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Further to previous discussions on the Brit SAS there is a book out now which shines a light on to workings of the SAS:

Special Force: The Untold Story of 22nd Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) :...

Well I put it to you that when a given operation requires additional 'support' from non special forces then (in the context of Afghanistan) it ceases to be a 'special operation' commanded by the SAS...

If you say so ;)



There would have been a time when soldiers went in search of action and joined the SAS. From 2006 (or so) onwards they got action on their rotations with their respective...

As stated before it was the caution bred in NI which emasculated and all but destroyed the Brit military as a fighting force.

The SAS are able to take on these varied tasks because of the...

I appreciate your position but what I am saying is that it takes an officer 20 years before he is given command of 600 men (a battalion) whether in battle or not while the civilian politicians...

Are you sure you are looking in the right places?

The people who got 'you' into this mess were never qualified to make the decisions in the first place. You elected one or two of them and then...

There is an old saying 'it all comes out in the wash'.

We used radio intercepts to confirm the results of our actions into Mozambique and Zambia. We used to get accurate casualty figures that...

Simply the problem in using the rotated line regiments for such work is that they are not there long enough to get fed into the type of operations carefully and then to allow them to grow and...

I keep posting stuff from the distant past (not my past) but from the past from which I learned and from which the modern soldier should learn (rather than copying how he thinks special forces...

You said in your blog post:



Good we agree on something at last ;)

One accepts that new developments and refinements of old concepts take place. All I suggest is that they create new words for the new stuff and not bastardise the old terminology and definitions. I...

Yes, this use or misuse of terminology is problematic IMHO. Old terms and concepts are redefined and reworked to the extent that from a military history point of view one needs to learn that for a...

Yes, I should have made it more clear. The American led warfighting concept of maneuver warfare in its current form is relatively new. The term certainly was not in use (with its current meaning) in...

We need at this point to refer to Fd Marshall Slim an his thoughts on Special Forces (page 546 in my book):



That said we see the cap fits today as much as it did then.

The Rhodesian SAS did...

No I don't think that is the correct approach.

The size of your operating call-signs should depend on the comparative military competence of your enemy and the location and the degree of mobility...

Agreed



Remember Mumford is a civvie (or at least talks like one).

So the difference (not so subtle to us) between large scale exercises and field training like 'battle camps' is probably...

OK, when in doubt revert to the text in question.



OK, so back in the good old bad days of the 70s I studied from the Brit Infantry Battalion in Battle - 1964. Nowhere in there did the term...

Ken, for an old soldier you are remarkably sensitive to perceived sideswipes.

Reminds of the story out of John Masters' wonderful book The Road Past Mandalay. Here is the extract from page 139 in...

Mumford (the author is obviously a civvie) and as such tends to make broad statements about the military which obviously do not apply to all parts of the spectrum from Field Marshall all the way down...

You are correct he needs no help from anyone but go ahead... jump in. ;)



'Short tours' is the biggest remaining problem for the Brits. It can be changed - easier now that the tempo of...

To be brutally honest other than the special forces ops not seen much evidence of good practice from the line infantry (even the Marines and the paras). Slow to learn, slow to adapt, slow to evolve....

Its not as if the junior officers have been operationally savvy down at the sharp end. Watch the videos, read the books (Dead Men Risen etc etc) and note that not all the problems can be laid at the...

and what would they say?