I spent some time in an RAF Hospital in the 60s and they had an extensive library which would get wheeled around the wards along with tea/coffee and slices of Fruit cake by the more ambulatory of us and I was intrigued by the various books about the "Private Armies" which had been raised in the desert war,silversurfer1947 wrote:The LRDG mainly concentrated on deep penetration for reconnaissance and information collection purposes, though occasionally were involved in combat. My impression is that they were partners rather than rivals. I first came across David Stirling in the form of a second hand paperback probably well over 50 years ago. I still have it. The Phantom Major by Virginia Cowles.
The LRDG was most certainly official and eventually so was the SAS but "Popski's Private Army"! a short book but interesting,
It was almost worth the discomfort to explore the contents of that library plus the various soft cover military books and magazines most of which were/are not available outside of the service.
