Are you tough enough? The image of the special forces in british popular culture, 1939–2004
2005; Routledge; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01439680500064918
ISSN1465-3451
AutoresMark Connelly, David R. Willcox,
Tópico(s)World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgments Mark Connelly teaches History at the University of Kent, Canterbury. His publications include Reaching for the Stars: a new history of Bomber Command in World War Two (2000); The Great War: memory and ritual (2001); and We Can Take It! Britain and the memory of the Second World War (2004). David R. Willcox recently completed his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Kent, Canterbury on propaganda in the British national press during the 1990–1991 Gulf War and Kosovo 1999. An adaptation of this research, entitled Propaganda, the Press and Conflict, is to be published in May 2005. Notes Orde Wingate was a proponent of irregular warfare. After the fall of Burma, he advocated the use of mobile columns deployed deep behind Japanese lines which would interdict and harass the enemy. Outspoken, visionary and neurotic, many in the British military establishment remained sceptical about his ideas. However, he managed to convince Churchill and Wavell of his plan and led two expeditions (the troops were known as Chindits). On the second of these expeditions he was killed in an aircraft accident. Historians and survivors of the Burma campaign have debated the military effect of his operations fiercely since 1945. See David Rooney, Military Mavericks, Extraordinary Men of Battle (London, 1999), pp. 185–208. See Roy Jenkins, Churchill (Basingstoke, 2001), pp. 629–641. John Keegan (ed.), Churchill's Generals (London, 1991), p. 5. John W. Gordon, ‘Wingate’, in Keegan (ed.), Churchill's Generals, p. 283. See Stephen Badsey, ‘British High Command and the Reporting of the Campaign’, in Brian Bond and Michael Taylor (eds.), The Battle of France and Flanders Sixty Years On (Barnsley, 2001), pp. 137–158. The term ‘Guilty Men’ was coined by the journalists Frank Owen, Michael Foot and Peter Howard and used as the title for their co-authored work (under the pen name of ‘Cato’). The term referred to Chamberlain and his fellow appeasers whose actions, they alleged, had ensured that Britain had blundered into war unprepared in terms of both equipment and attitude. The book was published in 1940 and was an immediate bestseller in the highly charged atmosphere of the time. See Malcolm Smith, Britain and 1940: history, myth and popular memory (London, 2000). For details about Low's life and career, see Colin Seymour-Ure, David Low (London, 1985). See Home Intelligence Weekly Reports, 28 May–4 June 1941, 11–18 June 1941, 18–24 February 1942, INF 1/292, National Archives (hereafter NA). Daily Mirror, 20 August 1942. British Gaumont, 27 April 1942. See Pathé Gazette, Issue 42/39, 14 May 1942; British Movietone, Issue 684, 13 July 1942; Issue 715A, 18 February 1943; British Gaumont, Issue 972, 29 April 1943. Gordon Holman, Commando Attack (London, 1942), p. 140. Daily Express, 30 December 1941. Ministry of Information, Combined Operations, 1940–1942 (London, 1943), pp. 15–21. Daily Express, 31 March 1942. See Angus Calder, The People's War (London, 1969), p. 289. Pathé Gazette, Issue 42/85, 22 October 1942. For a discussion of the Ministry of Information's role, see Ian McLaine, The Ministry of Morale: home morale and the ministry of information in World War Two (London, 1979). Pathé Gazette, Issue 42/2, 5 January 1942. Daily Express, 30 March 1942. Holman, Commando Attack, p. 53. Daily Express, 1 April 1942. See Graham Dawson, Soldier Heroes: British adventure, empire and the imagining of masculinities (London, 1994). Rowland Walker, Commando Captain (London, 1942), pp. 1–17. Alan Bennett, Forty Years On (London, 1969), p. 33. For a survey of this material, see Michael Paris, Warrior Nation: images of war in British popular culture 1850–2000, Reaktion Books, (London, 2000), pp. 186–221. Pathé Gazette, Issue 42/2, 5 January 1942. See, for example, Pathé Gazette, Issue 42/34, 27 April 1942; British