Immediate Action: The Explosive True Story of the Toughest-and Most Highly Secretive-Strike Force in the World

Andy McNab's Army Memoirs

by Andy McNab

He is one of the most highly decorated soldiers alive.  He is also the first to break the code of silence about the most elite fighting force in the world. What Andy McNab has to say is so explosive that the British government tried to stop him.A street fighter, a hard case, and a flawless soldier, Andy McNab became one of the elite fighting men in "the Regiment"--Britain's covert SAS.   His actions behind the lines in the Gulf War made him a hero.   But the full story of his life and his amazing career in Special Forces has remained a secret...until now.In harrowing detail, McNab takes us inside the Regiment, chronicling nine years of covert operations on five continents.   Plunging us into a world of surveillance, counterintelligence, and hostage rescue, he takes us behind the scenes on some of their top secret missions.   For the first time, he reveals the shocking details of their training--physically severe, mentally grueling, and sometimes deadly.   And he dares to expose some of their highly confidential codes and rules--including the one that sanctions murder.This is the story of the fighting men of the SAS.  Here is how they live.   And here is how they die...

Genres: Military Fiction, Nonfiction, War, History, Biography, Thriller, Military History

527 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Andy McNab joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment. He served in B Squadron 22 SAS for ten years and worked on both covert and overt special operations worldwide, including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland.

Trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, prime target elimination, demolitions, weapons and tactics, covert surveillance and information gathering in hostile environments, and VIP protection, McNab worked on cooperative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and western backed guerrilla movements as well as on conventional special operations. In Northern Ireland he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14th Intelligence Group, going on to become an instructor.

McNab also worked as an instructor on the SAS selection and training team and instructed foreign special forces in counter terrorism, hostage rescue and survival training.

Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in two bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993) and Immediate Action (1995). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK. To date it has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages. The CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. The BBC's film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, was shown on primetime BBC 1 television in 1999 and released on DVD in 2000.

Immediate Action, McNab's autobiography, spent 18 weeks at the top of the bestseller lists following the lifting on an ex-parte injunction granted to the Ministry of Defence in September 1995. To date, Immediate Action has now sold over 1.4 million copies in the UK.

McNab is the author of seven fast action thrillers, highly acclaimed for their authenticity and all Sunday Times bestsellers. Published in 1997, Remote Control was hailed as the most authentic thriller ever written and has sold over half a million copies in the UK. McNab's subsequent thrillers, Crisis Four, Firewall, Last Light , Liberation Day , Dark Winter , Deep Black and Aggressor have all gone on to sell equally well. The central character in all the books is Nick Stone, a tough ex-SAS operative working as a 'K' on deniable operations for British Intelligence.

McNab's fiction draws extensively on his experiences and knowledge of Special Forces soldiering. He has been officially registered by Neilsen Bookscan as the bestselling British thriller writer of the last year.

Reviews

[Supratim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by the various Special Forces. I had heard about Andy McNab's Bravo Two Zero and when I saw that this book is about his days in the SAS I decided to give it a try.

Written in simple language and liberally interspersed with soldier’s lingo, this book chronicles his early days as a “juvenile delinquent”, his service as a “Green Jacket” in the infantry, his obsession with the Regiment (SAS) and what grueling tests and training people undergo for the privilege of being a member of one of the most elite special forces unit in the world and of course his various missions in different continents while in the SAS.

I enjoyed his detailed descriptions of the rigorous trainings, the planning and hardships involved in any mission – whether it is for providing protection to someone, intelligence gathering or conducting a raid on a drug manufacturing plant in the deep jungles of “some Latin American country”. Gun fight is a small part of the operations and in many cases the work is to be done under absolute secrecy – a small mistake can jeopardize the whole mission and endanger the lives of people. The danger is not only from armed enemies but can be from nature too.

McNab has also written about the difference in nature of the people in the SAS, the wild parties, the different arms and ammunitions used by them etc. In short he has tried to give a complete picture of the SAS.

