"Simultaneously published in the UK by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK, and in Canada by Signal, an imprint of Random House Canada"--Title page verso.

British edition titled: SAS : rogue heroes : the authorized wartime story.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 363-364) and index.

Prologue: Into the dark -- WAR IN THE DESERT -- Cowboy soldier -- L Detachment -- Recruits -- Into the desert -- The Long Range Desert Group -- Devil country -- A party of ghosts -- Blitz buggy -- Benghazi bed-and-breakfast -- Seven airfields -- Mass sabotage at Sidi Haneish -- Desert doctors -- Quite, quite mad -- Alamein -- WAR IN EUROPE -- Italy -- Bulbasket -- Houndsworth -- An eye for an eye -- Paddy McGinty's goat -- A predilection for risk -- Battaglione Alleata -- Into the Reich -- Liberation -- Who dares survives.

"Britain's Special Air Service--or SAS--was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young gadabout aristocrat with a remarkable strategic mind. Where his colleagues looked at a map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind Nazi lines and sabotage their airplanes and supplies. Paired with his constitutional opposite, the disciplined martinet Jock Lewes, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war, but the nature of combat itself. Bringing his keen eye for psychological detail to a riveting wartime narrative, Ben Macintyre uses his unprecedented access to the SAS archives to shine a light on a legendary unit long shrouded in secrecy--one whose hard methods would influence contemporary special forces around the world. The result is not only a tremendous war story, but also a fascinating group portrait of men of whom history and country asked the most"--From front flap and publisher description.