Men In Black
Last updated: 30/10/2007 - 15:57
Michael Asher tells the behind the scenes story of the most secretive regiment in the British Army: the SAS.
The Regiment - The Real Story of The SAS by Michael Asher
On May 4 1980, seven terrorists executed their first hostage inside the Iranian Embassy in Londons' Princess Gate. This act - together with the threat that followed to kill another hostage every thirty minutes until their demands were met - meant the transfer of the operation from one of Police negotiation to one of military engagement.
Balaclavas
Minutes after the first hostage was killed - as the British nation watched on live television - an armed party in black overalls and balaclavas moved down from the rooftop on ropes and burst in through windows and doors. In seconds a series of explosions and the sounds of gunfire saw six of the terrorist group dead and the seventh captured.
For most people in the UK - let alone the rest of the world - this was a first, shocking acquaintance with a covert British Army unit that was soon to become the ideal of modern military excellence – the Special Air Service (SAS) regiment.
Few people new of the group's existence at this point - and even fewer realised that the modern SAS regiment was far from a new development and had actually been in existence in one form or another for almost forty years. Formed by three remarkable personalities – David Stirling, Jock Lewes and Paddy Mayne – in the deserts of North Africa during World War Two as a follow up on the work being done by the Long Range Desert Group and then in Europe during the battle to eliminate mobile German V2 launchers as the Allied invasion of the continent began. Since then, the long history of the regiment has seen members of the SAS play a discreet, if not secret - and often controversial - role almost everywhere British forces have fought, from Northern Ireland to Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands and both Persian Gulf Wars.
Modern
The modern SAS has proven itslef again and again as the prototype of all modern special forces units throughout the world. In The Regiment - subtitled 'the first fifty years' - autjor and former member of 23 SAS Regiment Michael Asher focuses for the first time on the men who developed the unit. He follows the story of this special forces unit, from its early days as a small commando raiding force to the modern day force - examining the evolution of the ideaology of special forces and investigating the real story behind one of the greatest military legends of the late twentieth century.
Author Michael Asher has served in the Parachute Regiment, the SAS and the Special Patrol Group. No longer a serving soldier he has nevertheless seen action in many countries including Northern Ireland. Since leaving the Forces behind to concentrate on writing he has worked as a volunteer teacher in the Sudan, lived for three years with a nomadic tribe and made the first ever west east crossing of the Sahara by camel and on foot. He has also worked as a United Nations programme officer, among nomads in the Sudan, and now runs his own camel-trekking company in the Sudan and Kenya. He is the recipient of two awards for exploration, has presented three television documentaries for Channel 4 - including the BAFTA-award winning In Search of Lawrence, and the controversial The Real Bravo Two Zero.
With his strong army connections and his reputation as a writer, he is in a good position to talk to participants of all the SAS operations, and to uncover new and extraordinary material and explode many of the myths surrounding the SAS.
Aside from The Regiment he is also the author of the bestselling book: The Real Bravo Two Zero, about the blighted SAS operation in the first Gulf War and has written seventeen other books, including four novels.
For more information the following links may be useful:
See also on Lifestyle: Brutal End of Empire: Empire Warriors - The British Empire at War 1945-1967 - Vivid, terrifying first-hand accounts of the last wars of the British Empire on DVD.
The Regiment - The Real Story of The SAS is published in Viking hardback November 1.
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