A HISTORY OF MODERN MERCENARY WARFARE

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Explores the development and role of modern mercenary forces from the British SAS-led deniable operation in Yemen in late 1960's, during which the Israelis were persuaded to arm the SAS-led Yemeni tribesmen; through the bush wars in Africa; Britain's ill fated intervention in the war in Afghanistan; right up to today's War in Ukraine.

Many of the modern-day British mercenaries were known to the author personally, including such notable figures as the SAS Fijian warrior 'Tak' Takevesia, who, although in his early sixties, shot his way out of an ambush in Baghdad; Fred 'Big Fred' Mrafano, who devoted himself to the cause of the people of Sierra Leone; SAS veteran Bill Scully, who received the Queen's Gallantry Medal, single-handedly protected 1,300 civilians from rebel troops during an uprising in May 1997 after the Sierra Leone coup; and American Vietnam veteran Major 'Mac' Mackenzie, who although badly wounded in Vietnam, rose from trooper to command a Rhodesian SAS squadron and was one of the units most highly decorated soldiers.