At times, the writer tries to be funny too e.g. he has made fun of his own academic aptitude.
The parts about his string of divorces owing to his obsession with his work is a bit annoying but this man is writing down his memoir so I understand a little bit about his personal life would be there.

I was expecting a small section on his mission in Iraq but it was not there. This may be because it is the subject matter of “Bravo Two Zero”.

Overall, it is a decent read if you are interested in this sort of non-fiction books. If you want some great gun fights and action then you are better off with a Frederick Forsyth or Robert Ludlum novel.

[Stewart Cotterill · Rating 5 out of 5]

As realistic an account of real life pre his selection for the SAS as you're ever likely to get in an autobiography, every word making you realise the day to day existence of someone brought up in the 60s and 70s in Britain.

The stories of selection make you exhausted just reading them and the missions are as non glamorous as you could possibly imagine. This is not the world of James Bond or John Wayne.

I really enjoyed reading this, as you can probably tell, by the fact it only took three days to read!

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - Dutch paperback

Review follows later. Lente it out to a neighbour.

[Arun Divakar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Special Forces ever since I came to understand them has been a source of fascination for me. The fact that a handful of soldiers could inflict deeper damage into ant enemy's heart than a conventional military force is nothing sort of a brilliant albeit successful idea. I had heard of McNab from the Bravo Two Zero legend (which interestingly i am yet to read) and Immediate Action was in fact called a stepping stone for B2Z.

The book sketches the career of McNab from the time when he was a juvenile delinquent to when he joins the Army and fights the IRA in South Armagh. He moves on to other missions and at a later point of time gets attracted to the SAS, nicknamed The Regiment. Following this are detailed descriptions of the selection and training for the regiment. SAS is known world over as the most elite special forces team and the answer to anybody's question of why can be found in this book, the recruits go through the most gruelling physical and mental exercises to prove their mettle. The need for such paramount standards are understood as we go deeper into the environments that the team has to operate in. McNab details on the various methods of training they undertake whether it be in the Jungle,Desert or Urban terrain.

SAS had been a team shrouded in mystery until McNab and Chris Ryan came forth with their expositions. Being able to place themselves one step ahead of "competition", it is my belief that the ways of the regiment would have advanced far from the times of McNab. The book is throughly in soldier lingo, there are countless acronyms and the action is not hollywood ish. Before even a single shot is fired, there are countless planning and recce exercises that would drive a quick action fan crazy. As one officer rightly points out the regiment aims to create perfect soldiers, ones who can see both sides of the coin.

For those who have read the review till this far, you would know all this comes from someone neck deep in interest of warfare of the covert kind. The book sure has its drag points, the highest ranking would go for the author describing his failed marriages. We are treated through strings and strings of failed marriages. The focus is entirely on the operations of a squadron of SAS members in various parts of the world. Needless to say, all other things are sidelined.

Recommendations is not something i would make for this book, for it is my feel that this is purely an interest oriented book. For someone not specifically interested in military writing, this would prove to be a very dry read indeed with a lot of slang and wry humor. But if you do have the time to spare, give it a shot...

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!

Although I was never in the Regiment, I did serve in the infantry around the same time as the author and as you would expect with a diminishing list of destinations at that time, served in almost all of the locations described in the book.

I guess this was the main reason I found this book so compelling and identified with it so well.

[Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the subject matter--an autobiography of an SAS soldier up to Desert Storm--you would expect one of two things: a) insightful commentary about the SAS, its methods, its role in the world, and it's interrelationship with Thatcherian policies, or b) a great escapist thriller with lots of action, whether interpersonal or military.

Given the lurid cover Bantam/Dell gave the mass market edition ("The explosive true story..." "The controversial book the British government tried to suppress!" "Dares to expose some of their highly confidential codes and rules--including the one that sanctions murder"), you would expect the latter.

Oddly, you'd be wrong on both counts. There is really only one in-depth military operation in the book. All the rest are glossed over, although training runs are discussed. Much of the covered time is similarly glossed-over. Which year a section occurs in is rarely revealed, even, and some back-and-forth is played with sequence.

