Читать книгу Death Before Dishonour - True Stories of The Special Forces Heroes Who Fight Global Terror - Nicholas Davies B. - Страница 5

A book of this nature, revealing the inside story of so many missions undertaken by the world’s foremost Special Forces, could not have been written without a great deal of assistance, advice and expert knowledge from many people. Many of the operational details were kindly provided by those who took part but who were bound by allegiance to their colleagues not to reveal names. I readily agreed to abide by this code, for I wanted in no way to put them at risk.

I was also given great assistance by a number of defence officials and Special Force advisers working in London for governments around the world. They kindly furnished me with much of the detail of the operations in which their respective forces had been involved, and went to considerable trouble to find out, from their governments back home, the information I had requested.

In the Bibliography I have listed the many sources in which I was able to cross-check the facts of many of the operations. I owe a debt of gratitude to all of the authors.

I chose deliberately to write about some of the unsuccessful operations, even disasters, describing operational errors which too often put the lives of Special Forces soldiers in danger. Indeed in some instances men lost their lives as a result of such mistakes.

In consequence this is not simply another gung-ho epic underlining the heroism of the world’s elite forces but, I hope, a balanced account of many of the extremely demanding and dangerous circumstances in which such soldiers have found themselves. To them all, we owe more than we realise.

Nicholas Davies,

September 2002