David Stirling: The Phoney Major: The Life, Times and Truth about the Founder of the SAS

Review An important and well thought out reinterpretation of the 'founder' of the SAS, a definite must-read for any special forces lovers. ― Classic Military Vehicle [A] compelling and authoritative account ― Oldie Product Description Aristocrat, gambler, innovator and special forces legend, the life of David Stirling should need no retelling. His formation of the Special Air Service in the summer of 1941 led to a new form of warfare and Stirling is remembered as the father of special forces soldiering. But was he really a military genius or in fact a shameless self-publicist who manipulated people, and the truth, for this own ends? 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, and the jealousy and inferiority he felt in the presence of his SAS second-in-command, the cold-blooded killer Paddy Mayne. Stirling lived until old age, receiving a knighthood and plaudits from military forces around the world before his death in 1990. Yet as Mortimer dazzlingly shows, while Stirling was instrumental in selling the SAS to Churchill and senior officers, it was Mayne who really carried the regiment in the early days. Stirling was at best an incompetent soldier and at worst a foolhardy one, who jeopardised his men's live with careless talk and hare-brained missions. Drawing on interviews with SAS veterans who fought with Stirling and men who worked with him on his post-war projects, and examining recently declassified governments files about Stirling's involvement in Aden, Libya and GB75, Mortimer's riveting biography is incisive, bold, honest and written with his customary narrative panache. Impeccably researched and with the courage to challenge the mythical SAS 'brand', Mortimer brings to bear his unparalleled expertise as WW2's premier special forces historian to dig beneath the legend and reveal the real David Stirling, a man who dared and deceived. Book Description The biography of David Stirling, founder of the SAS From the Inside Flap Celebrated as the founder of the legendary Special Air Service (SAS), David Stirling was the 'Phantom Major' of newspaper fame, a glamorous and fearless guerrilla fighter who, in the Second World War, struck terror into the hearts of the Nazis in North Africa. Stirling, however, was neither a military innovator nor a daring warrior. He was immature, incompetent and reckless, character flaws that he carried through his troubled life. In this gripping new biography, Gavin Mortimer reveals why Stirling kept his private life so secret and why, ultimately, he was more 'Phoney Major' than 'Phantom Major'. He reveals how the SAS really came to be formed in the summer of 1941, and the man who deserves credit for raising the regiment. Bill Stirling, David's brother, was the brains of the SAS and Paddy Mayne the brawn. Together they established the regiment in those early years, a brilliant combination of intellectual and physical force. When David's clumsiness led to his capture in 1943, the SAS flourished in his absence under Mayne's inspiring command. He finished the war with a DSO and three bars, whereas Stirling returned from captivity embittered and disillusioned. For a decade after the war Stirling had little to do with the SAS, but when Mayne was killed in a car crash in 1955 he set out to undermine the Irishman's reputation while exaggerating his own. Charismatic but manipulative, Stirling shamelessly fashioned an alter ego out of half-truths and lies from which he derived fame and fortune. Mortimer's absorbing narrative draws on a wealth of previously unseen material in unravelling a complex life, and includes among its supporting cast Winston Churchill, Evelyn Waugh and Colonel Gaddafi. About the Author Gavin Mortimer is a best-selling writer, historian and TV consultant whose ver