- Hardcover: 286 pages
- Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd; illustrated edition edition (7 Mar 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0850527430
- ISBN-13: 978-0850527438
- Product Dimensions: 2.4 x 1.6 x 0.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 352,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
This biography of the man who founded, with David Stirling, the specialist fighting force that became the SAS, is written by his nephew. Lewes, interested in small, fast-moving, well-equipped forces from boyhood, devised the methods that ensured the SAS was able to perform its incredible feats.
From the Author
A complete revision of the earliest SAS history
Credit for the formation in 1941 of the Special Air Service, today the World's most respected special force unit, has traditionally been given to David Stirling. This, as those 'in the know' acknowledge, is only part of the truth. Jock Lewes, a young Welsh Guards officer, was at least equally responsible and yet, until now, his character and contribution have never been closely studied.
Credit for the formation in 1941 of the Special Air Service, today the World's most respected special force unit, has traditionally been given to David Stirling. This, as those 'in the know' acknowledge, is only part of the truth. Jock Lewes, a young Welsh Guards officer, was at least equally responsible and yet, until now, his character and contribution have never been closely studied.
Drawing on hitherto unpublished personal journals, this account of Lewes's life, tragically cut short on 31 December 1941 during an SAS deep penetration patrol, makes for compelling reading. Brought up in the Australian outback where he learnt self-discipline and self-reliance, he went on to have a brilliant career at Oxford University; as President of the Boat Club he was instrumental in the dramatic 1937 victory against Cambridge. Thereafter he spent time in pre-war Berlin where he was at first seduced by Hitler's socialist policies and by a young Nazi supporter, one of the two loves of his life, but soon became disillusioned, establishing links with opposition factions.
Despite his lack of military experience, Jock quickly proved himself a radical tactical thinker and brilliant leader and trainer of men, a rare combination. He also developed, and gave his name to, the lethally effective Lewes Bomb. His exceptional talents found expression in the development of the SAS concept and ethos. Without his and David Stirling's partnership there would have been no Special Air Service; as Sitrling later chivalrously admitted, 'Jock Lewes could far more genuinely claim to be the founder of the SAS than I'.
As well as being the long overdue biography of this highly gifted and complex individual, Jock Lewes, Co-Founder of the SAS, is a major contribution to the bibliography of British Special Forces.
Lord Jellicoe's Foreword fully endorses this biography: "It is described with skill and authority".
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a remarkable war and love story, when you combine Jock Lewes's Book with Joy Street the story of his love affair, with his fiancee Miriam. It is time that Jock's life and his sacrifice is recognized.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
a great read from beginning to end... a remarkable man with incredible drive and determination, I just did not want it to end!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
The Founder of the SAS
16 Sep 2000
Format:Hardcover
A major contribution to the early history of the SAS, this outstanding biography of Jock Lewes persuasively argues that he was the real founder of the elite British commando corps in World War II not David Stirling. Lewes had not only developed the concept of the corps but had begun training his men before he was joined by David Stirling. Lewes was a brilliant innovator, experimenting with early parachute techniques and creating the Lewes bomb, who was initially sceptical of enlisting Stirling.
Written by his nephew, with access to family friends and unused private papers, the biography successfully argues its case without doing an injustice to Stirling. On the contrary, it shows that the ultimate success of the unit was due to a successful partnership in which the two men played distinct but essential roles. Stirling was crucial in promoting support for the formal adoption of the SAS among doubtful commanders at HQ.
The biography reads like a good thriller maintaining suspense throughout. Well over half the book is devoted to the years before the war, beginning with his boyhood in Australia. There are memorable vignettes of Oxford in the 1930s, where Jock led the Oxford University Boat Club in its first victory against Cambridge in many years, and the Berlin Olympics. Jock emerges in these early chapters as a charismatic and visionary leader long before his founding of the SAS.
"Jock Lewes" is a work of revision which will change the text book accounts of the origins of the SAS.
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