Gentleman Jim
The Wartime Story
of the Founder of the SAS
by
Lorna Almonds Windmill
pub
Constable
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8vo 296pp
publisher's original blue cloth boards with gilt titles on spine VG
in original dust wrapper VG
illustrated with b/w photos
Very Good
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More Info from fly leaf, foreword, Preface, Introduction etc
(apologies for any typo scan errors)
THE CRIMEAN WAR (1853-56)
Gentleman Jim, Almonds' remarkable true story; is set in wartime England, the western desert, Italy and France and recounts his formative role in the birth of the SAS. The dramatic background is one of love and courage, high risk and amazing survival against the odds, and this book captures for the first time the real spirit of the young soldiers in the newly emerging Special Air Service.
Jim Almonds, a sergeant in the Guards Commandos, sailed for the Middle East as part of 'Layforce' in January 1941 with David Stirling and others destined to become SAS 'L' Detachment 'originals'. Following intensive training in the desert and action at Tobruk, Sidi Haneish, Nofelia and Benghazi, Almonds was captured and shipped to a PoW camp in Italy, from which he managed to escape twice. After thirty-two days on the run behind enemy lines, and mapping an enemy minefield, he succeeded in reaching US forces at the Benevento front line. After receiving a Bar to his Military Medal, he parachuted into occupied France, where he harried the Germans so effectively and with so little regard for his own safety that he was awarded the Croix de Guerre.
Written by his daughter, a former Regular Army Captain, with Almonds' full cooperation and based on 'Gentleman Jim's' own diaries `which he kept to be sent to his wife should he fail to return - the detail of the action is vivid and immediate. Fully researched from primary sources, including Public Record Office contemporaneous reports :ya .. n .... d.... . interviews with other 'originals', this is a compelling and revelatory story.
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