First into Action

The Special Boat Service draws its manpower solely from the Marine Commando Units. It was first into battle—a month before the SAS—in the Falklands War, and again in the Gulf War, yet hitherto it is the SAS that has had by far the higher profile. This memoir is written from inside the SBS. The author tells how he trained with the Royal Marines in Deal before being recruited into the SBS at Poole. The regimen of ruthless training is described in detail, and the book also contains accounts of SBS operations in Ulster, Bosnia, and the Gulf War, and of the intense rivalry between the SAS's individualist mentality and the more team-based, marine ethos of the SBS.