Rogue Warrior Of The SAS

Half a century after his death, Lt Col Robert Blair Mayne is still regarded as one of the greatest soldiers in the history of military special operations. As the most decorated British soldier of World War II, he pioneered tactics used today by the SAS and other special operations units worldwide. This volume tells the remarkable life story of "Colonel Paddy", one of the most controversial soldiers of his time. Mayne had exceptional physical strength and uniquely swift reflexes, which transformed him into a fearsome soldier. He was able to respond to threats of attack with split-second timing and devastating consequences to the enemy. But behind the bravado and the legendary feats was a soldier denied the ultimate accolade of the Victoria Cross because of his unorthodox rules of war and his resentment of authority.Mayne was also a man with a conflicted personal life. From youth to adulthood his mother dominated his life. While there was talk of a lost love, he never married and several of his contemporaries felt that his resentment of gays in the military reflected his concerns with his own sexuality. Having survived the carnage of war unscathed, it was tragically ironic that Mayne should be killed in a peacetime car accident. Like many of the questionable aspects of his life, the events surrounding his death remain shrouded in controversy.Mayne was undoubtedly a complex character of diametrically opposed qualities and, in "SAS", the authors have presented a rounded portrait of a man who, although a flawed hero, was unquestionably one of the most distinctive combatants of the campaigns in the Western Desert and Europe.