Publisher's Synopsis
The SS Special Troops in Italy in 1943, the U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam in 1964, Britain's Special Air Services at Oman in 1972, the human torpedoes of the Italian Underwater Division of the Italian Navy in 1941these stand among the many astonishing military operations recounted in this graphic, pulse-pounding volume of true tales told by fighters in the world's most elite armed forces. Veteran editor Jon E. Lewis assembles firsthand reports from the battlefields, featuring John Pimlott's Presidential citation for his bravery in Vietnam with the 1st Air Calvary, Claire Chennault's exploits with the Flying Tigers against the Japanese in Burma, Eugene sledge's island-hopping assaults with the U.S. 1st Marine Division, and John Lodwick's participation in the last wartime action of the British Special Boat Squadronthe inspiration for Alistair MacLean's Guns of Navarone. The Mammoth Book of Elite Forces covers the world's crack outfits from the dashing missions of the unorthodox British "Private Army" of Vladimir "Popski" Peniakoff to spread "alarm and despondency" behind Axis lines in Libya and Tunisia to the highly trained Israeli paratroopers who rescued an airplaneful of hostages in Entebbe. Included, too, are brave adventures of the Green Berets, the Delta Force, the French Foreign Legion, and all the other special corps who get going when the going gets tough.
