Prime, Christoph SAS. Les indomitables 1941-1945

The Special Air Service (SAS) is one of the most renowned special forces in the world today. But did you know that its history begins in Egypt in 1941? David Stirling, Jock Lewes and Paddy Mayne, three young and impetuous British officers, assembled a small unit to carry out daring raids behind the German-Italian lines. Small groups of perfectly trained and highly mobile men would sneak onto enemy airfields at night on foot or in jeeps to destroy the aircraft there. The casualties inflicted were so severe that Hitler ordered those captured to be executed.

The unit constantly reinvented itself and internationalised itself so that it could take part in operations in Italy and in the liberation of Western Europe. In the summer of 1944, nearly 2,000 British, French and Belgian SAS were parachuted throughout France to harass and weaken German forces with the help of the Resistance. They drove along the roads in their armed jeeps and attacked the enemy where they were. The names Saint-Marcel and Sennecey-le-Grand have become important places of remembrance of the SAS. This book traces the history of the SAS in WW2 in detail.