History Book Club

37. The Man Who Saved the SAS with Tim Spicer

History Book Club

Show Notes

The SAS has often faced threats from the corridors of power. Since its inception in the North African desert during the Second World War, senior officers and civil servants have treated The Regiment with at the very least doubt, and at worst, as was seen after the end of the war, downright hostility when it was disbanded in November 1945.

Enter one man, Brian Franks, an SAS man but one who was comfortable in the bar at White’s club in St. James’ schmoozing those sceptics. He had had an extraordinary war, and his biographer, Tim Spicer, joins to discuss him and to speculate as to whether the SAS, again under threat, has people like Franks in the corridors of power today?

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An Axe & Four Balloons: Brian Franks, The Man Who Saved the SAS

History Book Club

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