In a war of secrecy, spies, and destruction, Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) was on the leading edge. Formed in July of 1940, under Minister of Economic Warfare, Hugh Dalton, the SOE’s mission was to conduct espionage, sabotage, intelligence gathering, and support resistance organizations in an effort to defeat the Axis powers. The SOE operated More »
SAS
Malayan Emergency: The Birth of the Modern Special Air Service
Malaya — 1948. The United Kingdom and the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) are vying for the post-colonial soul of the country. From the start, it wasn’t going to be easy for the British military. Malaya, you see, was in that awkward situation so common wherever Europeans decided to plant a flag: One border, two ethnicities. More »
The day the British SAS defied their government to rescue their own: Part One
19 September 2005 Basra, Iraq The British soldiers couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Before them, on a TV screen, sat two of their own, faces bloody from beatings, being paraded on Iraqi TV. The announcer read in Arabic that they were being charged with the murder of an Iraqi policeman, were held in Basra, More »
British Special Forces To Have Bigger Counter-Terror Role in Afghanistan
With the United States set to pull out most of their 14,000 troops in Afghanistan in the next three years, a bigger part of the ongoing counter-terrorism mission will fall to the British Special Forces. The SAS and the SBS are expected to be tasked to take on a bigger part of these operations during More »
SAS Commandos Wounded in Yemen, Highlight Humanitarian Crisis
Last week, as many of our readers know, two SAS operators were wounded in an IED blast in Yemen. The covert operation was a combined UK/US operation where the SAS along with a U.S. Special Forces A-Team were scouting out potential drop zones in the country. But what the drop zones were for highlights just More »
“Kill the Enemy, But Please…Don’t Hurt His Feelings”
If this sounds strange, ludicrous and outright ridiculous…then congratulations! Welcome to our politically correct world where our leaders who send our troops into harm’s way to kill our enemies are more worried about hurting those said enemies’ feelings than they are about ensuring that our troops have everything they need to accomplish their mission and More »
SAS Selection in Australia, Lesson in Perseverance
We’ve shared many of our Selection anecdotes here on the pages of SpecialOperations.com the past two years and it is always refreshing to see someone else’s perspective especially if the person is in one of our allies Special Operations units. This one account is a really close look at one officer’s Australian SAS experience. It More »
SAS Hits Back Hard Against ISIS Terrorists in Syria
The SAS got a bit of payback this week it seems. The British special operations unit earlier this week hit an ISIS-controlled village in eastern Syria. And in doing so, they dispatched 20 of ISIS fighters as they ran from the battlefield, scurrying away in vehicles. While the British make it a point not to More »
Two British SAS Operators Wounded in ISIS Rocket Attack
The fighting in Syria with the U.S. led coalition has claimed more Allied casualties. The British press has reported that two British Special Operations troops were seriously wounded in a missile attack by Islamic State fighters in eastern Syria. The two British troops who are reported to be members of the British 22nd Special Air More »
“Why Do You Put Such A Premium On Rucking In SOF?”
We frequently get a lot of questions here at SpecialOperations.com about the Selection part of the pipeline, what the candidates for the various Special Operations units in the SOF umbrella must pass. Selection, as we say is just the first step but it is a continuous process and never really ends. Candidates during Selection will More »
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