in a superbly detailed way. Nicols focuses on several key characters and the reader follows them through the battle.

SBS Operations

We discover recommendations for the best books to read in all sorts of places, whether it’s our bookworm friends, a Saturday morning spent browsing our favourite bookshop, the Richard & Judy Book Club, a new book-to-screen adaptation, or BookTok! The authors we find, the books we fall in love with and even the genres that we immerse ourselves in all have an impact and accompany us through life. What a really enjoyable book! This is the history of the SBS, the Special BOAT Service, the Royal Marines' Special Forces. Whilst the Army's SAS, or Special Air Service, with their motto "Who Dares Wins" are the subject of a lot of press interest, and a slew of books, the SBS show their approach with their motto "Not By Strength, by Guile". This book helps to show how different roots led to the SBS, and their preference for stealth. And in the end one understands why Britain maintains two such distinct forces at such a high pitch. A compact but fact-filled book which charts SAS history from World War 2 all the way until the current war on terror. There's plenty of colour photos throughout, along with little snippets of info on weapons, tactics etc, which makes this a great resource for dipping into every now and then. Despite battling heavy winds, a rising swell and a hole in their canoe (a gash they tried to stem with one of their Commando woolly hats), they managed to breach the defences of a major enemy port, having reached their target, set the mines, escaped again and rendezvoused with the launch only minutes before their canoe sank.