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Out of the shadows

Unlike his attention-seeking brother David Stirling, Bill was a careful planner, responsible for many successful intelligence-gathering operations behind enemy lines

14 October 2023

9:00 AM

14 October 2023

9:00 AM

2SAS: Bill Stirling and the Forgotten Special Forces Unit of World War II Gavin Mortimer

Osprey, pp.247, 25

‘The boy Stirling is quite mad, quite, quite mad. However, in a war there is often a place for mad people.’ Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was referring to David Stirling, the man largely credited with raising the Special Air Service (SAS) in the summer of 1941.

Myth has always surrounded the formation of the SAS and one of the most abiding legends is that it was down to one man alone, David Stirling, whose L Detachment of six officers and 60 men grew into 1SAS.

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