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'Fascinating to read about how the Malayan Scouts became the SAS. It helped fill in gaps for me.' - **General Sir Peter de la Billiere. KCB, DSO, Mc & Bar, former Director SAS during the Iranian Embassy Siege and Commander-in-Chief of British Forces during the Gulf War**
'Gentleman Jim Almonds is a Special Forces hero....and he is one of mine too.' **- Sir Ranulph Fiennes, OBE**
'One of the most courageous men who has ever served his monarch and his country.' **- Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC, military historian**
In 1945, following his death-defying Second World War with 1st SAS, 'Gentleman Jim' Almonds still craved active military service and perilous adventuring.
After training Emperor Haile Selassie's Army in Ethiopia, Almonds volunteered as Second-in-Command of a new bandit-hunting outfit in the 'Wild West' of Eritrea. On active service in so-called peacetime, killing was a fact of life. But British justice was swift during a race against time to bring widespread terrorism under control in time to implement a United Nations Decision to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia under the Ethiopian Crown.
When the SAS reformed for the Malayan Emergency, Almonds volunteered again as Commanding Officer of 'B' Squadron, 22nd SAS. Parachuting into the jungle to clear out Communist terrorists, he improvised insertion techniques into the canopy; close quarter combat training; and led torturous marches back to civilisation. This successful British campaign has been largely unsung - until now. In Singapore, Almonds designed and built boats, sailing them with his children - all destined for the Army - in the Straits of Jahore.
As a major in the Gold Coast/Ghana, he built without power tools the 32-foot ketch he had designed in an Italian PoW camp. Via the mid-Atlantic, he sailed home to England with no modern steering aids, no health and safety and no radio - but an uncanny sense of direction. His story captures in snapshot detail the many countries he visited during his three-month, 5,000-mile, intercontinental voyage.
Set in meticulously researched contexts, the account is fully sourced with an index, maps and glossaries.
