Ghost Force: The Secret History Of The SAS - Ken Connor

'In the midst of the explosions, the crack of small arms fire and the whine of ricochets, an SAS man raised his arms about the parapet of his sangar. He held his rifle in one hand, the other was open, palm outwards, in a gesture of surrender.
Shots still rang out as he slowly stood erect and then stretched out his
free hand pointing to the child. The firing from both sides petered out. In the sudden silence he placed his rifle on the ...
...stood shrieking and crying.
The SAS man picked him up and tried to comfort him. The women peering from behind the rocks started to scream and shout, fearing he was going to harm the child. Instead he carried him kicking and screaming to where the women were hiding.
When the child was safely back in its mother's arms the man turned and
walked back to his sangar.
He turned to face the enemy and threw them a Guards' parade-ground ... more

'In the midst of the explosions, the crack of small arms fire and the whine of ricochets, an SAS man raised his arms about the parapet of his sangar. He held his rifle in one hand, the other was open, palm outwards, in a gesture of surrender.
Shots still rang out as he slowly stood erect and then stretched out his
free hand pointing to the child. The firing from both sides petered out. In the sudden silence he placed his rifle on the ground and walked down the hill to where the child stood shrieking and crying.
The SAS man picked him up and tried to comfort him. The women peering from behind the rocks started to scream and shout, fearing he was going to harm the child. Instead he carried him kicking and screaming to where the women were hiding.
When the child was safely back in its mother's arms the man turned and
walked back to his sangar.
He turned to face the enemy and threw them a Guards' parade-ground salute.
Then he picked up his rifle, held it in the air and very slowly disappeared from sight behind the sangar wall.
The instant he was back under cover the firing broke out again.'

There are more books about the SAS than there are troppers but Ken Connor's work 'Ghost Force: A Secret History of the SAS' stands out from the crowd.

Forget the daft title (of which more later), this is a perceptive, amusing
and often moving account of Britain's legendary regiment in action, from its disastrous first operation in the western desert of world war two to the fight against Saddam 50 years later.

Connor, who insists on not having the standard black bar across his picture to disguise his identity, dared and won for 23 years in the world's most vicious conflicts, including Aden, Indonesia and Northern Ireland.

He is superb on what it's like to fight in thick jungle, baking desert or
rainy bog. And he is objective enough to query the army's sanitised version of killing, such as when the SAS shot dead three unarmed IRA terrorists in Gibraltar.

His bulging contacts book also gives him the inside track on conflicts and
raids he missed such as the Iranian Embassy siege, which first catapulted
the Special Air Service into the world spotlight. He offers a definitive
account of the SAS at war and play.

But as you might expect from a veteran of a regiment which prizes brains as much as brawn, he is also lucid on why the wars he fought in broke out and what their consequences were.

He is a masterly historian and his book includes excellent analysis of
Britain's attempts to shore up its crumbling empire without any money to do so.

If there is a criticism it is that he believes the SAS supermen myth,
naturally enough for a solider who gave the unit the best years of his life.

Did the SAS really win the 1950s war with Indonesia singlehanded? They did
not - step forward the Gurkhas. Was the Falklands war won solely by British special forces? Ask the paras and marines.

His opinions can be wide of the mark too. He says the SAS are the best there is and should be used against terrorists, drug dealers, rioting
prisoners, etc in mainland Britian. In America the constitution bars the
domestic deployment of troops.

But controversy is the sign of a good book. Pity then it ends with a
ludicrous vision of the future SAS.

Connor wants the regiment's base at Hereford turned into a tourist attraction and the SAS to become 'ghost force' - computer hackers, economic terrorists, etc. For a solider who knows about the dirty business of war, it's embarassing. Shame.
 

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