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

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

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

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Russo-Finnish War". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2016 . Retrieved 22 May 2016. But the death of Paddy Mayne meant he could rewrite the history of the SAS because there were really no officers left to challenge his version of events. 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. Michael Alexander speaks to the author of a new book who thinks SAS founder Sir David Stirling should be regarded as a ‘phoney major’. Gavin Mortimer. Stirling's Men: The inside history of the SAS in World War Two (Cassell, 2004) ISBN 0304367060 ISBN 978-0304367061

In their hurry to re-arm, Britain and France both bought large amounts of weapons from manufacturers in the US at the outbreak of hostilities, supplementing their own production. The non-belligerent US contributed to the Western Allies with discounted sales. [13] After his capture, Stirling’s war was over, despite a number of abortive escape attempts, which eventually led him to Colditz. The SAS thrived under Mayne for the rest of the war. Following Mayne’s untimely death in a car crash in 1955, Stirling once again used his powers of self-promotion to create his own myth, appropriating many of Mayne’s qualities and successes along the way. In his excellent new book, David Stirling: the phoney major: the life, times and truth about the founder of the SAS, Gavin Mortimer uses extensive research and impressive access over many years to wartime members of the SAS to tell us the real story of the life of David Stirling and the often troubled infancy of the service. Mayne’s death in a car crash in 1955 gave Stirling the opportunity to “return from his self-imposed exile [in Africa] and stake his claim to be the father of British special forces”. He did this by proposing a biography by the popular socialite author, Virginia Cowles. Called The Phantom Major, it was full of inaccuracies, half-truths and downright lies, and “would transform Stirling into a dashing guerrilla legend and Mayne into a dark, intemperate Irishman”. Most other major actions during the Phoney War were at sea, including the Second Battle of the Atlantic fought throughout the Phoney War. Other notable events among these were: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. Stirling was educated in England at the Catholic boarding school Ampleforth College. He was part of the Ampleforth Officer Training Corps. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge for a year before going to Paris to become an artist. [2] Second World War and the founding of the SAS [ edit ] Lieutenant Colonel Stirling with Lieutenant Edward McDonald and other SAS soldiers in North Africa, 1943 In September 1967 Len Deighton wrote an article in The Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop, a raid led by Stirling. The following year Stirling was awarded "substantial damages" in a libel action about the article. [20] Mercenary and arms dealer [ edit ] There’s a mystique that has grown up around them,” he says, “and Stirling in the last decade of his life was able to jump on that bandwagon.”

Ellis, L. F. (2004). The war in France and Flanders. London: Naval & Military Press. p.5. ISBN 1845740564. After the war, Stirling never achieved any real success, other than building his own myth once Mayne was safely out of the way. He got involved in various shady schemes in Africa and other places, often involving former, and sometimes serving, SAS operators, including one to depose the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Mortimer is scathing about how Stirling’s influence in these years ‘corrupted’ the SAS. In August 1974, before Stirling was ready to go public with GB75, the pacifist magazine Peace News obtained and published his plans. [25] His biographer Alan Hoe disputed the newspaper's disparaging portrayal of Stirling as a right-wing ' Colonel Blimp'. [26] Undermining trades unionism [ edit ]

Did David Stirling embellish his past?

The term “Phoney War” was first used by journalists to describe the period of time between the declaration of war and the actual military action. During the course of his research, however, he read a book he regards as the best memoir of the SAS ever written, Born of the Desert by Malcolm James, who was the SAS wartime medical officer.

However, he was a novice, Mortimer says, when it came to identifying Britain’s need for a small but highly trained guerrilla force. Did David Stirling embellish his past? Imlay, Talbot Charles (2004). "A reassessment of Anglo-French strategy during the Phoney War, 1939–1940". English Historical Review. 119 (481): 333–372. doi: 10.1093/EHR/119.481.333. BOOK REVIEW / A place for mad people: 'David Stirling' – Alan Hoe". Independent.co.uk. 12 September 1992. Safire, William (2008) [1968]. "Phony War". Safire's Political Dictionary (Updated and expandeded.). New York: Oxford University Press. p.539. ISBN 978-0-19-534334-2. OCLC 761162164.Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 8,942 articles in the main category, and specifying |topic= will aid in categorization. The Phoney War was also referred to as the "Twilight War" (by Winston Churchill) and as the Sitzkrieg [6] ("the sitting war": a word play on blitzkrieg created by the British press). [7] [8] [9] In French, it is referred to as the drôle de guerre ("funny" or "strange" war). [a] Todman, Daniel (2016). Britain's War: Into Battle, 1937-1941. Oxford University Press. p.199. ISBN 978-0-19-062180-3.



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