An authoritative and definitive history of the first fifty years of The Parachute Regiment fron an author who has served with both the Paras and the SAS. This book tells the story of the beginnings of the Regiment as a response to the German blitzkreig in 1940. Impressed by the daring of the fallschirmjagerWinston Churchill sought to create a similar force to supplement the actions of the British Army and Airforce. The first and most famous of the early raids-on Bruneval in 1942-is detailed alongside the ill-fated assault in Holland in September 1944 that established The Parachute Regiment as an elite force. the postwar period they have gone on to prove their worth in Suez, Malaya, the Falkland Islands and Northern Ireland.