Gaumont, Issue 867, 27 April 1942; Daily Mirror, 21 August 1942. For a discussion of the public school in British culture, see Jeffrey Richards, The Happiest Days: the public schools in English fiction (Manchester, 1988). Pathé Gazette, Issue 42/34, 27 April 1942. Pathé Gazette, Issue 42/47, 11 June 1942. Pathé Gazette, Issue 42/19, 5 March 1942. The Dieppe raid was a full-scale combined operation to capture and hold the port of Dieppe for a strictly limited period in order seriously to disrupt German communications and troop concentrations as well as provide lessons for a future invasion force. The raid turned into a blood disaster, although the lessons derived from the experience were invaluable. For a study of the Dieppe raid, see Ronald Atkin, Dieppe 1942: the Jubilee Disaster (London, 1980). Daily Express, 21 August 1942. Daily Mirror, 21 August 1942. See Basil Liddell Hart, The British Way in Warfare (London, 1932). Daily Mirror, 7 March 1941. A. B. Austin, We Landed at Dawn (London, 1943), p. 126. Ibid., p. 20. Such responses in wartime Britain may also provide evidence to support Martin Wiener's thesis that from the late nineteenth century British society and culture increasingly shrank away from the realities of modernity. Martin Wiener, English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit (Cambridge, 1981). For a discussion of these themes, see Mark Connelly, We Can Take It! Britain and the memory of the Second World War (London, 2004). Daily Mirror, 7 March 1941. British Gaumont, Issue 867, 27 April 1942. Daily Express, 30 March 1942. Daily Express, 30 December 1941. Pathé Gazette, Issue 42/47, 11 June 1942. Daily Express, 2 March 1942. Daily Mirror, 21 August 1942. See Siân Nicholas, ‘War Report (BBC 1944–45) and the Birth of the BBC War Correspondent’, in David Welch and Mark Connelly (eds.), The Management of Perception: war and reportage 1900–2000 (London, 2004). Quoted in James Chapman, The British at War: cinema, state and propaganda, 1939–1945 (London, 1998), p. 141. Ibid., p. 102. David Fraser, And We Shall Shock Them: the British Army in the Second World War (London, 1983), pp. 95–96. Eighth Army Psychiatric Memorandum, no date, but appears to be winter 1944, WO 204/6724, NA. See, for example, The Times, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, 7 June 1944. Michael Paris, Warrior Nation, p. 231. Ibid. Battle annual (London, 1977, 1984); Commando (Dundee, 1961–); Victor Book for Boys annual (Dundee, 1979–1990); Warlord annual (Dundee, 1985); War Picture Library (London 1958–). See John Ramsden, Refocusing ‘The People's War’: British war films of the 1950s, Journal of Contemporary History, 33, 1 (1998), pp. 35–64. Ibid., p. 52. See S. P. Mackenzie, British War Films 1939–1945 (London, 2001), pp. 129–164. See Roger Wilmut (ed.), The Complete Beyond the Fringe (London, 1987). See Officers and Gentlemen (London, 1955). Commando (Windfall Films for Channel 4, 2002). The influence of the SAS on the course of events in the war, in John Newsinger, Dangerous Men: The SAS and popular culture (London, 1997), argues the achievements of the SAS are largely a myth, with reputation exceeding military effectiveness. David Thomas, ‘The Importance of Commando Operations in Modern Warfare 1939–82’, Journal of Contemporary History, 18, 4 (October 1983), pp. 689–717, agrees that no commando operation has made an indispensable contribution to the success of the conventional army. Conversely and unsurprisingly histories of the regiment, such as Philip Warner, The Special Air Service (London, 1971), have sought to enhance its reputation. For details, see Tony Geraghty, Who Dares Wins: The story of the SAS 1950–1980 (London, 1981); John Strawson, A History of the SAS Regiment (London, 1986); and Warner, The Special Air Service. D. Faul and R. Murray, SAS Terrorism: the assassin's glove (Dungannon, 1976), p. 4. For an account of the siege, see D. Trelford (ed.), Siege: six days at the Iranian Embassy (London, 1980). ‘SAS Rescuers Celebrate a Successful Mission’, The Times, 7 May 1980. ‘The End of the Siege’, Guardian, 6 May 1980. ‘Secrets of the Last 11 