Probably much to the publicist's dismay, Andy McNab doesn't seem to have wanted to write a thriller. The major theme of the book is his string of failed marriages; we're never really let into the marriages to see them, but that seems appropriate since his inattention to his wives and the amount of fun he was having at work was the cause of the first three failed relationships. The cost to his personal life is visible in every section, and he points out that many other soldiers have similar problems (as do emergency response professions), but he also points out successful relationships among his friends.

McNab also takes us to the edge of analysis on political and social issues of military action, specifically North Ireland in the 70s, Beirut in the 80s, and British military drug interdiction in South America. But each time, he pulls away from actually giving an opinion. He reports other peoples' opinions and demonstrates that "doing his job" is his virtue. Laudable, but the book leaves you feeling that he has more to say.

It's the same with his family situation. Even when he realizes how he's sabotaging his marriages he only knew how to apologize for it; the modern McNab can call himself a dickhead back then but he doesn't say what he would do now or what someone else could do in the same situation. The line, when he's just come back from overseas after missing the birth of his daughter, that he was so enchanted and so excited and so amazed and that he would only see her for a total of 12 weeks over the next two years is chilling, but I don't believe McNab means that to say "don't join the army."

This is a fun read if you like military procedurals. It's certainly light enough reading. It could have been really great, and I expect McNab had it in him to say something meaningful in this book. I can imagine many reasons why he might have refrained, but I wish he hadn't.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find with Andy McNab’s books that on average I enjoy every other one. Unfortunately this wasn’t one of the books that I enjoyed. The last one I read by McNab prior to this was ‘Bravo Two Zero’ which I thought was fantastic. Although a lot of reader think that the authors writing style adds to the authenticity of his books, I don’t think it lends itself particularly well to this autobiography. I felt that some of the operations weren’t described in any detail, which is unusual for an autobiography. I guess that he has some restrictions on what he can actually write about as some of his work has to be submitted to the MOD before publication but I am used to reading autobiographies with a bit more depth. Here everything felt as if it was being skimmed over and this doesn’t compare in any way with Bravo Two Zero.

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The way to evade dogs is to get on flat, open ground," the handler said. "If you start running along riverbeds, it just keeps the scent in those areas." "Running over a stream is lack shit use, too," he panted as we jogged along behind the dogs. "All the dog does is a thing called casting on the other side, and he'll pick up the scent again. If you get into a wide-open field, the scent is dispersed. You want to do a lot of zigzagging, which slows the dog down, makes it harder for him to pick up your scent."

blisters. The army was full of recipes for how to get rid of the things, but I had always found that the best thing was to pierce them at the edge with a needle sterilized in a flame, squeeze all the muck out, and just throw plaster over.

No one hassled us; all they would say was "Parade is twelve o'clock" and just expect us to be there. If we weren't, it must mean we didn't want to be there, so we could go.

"If you've got something' but you're not too sure whether you can eat it, you rub it on your skin and see if there is a reaction. Then you wait, and a couple of hours later rub it on your lips and see if there's a reaction, then on the tip of your tongue, then around your gums. Then you just taste a little bit, then eat a little bit, and ' if there's no reaction, you take the chance and eat it."

If the humidity is more than 75 percent, as it is in the jungle, the sweat evaporation isn't going to work. We were sweating loads, but the sweat wasn't evaporating. So the body heat was rising, and we were sweating even more. The way the body tries to get rid of that is by sending blood to the skin, so therefore the vessels have to increase in size. The heart rate increases, and sometimes it gets to a rate where its automotive function loses control and it starts to go all over the place. Less and less blood flows to the internal organs. It's shunted away from the brain, so the blood that goes there is going to be hot anyway. The brain doesn't like hot blood going to it, so it responds with headaches, dizziness, impaired thinking, and emotional instability. Because we were sweating so much, we were losing loads of electrolytes, sodium, and chlorides, and the result was dehydration. We were losing noncirculating body fluids.

