The SAS is the most famous regiment in the world and the subject of countless books, documentaries and TV dramas, including the BBC mini-series Rogue Heroes. Much of the action of the second season of Rogue Heroes is located in Italy, where both 1SAS and 2SAS took part in many daring operations in 1943. The third volume of Gavin Mortimer's impeccably researched and handsomely illustrated SAS Operations covers their missions in Sicily and Italy. After the derring-do of Desert Warfare, when the SAS raided enemy airfields in heavily-armed jeeps, the operations in Sicily and Italy were more challenging and diverse in nature. Sometimes the SAS inserted by parachute and sabotaged trains or attacked vehicle convoys; at other times they stormed beaches from landing craft and neutralised enemy coastal batteries. Whatever the mission the SAS displayed their characteristic courage, initiative and determination in the vanguard of the Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy. In this book Mortimer describes in detail these operations, embellishing his gripping narrative with first-hand accounts from the scores of SAS veterans he interviewed. Drawing also on personal papers, diaries, private photographs and his many visits to the sites of the action, Mortimer blends the past with the present so that readers can follow in the footsteps of such SAS legends as Paddy Mayne and Roy Farran. AUTHOR: Gavin Mortimer is a writer, historian and television consultant whose ground-breaking book Stirling's Men remains the definitive history of the wartime SAS. Drawing on interviews with more than seventy veterans, most of whom had never spoken publicly, the book was the first comprehensive account of the SAS brigade. He has also written histories of the SBS, Merrill's Marauders and LRDG, again drawing heavily on veteran interviews. Gavin's bold biography of SAS founder David Stirling was critically acclaimed when it was published in 2022 and his most recent book, a history of Bill Stirling and 2SAS, was praised by The Spectator magazine as a ?vivid and meticulously researched book?. Follow Gavin on X/Twitter @PhoneyMajor 100 b/w illustrations
