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His biggest success was on the night of 26–27 July 1942 when his SAS squadron, armed with 18 jeeps, raided the Sidi Haneish landing strip and destroyed 37 Axis aircraft (mostly bombers and heavy transport) for the loss of two men killed. By the end of 1954 it was struggling financially and required the generosity of his brother Bill to keep it afloat. Her narrative, based on the eyewitness testimony of the men who took part, gives a fascinating insight into the early years of the SAS.

Stirling was born at his family's ancestral home, Keir House, in the parish of Lecropt, Perthshire on 15 November 1915. We give people around the world the opportunity to contribute to the circular economy, earn money and protect the planet, by trading their unwanted books and media. You can sympathise with why David Stirling so assiduously took most of the credit for the creation of the SAS for himself. In this gripping and controversial biography Gavin Mortimer analyses Stirling's complex character: the childhood speech impediment that shaped his formative years, the pressure from his overbearing mother, his fraught relationship with his brother, Bill,.

He subsequently formed various private military companies and was linked with a failed attempt to overthrow the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the early 1970s. uk will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide updates and marketing. His elder brother Bill, on the other hand, had founded the original Commando training centre at Lochailort and joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), set up by Churchill to coordinate resistance in occupied Europe. He also had a rare talent for self-promotion, which led to his name becoming familiar to Winston Churchill, after Stirling recruited his son, Randolph, into the SAS.Bill preferred to stay in the background and let his younger brother lead the new unit, but he had a say in selecting some of the SAS officers. On crutches following a parachuting accident, he stealthily entered Middle East headquarters in Cairo (under, through, or over a fence) in an effort to see Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Command General Sir Claude Auchinleck. One of the first veterans I interviewed was Johnny Cooper, who served 18 years in the Regiment between 1941 and 1959.

He recruited like-minded individuals from within the trade union movement, with the express intention that they should cause as much trouble during conferences as permissible.Stirling, the man whose courage and cunning had "shortened the war for us," was lavished with praise. Virginia Cowles's The Phantom Major is a classic account of these raids, an amazing tale of courage, impudence and daring, packed with action and high adventure.