Writer and historian with a specialty in wartime special forces. Media enquiries: [email protected]
London and Burgundy
Joined March 2022
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Out March 2027.
THE REAL ROGUE HEROES
No fabrication
No frippery
No fantasists
No far-fetched nonsense.
Just real tales from hard men who served in the wartime SAS.
Drawing on my 25 years of research & over 75 veteran interviews.
Reality is coming home.
Now that's the sort of budget we like.
And it is available with a pre-order discount at chiselbury.co.uk
Who Dares Betray.
Out December 1st.
Published by @chiselbury
So who is the traitor in the SAS squadron dropped behind enemy lines in France?
Could it be Tommy Dobbs?
What have you got to say for yourself, Tommy?
🤖 Made with AI
Yesterday I saw the first 'proofs' - layout - of my wartime SAS "in their own words" book.
Always an exciting moment.
Here is the running order.
Between them they received:
7 x DSOs
6 x MCs
1 x DCM
7 x MMs.
I met Sadler, G-Bell, Ridler, Danger, Youngman, Vickers and Druce.
1/3
October 21 1944 was the last day of Lt Jim Silly's life. The 2SAS officer was one of 31 men executed during Operation Loyton in eastern France.
Most of the SAS were murdered in small groups. Jim was held with some Frenchmen in a school.
They lie together in Moyenmoutier cem.
2/
On October 22 Jim, who was 20, and the Frenchmen were driven into a forest to a disused sawmill.
A man living rough in the woods watched as the prisoners were led inside.
Then machine gun fire. The Germans burned the mill & investigators found little in a search 6 weeks later
Gavin Mortimer retweeted
1944. France. Behind enemy lines. An SAS patrol whose next move is already known to the Germans.
Someone they trust is talking.
WHO DARES BETRAY by Gavin Mortimer @PhoneyMajor Published 1 December.
Pre-order: chiselbury.co.uk
#WhoDaresBetray #SAS
BREAKING NEWS !
Out on December 1st...
Who Dares Betray.
My wartime SAS thriller set in France in 1944 published by @chiselbury.
Who's the traitor among the SAS unit operating deep behind enemy lines?
A cross between Alistair MacLean & Agatha Christie, but without Miss Marple.
🤖 Made with AI
1/3
France could do with a de Gaulle right now.
The 2 recent films, by the way, are superb.
But did you know it was the Long Range Desert Group who first spotted the potential of the Free French in North Africa?
In October 1940 LRDG boss Ralph Bagnold suggested an approach to GHQ
3/3
The leader of the French, Colonel Jean d’Ornano, (pic) was killed in the raid & Jacques Massu was shot in the leg. He cauterised the wound with a cigarette - winning the respect of the LRDG.
The raid on Murzuk demonstrated that there was still plenty of fight in the French.
1/3
I've been colouring in some of my favourite wartime photos. Starting with the SAS:
Top: NY Eve 1942: Jeffs, Cattell, Lilley, Pleydell, Wiseman.
Bottom: Paddy Mayne referees a scrum at Darvel in 1944.
I can almost hear Johnny Wiseman: 'Gosh, that's jolly clever.'
AI, Johnny!
🤖 Made with AI
2/
Special Boat Squadron 1944.
Members of S Detachment aboard the 'Takiarkis' at anchorage off the Turkish coast.
Dick Holmes, MM, & Duggie Pomford, MM & bar, 'hunting' for Germans on an Aegean island.
🤖 Made with AI
Breaking News !!!
I've just been informed that the launch date for Real Rogue Heroes has been brought forward from March 8 to January 21 2027.
That's 3 days after 'Blue Monday' - apparently the most depressing day of the year.
Real Rogue Heroes: the book to banish the blues.
1/3
Yesterday was Paddy Mayne day.
Today it's Andy Lassen day.
It's always a thrill as an historian to unearth a gem by chance.
In the Imperial War Museum last week I found a letter written in March 1943 by Lassen to Les Prout, a mate from the Small Scale Raiding Force.
Also...
2/
I found this poignant clipping from December 1945.
Lassen's mum, Suzanne, was in Britain to receive his posthumous VC. But she wanted also to meet comrades of her son's.
She was put in contact with Les Prout & wrote, saying: "I am trying to learn all I can about him."
1/2
My favourite photo of Paddy Mayne, inscrutable & potent.
It was taken in December 1942, after Mayne & his boys had spent 2 months raiding in Libya.
Researching in the Imperial War Museum last week, I found a description of Mayne from someone who encountered him at this time.
