SAS Rogue Heroes, Ben McIntyre

[callmemadam]

Spying is a dirty game, yet I’m fascinated by spy stories, whether fictional or the factual ones by Ben MacIntyre, all of which I’ve enjoyed. I found myself in different territory with his book about the SAS. Reading about spies, you know that their activities lead to deaths but it all happens offstage as it were; here, the deaths are all too real and make painful reading.

I’ll say straight away that this is a brilliant book. Although MacIntyre has researched just about everything to do with special forces, he makes it clear from the start that the book is for the general reader and explains what he’s left out and why. David Stirling is usually credited with having the idea of small groups of highly trained men operating behind enemy lines, disrupting supply lines and destroying weapons. All rather T E Lawrence. This was exactly the sort of operation which the generals hated (the men would not be under their control) and romantic Churchill loved. Churchill got his way and, after training, the first groups began operating in the desert; suffering appalling hardship but doing a lot of damage. Later, some of the men involved looked back on those days in the desert as ‘a clean war’, which their later missions in Italy and Normandy were not. I found a lot of this hard reading because it so blurred the line between war and murder. A pacifist would of course say that all war is murder but from the point of view of the soldier, there’s a difference between ‘a fair fight’ and execution. There was too much execution for my liking. Incidentally, the chaplain attached to the group MacIntyre concentrates on refused to carry a gun.

In Margery Allingham’s brilliant 1952 novel The Tiger in the Smoke, it’s obvious that the villain must have been in some sort of special forces operation during the war and that he was good at the job because he had nerves of steel and positively enjoyed killing. That’s exactly my problem with some of the soldiers in the SAS. Margery Allingham spent the war quietly in the country doing the kind of war work suitable for a middle-aged lady. So I find it remarkably perceptive of her to have picked out the very personality traits which might make a man an effective soldier but a criminal civilian. Not surprisingly, few of the surviving men whom MacIntyre writes about were able to settle down quietly after the war.

I’m not at all happy about the ‘legendary’ status accorded to the SAS and the SBS, no matter what they achieved (and their bravery is astonishing). The novels of ‘Andy McNab’ (which I haven’t read), the male fantasies about being in the SAS or actually lying about having been – I find all this extremely unhealthy.

Comments

[gwendraith]

This is really interesting to me. As you no doubt remember my uncle was in the SBS and was executed with 8 comrades including two royal navy boat crew and three Greek sailors after they were captured off the Isle of Rhodes. David Stirling was their CO for a time and their base camps were usually in Haifa and Cairo from where they would sail to turkey and the German held islands of the Dodecanese on missions. When Margaret Thatcher ordered an inquiry after the deaths came to light in the 80s my mum received the full report on microfiche and also a paper copy, which I now have (380 pages I think). All the German communications with Berlin and various signals were translated into English. It was a hard read at times as partial interrogation by the SS of all the men were included. There's no doubt in my mind that they were brave men, handpicked and suited to the hardship of a nomad life and gifted at avoiding capture. What they did made a difference to the outcome of the war in the med. It was real cockleshell hero stuff that they were doing.


Uncle George back right (the tall one) at a desert base camp. Several of that group died.

[callmemadam]

I did think of you when I wrote it. MacIntyre doesn't include much about the SBS, which is outside the book's remit.

Your uncle's death is shocking and probably the result of Hitler's Commando Order, which said that all commandos, even in uniform or if they surrendered, must be executed. Many army officers (Rommel was one) ignored this.

Pictures like that are so poignant.

[gwendraith]

Yes, the Kommandobefehl which included Sonderbehandlung (special treatment) was mentioned several times in the communications between the Headquarters in Greece and Berlin as they discussed the men and their transportation from Rhodes to HQ in Thessaloniki and subsequent treatment. They had them for weeks before the were sent for 'special treatment', the euphemism for execution. George probably died 3-4 weeks after capture. Once they had gained all the information they were likely to get they murdered them. I know the district they were buried, probably in lime graves, but not the exact location. I have several pictures, some including the Greek sailors who were so brave and the young naval rating who was one of the last to die. Their youth is always what upsets me the most. The SBS was always the lesser known but there have been more recent books dedicated to them. Incidentally I have the names of all the German officers in charge of the men and the names of the interrogators.

[callmemadam]

It's just heartbreaking. As you say, so young and so brave. We should remember their sacrifice for ever.