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  • Rogue Heroes

  • The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War
  • Written by: Ben Macintyre
  • Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
  • Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (151 ratings)

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Rogue Heroes

Written by: Ben Macintyre
Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
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Publisher's Summary

2016 Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •

The incredible untold story of World War II’s greatest secret fighting force, as told by the modern master of wartime intrigue—now a limited series on Epix!

“Reads like a mashup of The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape, with a sprinkling of Ocean’s 11 thrown in for good measure.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “Rogue Heroes is a ripping good read.”—Washington Post (10 Best Books of the Year)

Britain’s Special Air Service—or SAS—was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young aristocrat whose aimlessness belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a World War II battlefield map and saw a protracted struggle, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite men, he could parachute behind Nazi lines and sabotage their airplanes and supplies. Defying his superiors’ conventional wisdom, 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 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.

©2016 Ben Macintyre (P)2016 Random House Audio

What listeners say about Rogue Heroes

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  • Rob
  • 2017-10-05

Sound history

Well performed. A decent history of a group of wild and crazy young men to whom we owe so much.

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1 person found this helpful

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Fantastic read.

Heroic action, gut wrenching sacrifice and a cast of remarkable characters who defied both convention and authority to get a dirty job done. This book is well researched, well delivered and honours its subjects while depicting them honestly. A compelling read that never loses pace.

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Fascinating!

Terrific analysis and detail. These courageous individuals came to life, as their accomplishments were revealed.

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A cheer for eccentricity

Quirky characters with deadly weapons in exotic locations, what could possibly go wrong? Well ,quite a lot actually. As the apocryphal way finder once said, if I was going to go there I wouldn't have started from here. It does seem remarkable that the elite fighting force we know today as the SAS originated with such a random group of eccentrics and misfits. Luck and "who you know" certainly played a part after such a disastrous first mission but they proved their worth behind the lines and rewrote the combat text books while at it. Macintyre does it again with his wonderful ground-up way of relating history. WWII is experienced through the soldiers who made stuff happen and the author has a wonderful ability to draw one into their world and feel their pain. Very well researched and logically presented across several campaigns the pace is relentless and the story gripping. Having spent a few weeks cycling in the Morvan, that section had special meaning for me personally. Macintyre really captures the feeling of the misty hills and the dark back country forestry roads . The resistance history and remembrance for the massacres of innocents related in this book is still a big part of the culture in this corner of France. Great stuff and well narrated by the author. As in all these types of audiobooks you do miss out a little on the various maps and photos that I'm sure are in the print version so I'll have to go and showroom that in a bookstore.

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So much here!

History as only Ben MacIntyre can tell it! It’s amazing what stories he has been able to research and document here, many unbelievable. He has been able to piece together quite a few tales that have not been told before, thanks to his access to these never revealed before archives. Especially interesting to me were the acts of sabotage that were carried out in Africa. Great to have him narrate his own work. Highly recommended.

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A WWII book worth reading!

An amazing book full of tactical details and personal histories but told as a fascinating story!

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Rollicking fast paced adventure

This is an excellent history where most of the unbelievable things are mostly true! Excellent work highly recommend

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Better than Fiction

Previous to this I listen to a fictional account of a battle in WW2. I found this book more gripping than the fiction. I have already recommended it to my friends and brothers.

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Band of Bros meets Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels

True Account of the birth of the SAS.
Not a dry war historical tell.
the real life characters seem to jump right out of a Guy Ritchie screen play.
I loved this book.
It would make a fascinating TV series..

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Amazing

Very well spoken and written.

Good flow and interesting subject and story.

Recommend it to anyone interested in WW2 more obscure aspects

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