The contents included a razor blade, a spare compass, water sterilizing tablets, matches and bits of magnesium block to start fires with, a magnifying glass, a heliograph, and a condom. This last piece of kit wasn't in case we got lucky on the top of the Black Mountains; a condom can be used to make a catapult, collect water in, or even as an emergency flotation device.

Belize, we were told at the briefing, was formerly the colony of British Honduras and lay on the Caribbean coast of Central America. About the size of Wales, it had a population of 170,000-mostly black English speakers-but there was also a growing number of Spanishspeaking refugees from El Salvador. In the eighteenth century the British in Jamaica had begun logging hardwood on the mainland. By 1840 the territory had become a colony. Guatemala claimed that it had inherited the territory from Spain but nevertheless signed a treaty with Britain in 1859, recognizing British sovereignty and agreeing on the border. However, a clause in the treaty stated that the parties had to build a road through the jungle from Guatemala to the Caribbean coast. The road had never happened, and on that basis Guatemala claimed that the 1859 treaty was invalid. The government even inserted a clause into the 1945 constitution stating that British Honduras was in fact part of Guatemala, much as the Argentinians had with the Falklands. In the 1960s, as other British colonies in the Caribbean moved toward independence, Guatemala turned up the heat. In 1963 it massed troops along the border, and Britain sent forces to repel any invasion. British troops had been there ever since. In 1972 Guatemala had again assembled troops along the border, and this time Britain sent the Ark Royal and several thousand men. In 1975, after yet another threat, we installed a squadron of R.A.F Harriers. Finally, in 1980, Guatemala agreed to recognize Belize, but only if the famous road was built. There were riots in Belize; people were killed. The treaty wasn't ratified, and Guatemala went back to refusing to recognize its neighbor. Britain had kept a small garrison in Belize ever since as a permanent deterrent against incursions,

Most small machine guns work on the blowback principle, where the working parts come forward to initiate a round, and the gases then push back the working parts, which stay to the rear unless you pull the trigger again. The Heckler & Kochs are more reliable and have an excellent rate of fire. And they're British, of all things, Heckler and Koch being part of British Aerospace. Another good feature of the MP5 is its three-round burst capability, so every time you squeeze the trigger, it just fires three rounds. Release the trigger, squeeze it again, it'll just fire three rounds. It's the first three to five rounds that are most effective on any automatic weapon.

[Demien Hieriem · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book reveals that even killer elite squads like the Regiment are afraid of a hippopotamus.

[Steven Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most students of Western special operations are aware of the ill-fated Bravo Two Zero patrol during the Persian Gulf War. Pseudonyms such as Chris Ryan (The One That Got Away: My SAS Mission Behind Enemy Lines) and Andy McNab (Bravo Two Zero) became household names in the late 1990s and onward, each of them telling their version of the events of that operation, and successfully transitioning into fiction and popular media.

McNab's second non-fiction book, Immediate Action, details McNab's life growing up in southern London, getting into all sorts of trouble before deciding to straighten up and enlist in the British Army. We see McNab's time as a Royal Green Jacket, including his deployment to Northern Ireland and his first kill, before deciding to take a shot at the famed 22nd Special Air Service Regiment.

From the bleary streets of Belfast, in the sweltering jungles of Malaya, across the savannahs of Botswana, to the rainforests of an unnamed Latin American nation, McNab takes us across the length of his career with the Regiment. We see it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. At times, it reads like the kind of thriller Hollywood wishes it could produce; at others, the reader is treated to comedy that will leave them chortling, particularly if they are a veteran themselves.

I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to get a glimpse behind the curtain of the Western world's most renowned special operations unit.

