{"product_id":"desert-raiders-the-birth-gary-mitchell-9798263065980","title":"Desert Raiders - The Birth of the SAS in WWII: The Explosive True Story of David Stirling and the Men Who Dared Behind Rommel's Lines","description":"Desert Raiders - The Birth of the SAS in WWII\u003cbr\u003eBook One of the SAS Narrative Nonfiction Series\u003cp\u003eNorth Africa, 1941. A wounded Guards officer with a reckless imagination limps back from a parachute injury and dares to propose the impossible: a tiny band of raiders, striking at night, far behind Rommel's lines. From that audacious idea David Stirling forges the Special Air Service-misfits and natural-born risk-takers who will turn the desert into their hunting ground and rewrite the rules of modern warfare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDesert Raiders\u003c\/b\u003e hurls you into the furnace of the North African campaign as the \"Originals\" learn their trade the hard way. A first parachute drop becomes a gale-lashed catastrophe. Only 21 of 55 men make it back-starved, burned, half-dead-and still they volunteer again. Their salvation is a pact with the Long Range Desert Group and a new weapon: stripped-down jeeps with twin K-guns, jerrycans lashed like ribs, and enough nerve to drive straight down enemy runways.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNight after night, airfields erupt-engines torching, fuel dumps blowing like volcanoes, mechanics stumbling from huts a heartbeat too late. Axis guards whisper of \u003ci\u003eGespenster\u003c\/i\u003e-phantoms in the desert-as rumours spread of British raiders who appear, burn everything that matters, and vanish into starlight. The motto is born in dust and fire: \u003cb\u003eWho Dares Wins.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the price is savage. Men are killed in lanes of tracer, lost to heat and thirst, captured under Hitler's Commando Order. Then the hammer falls: Stirling's jeep is ambushed and the \"Phantom Major\" is taken prisoner. The Regiment should falter. Instead, a new leader steps into the breach. \u003cb\u003ePaddy Mayne\u003c\/b\u003e-ferocious, exact, and fiercely loyal-turns boldness into method, welding the SAS into a precision instrument that will carry the war from dunes to docks, from jeeps to boats, from myth to legend.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTold in a breath-by-breath narrative that never lets go, \u003cb\u003eDesert Raiders\u003c\/b\u003e is the true origin story of the world's most storied special forces unit-an underdog epic of invention, grit and brotherhood. You'll taste the petrol in the tea, feel the sand in the teeth, and ride shotgun on jeep convoys that turn night roads into hell.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePerfect for readers of\u003c\/b\u003e Ben Macintyre, Damien Lewis, Antony Beevor, and anyone who loves high-stakes narrative history told with the pace of a thriller.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eInside you'll find: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe founding of the SAS and the disastrous first mission that nearly ended it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe alliance with the LRDG and the birth of the jeep raiders.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eAirfields in flames, convoys shredded, and the rise of the \"Phantom Regiment.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eStirling's capture-and Mayne's rise that cements the Regiment's future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe real men behind the motto: courage paid in minutes, water, and blood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBook length: \u003c\/b\u003e 90,000 words (narrative nonfiction)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWho dares, wins. Who prepares, wins again. Climb aboard.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Gary Mitchell\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798263065980\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/31\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 368\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.08lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.76d","brand":"Gary Mitchell","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48997125947647,"sku":"9798263065980","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/desert-raiders-the-birth-gary-mitchell-9798263065980","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}