[Filip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Immediate Action is memoir od Andy McNab, a former S. A. S soldier. McNab gives very vivid account on his life as young deliquent, to a soldier in Green Jackets and finaly his service to the most elite unit in the world. First few chapters are about his youth, next is him joining army and best part of the book is his account of grueling six months of S.A.S training and latter parts are about actions he saw all across the world as a commando.
S.A.S always fascinated me, they are best there is in the army sense of the word. There is so much mistery serounding the unit and McNab gives very grounded story of the s.a.s, they are normal regular guys who took their calling to the next level. I was suprised how much book demistifies s.a.s and describes them as regular unit.
Later parts of the book describe actions taken by the S.A.S accros the world like Beirut, Botsvana, Northen Ireland, jungles of Central America etc. They are episodic and rearly are connected with eachother.
When I read a memoirs I always wonder how does the author remmember so many details of so many events. Did he write the diary? Does he have photographic memory? He decribes his very explosive actions with so many vivid details that I can't belive how he remmembers them in the first place. Book is not without the flaws. It is too long in some parts, in other parts he gives so many tactical details that I had hard time making picture in my head and chapters are sometimes disjointed because of that. But they are small flaws, overal book is fantastic and for all who love military memoirs this is must read.

[Thu Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually, I'm not an army aficionado. I haven't watched any of the Mission Impossibles by Tom Cruise, that's how much I care for the thriller genre in general. My interest in this book is purely to read about a real person's experience in a different walk of life. And I think I've got exactly that out of this book. All the long descriptions of training and planning and drinking tea while waiting for who-knows-what in who-knows-where make this soldiering journey sounds like just any other job, because that's what it is for this person. Besides, the tone of this book is not far from stories I've read from oil riggers who worked in isolated places and messed up countries. Oil, drugs, and wars do go hand in hand in this world after all.

This book was first published in 1995 and the author recounted his life up to the start of the First Gulf War in 1990. I have to keep reminding myself that the author was only in his 20s through all of this. He briefly outlined his childhood and early training in the infantry in the first few chapters. Luckily there was not much of that because I have read it all in his other book Today Everything Changes. And of course, the event he is most famous for, Brave Two Zero, is not touched here, so readers are safe from any spoiler.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andy McNab's IMMEDIATE ACTION is his successor to BRAVO TWO ZERO, although it's actually set before that infamous mission in Iraq. This one's an autobiographical account of McNab's days as a delinquent kid, before he joined the army, saw action against the PIRA in Northern Ireland, and eventually joined the Regiment (aka the SAS). The book then follows McNab through a couple of detailed missions and a whole lot of training.

Although it's a lengthy book, this is inevitably a fast read due to the amount of detailed action it contains. You get a sense of the bravado and camaraderie needed to become a soldier, and there's certainly a level of gritty realism you don't get in fictional books. Most of the time, being a special forces soldier means hanging around a lot, either at base or in the field, and that kind of frustration and boredom comes across well too. Most of the characters don't come across as being very nice (the author included), but then they're not doing very nice jobs, either. The most exciting mission is the closing one, which takes place in South America against a drug cartel, and it's quite brilliantly described.

[Scott Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

very goodmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmjmmmmgjngbjngbnvbbvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttsssssssssssssssssssssssssssjhdfjagjarglkuaailerfguaeirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreg

[Lucy Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this before and it's a gripping read. The reader is spared nothing about the hardships of Army Selection, and the truth about working in the Special Forces and what it takes from you. McNab's honesty is searing, and the book rattled lots of people in high up places when it came out, back in 1995. I can understand why, considering the sensitivity of The Troubles described, and the knife-edge on which the British Army balanced while stationed in Northern Ireland. To be a Special Forces soldier, stamina, obedience, resilience, and duty are not enough. They expect massive amounts of patience, total dedication and the strength to sacrifice your life for your unit. McNab's honesty about operations that did not go to plan, or went disastrously wrong, make this a cut above other army memoirs. Of course, McNab's limits are tested to breaking point in Bravo Two Zero which is another worthy read.

[Sharon Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting autobiography. It was curious that he paints vivid pictures of scenes in jungles or other far off places of him being super brave and getting the job done etc while he glosses over relationships with anyone outside of the regiment.

He was certainly very focused on the regiment and keeping himself happy. After joining the army proper he barely mentions his parents. His many wives are just 2D bits of fluff to entertain him on the rare occasion when he's home.

I liked the insight into a world I will never see for myself but in a way I feel sad for Andy that he doesn't seem to have any emotional connection with humans outside of the regiment.

It makes me wonder if there had been women in the SAS could he have found someone he considered worth the effort of caring about?

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never read Bravo Two Zero but this book feels like because of the success of that book the author was approached to write a second book, but this one covering his life in the military service.

The start of the book was good and the time spent in Northern Ireland was interesting. But then the book went a bit flat, there was lot of building up to a big event only for the operation to be called off and everybody stood down.

The end of the book where he is in Latin America picked up again, but the last chapter made no sense.

[Occhi Aperti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting reading about the trials and tribulations of someone who makes it through the ultra difficult selection process of the SAS and then goes out into the field. The toll that the life takes on couples and individuals is well described. The operational logistics at the end will make anyone interested in details take notice. if you want to know the reality vs the film version, read this book.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this even more than Bravo Two Zero probably because the scope of this book was farther reaching. McNab provides a good account of the training involved in becoming a Regiment member and the wide variety of missions they can be tasked with. He also reveals how difficult the strain on relationships can be for those who commit to a life in special ops.

[Dave Monds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Authentic, moving, funny

Such a great read. Authentic, funny, moving. One of, if not, the best memoirs of the British SAS. You can be fooled I thinking it was all a lark by the authors colloquial style but make no mistakes, these guys are true warriors, masters at their craft but still human underneath it all.

[Eddie Sotheby · Rating 5 out of 5]

The details of the life of a Special forces soldier have never been written in such detail before. The gruelling training, the special assignments that led to the elimination of people ordered by high ranking government officials, has never been disclosed in such detail before. A very interesting read.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to this on Audible - this definitely had some interesting moments, my one complaint is that there seemed to be gaps with no good transition - one minute he was in one part of the world and the next a different part so it was hard to follow along at times.
Overall, this guy has had some interesting experiences, and so enjoyed hearing about them.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slow start

To be honest, I didn’t like this book with reading the first few chapters but then it changed. There’s an insight into the author combined with the unique role of the SAS that is so compelling. A fantastic book!

[Monika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm to be honest I think this book is good for someone interested in army, being soldier and all training etc connected with it... For me was kinda boring, possibly because of used jargon (military).

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

CAPOLAVORO. Anzichè Tom Clancy... che al massimo avrà fatto il militare 40-50 anni fa... McNab, che è stato un grande soldato, superspecializzato e superaddestrato, racconta la sua storia nei Sas (ma non la fine, il libro finisce con la partenza in Iraq dove comincia la sua avventura + difficile, raccontata in Pattuglia Bravo Two Zero) in modo perfetto, ironico, molto dettagliato, avvincente. Ogni pagina del libro è farcita d'azione e di tipica ironia inglese e ci fa immaginare di essere lì con loro. Azione Immediata ci racconta moltissime curiosità, segreti, aneddoti della vita e dell'addestramento delle forze speciali che magari non avremmo mai immaginato. Volete il realismo? Volete l'ironia? Volete azione in ogni pagina del libro? Mettete da parte Tom Clancy e tutti gli altri e andate sul sicuro con Andy McNab.

[Endro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight on how the training is for the SAS commando. Great book with many details and the struggle to finish one of the hardest trainings in the world.

[Sergio · Rating 3 out of 5]

McNab ci fa vivere la sua esperienza nei SAS ai quattro angoli del mondo, sempre là dove l'atmosfera è più incandescente

[Peter J Manna III · Rating 5 out of 5]

The follow-up to "Bravo Two Zero", "IA" provides more background into McNab's SAS career.

[Samuel Barwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it as much as his first book.

[This is V! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like all of His books , this story is quite amazing , knowing what they had to go through being in this regiment is already something quite amazing . Something worth reading