Minutes’, The Sunday Times, 11 May 1980. Who Dares Wins (Rank Organisation Film Productions Ltd, 1982). P. de la Billiere, Looking For Trouble: SAS to Gulf Command: the autobiography (London, 1995), p. 344. Ibid., p. 345. Dawson, Soldier Heroes, p. 254. Resurrected (St Pancras Film, 1988). Tumbledown (BBC, 1989). For a discussion of films and the Falklands, see J. Walsh, ‘There’ll Always Be An England’: the Falklands Conflict on film, in J. Aulich (ed.), Framing The Falklands War: nationhood, culture and identity (Buckingham, 1992), pp. 33–49. For Queen and Country (Working Titles Film, 1988). He joined the SAS in 1956, became Commander 22nd SAS in 1972 and Director of the SAS in 1978. For full details, see de la Billiere, Looking For Trouble. P. de la Billiere, Storm Command: a personal account of the Gulf War (London, 1992). Ibid., Chapter Ten, North-West Passage, pp. 235–249. C. Ryan, The One That Got Away (London, 1995). de la Billiere, Storm Command, pp. 3–4. The central role technology played in defining the public's understanding of the war was exacerbated by the extended build-up to actual hostilities involving Coalition forces, notably the US and British. In the months between the Iraqi invasion and the commencement of Desert Storm (the air component of the allied campaign), the implementation of Desert Shield (the period when coalition forces were amassed for the defence of Saudi Arabia but which soon adopted an offensive capability; the third and final element of the conflict, the ground assault, was known as Desert Sabre—these are the US terms while British activities came under the title of Operation Granby) provided little in the way of compelling news material. Increasingly the media focused upon the military hardware and capabilities of the Coalition forces. When hostilities eventually commenced some of the earliest events dominating the news agenda were also concerned with technology. Thus, the screens and newspapers were filled with the ‘battle’ between Scud and Patriot missiles as well as the awe-inspiring precision of cruise missiles. Combined with the ability to transmit virtually instantaneously from the Middle East, the Gulf War has developed a reputation as a watershed in the role technology has to play in war and war reporting. On 13 February 1991 the Amiriya shelter in Baghdad was destroyed by Coalition bombing with the death of over 300 civilians. Coalition military and political leaders were annoyed by the media outcry about the incident, but undoubtedly it was due in a large part to their own reliance upon relaying the accuracy of their weapons to the public, both domestic and international, in order to obtain and sustain support for their intervention. For a discussion of these issues during the Gulf War and other conflicts, see, among others, S. Carruthers, The Media at War: communication and conflict in the 20th century (Basingstoke, 2000); P. Taylor, War and the Media: propaganda and persuasion in the Gulf War (Manchester, 1998); and M. Ignatieff, Virtual War: Kosovo and beyond (London, 2000). This is not to say the SAS are immune from discussions concerning their own employment of technology. On 16 December 2003 the telegraph.co.uk website and the Mirror newspaper of the following day revealed that the SAS had been issued with a new Israeli weapon known as the ‘Corner Shot’ system which could literally shoot around corners. Perhaps the only other book of a similar ilk not concerning the SAS to come out of the Gulf War was Tornado Down, written by Flight Lieutenants John Peters and John Nicol. The Tornado crew were shot down over Iraq in January 1991 and captured, their pictures transmitted worldwide. It is possibly because of this television coverage, and hence worldwide knowledge of the existence of their story, that their book proved so popular. A. McNab, Bravo Two Zero (London 1994). As with Chris Ryan, McNab is a pseudonym. Newsinger, Dangerous Men, p. 4. Dawson, Soldier Heroes, p. 254. Newsinger, Dangerous Men, p. 143. de la Billiere, Storm Command, p. 18. The One That Got Away (1996); and Bravo Two Zero (1999). Such videos include The SAS (1993); Britain's Secret Warriors: SAS – SBS – Pathfinders (1994); SAS: the complete soldier's story (1996); SAS: weapons and training (1996); The Story of the SAS (1999). The Elite Fighting Forces series includes films on the Green Berets (US), Spetsnaz (Russia), Royal Marine Commandos and the SAS. Playing an SAS Hero Made Me Proud … I’m in Awe of Them, Sun, 14 September 2002. SAS Fitness, Sun, 23 October 2003. Which include Whisper Who Dares (Sevenoaks 1982); The Fifth Hostage (Sevenoaks, 1983); and Rogue Element (London, 1998). SAS Teaches Students to Survive Gap Year Perils, Observer, 8 June 2003, www.observer.guardian.co.uk. Such books include J. Wiseman, The SAS Self-Defence Handbook: a complete guide to unarmed combat techniques (London, 1986); B. Davies, SAS Self Defence (Glasgow, 1997); T. White, Fighting Skills of the SAS and Special Forces (London, 1997). SAS Wages War on Estate Yobs, Sun, 23 February 2002. M. Coburn, Soldier 5: the real story of the Bravo Two Zero mission (Edinburgh, 2004). Coburn's story was also retold in the press: The Iraqi Officer's Eyes Bored Into Mine With Cold Hatred. ‘How Much More Blood Do You Think You Can Lose?’, Mail on Sunday, 8 February 2004. M. Asher, The Real Bravo Two Zero: the truth behind Bravo Two Zero (London, 2002). To The Ends of the Earth: the real Bravo Two Zero, Channel 4, 20 May 2002. In the book Asher argues Ryan branded Phillips incompetent, unprofessional and even cowardly. Asher points out McNab was less scathing but believes he still hinted at Phillips’ responsibility for the patrol splitting, because of his ‘numbed brain’. What Asher fails to point out is McNab's initial reference to Phillips in which he mentions his enthusiasm at the prospect of working with him, as well as his usefulness to the patrol. The argument surfaced in the press when the father of Vince Phillips attacked Chris Ryan's film The One That Got Away for its depiction of his son: Sun, Family's Fury at TV Insult to Dead SAS Son; Ex-Comrade Blasted Over ‘Nervous Weakling’ Taunt, 17 February 1996; and again four years later: Chris Ryan, I Didn’t Set Out to Hurt Vince's Family. The Film is an Albatross Round My Neck, Mirror, 9 November 2000. Peter Ratcliffe, Eye of the Storm: twenty-five years in action with the SAS (London, 2000), attacked what he saw as the embellishment of facts by some previous SAS writers; SAS Author Attacks War Accounts, Guardian Unlimited, www.guardian.co.uk, 5 October 2000. Asher, The Real Bravo Two Zero, p. 248. 12 SAS Men Fought Off Hundreds of Serbs, Mirror, 2 August 1999. Publishers Offer È1m Bounty for SAS Tales of Action, www.telegraph.co.uk, 9 December 2001. The Battle of the Books, www.observer.guardian.co.uk, 16 March 2003. SAS Team Held in Syria, Daily Mirror, 29 April 2003. Heroes of SBS Rescued in Syria, Sun, 29 April 2003. Two SBS Survive Ambush, Desert Trek and Syria Jail, The Times, 29 April 2003. £1m Tale of SBS Escape, Mirror, 30 April 2003. SAS Gagged; Life Ban on Books that Spill Secrets, Sun, 4 October 1996. Figures taken from SAS Storms in with 4m for BBC2, Guardian Unlimited, media.guardian.co.uk, 4 March 2002. For an example, see Making of an SAS Hero, Daily Mirror, 3 May 1996. The desire to understand all aspects of SAS life is epitomised by the Sun in an article on 29 May 2000: Take a Tour of SAS HQ offers to show the readers ‘where Britain's finest and bravest soldiers learned how to kill’. Who Plays Wins; SAS Spice Up Video Games, Mirror, 16 October 2002. Wider Role for SAS in Radical Army Overhaul, Guardian Unlimited, 2 October 2001. Despite the 1999 Kosovo Conflict being fought by NATO solely from the air, the SAS were utilised to ‘talk in’ Harrier pilots looking for Serb targets: Sun, 15 April 1999. Within this ‘humanitarian’ war the SAS were also portrayed as the soldiers to ‘bring back evidence of wholesale massacre by Slobodan Milosevic’. SAS Ordered in to Expose Killers, Sunday Mirror, 16 May 1999; and reported again, SAS Men are Told: Get in and Nail the Butchers, Mirror, 14 June 1999. Wanted: 200 Brave Fighters Who Love the Glory But Don’t Mind the Low Pay; SAS Seeks New Heroes as its Soldiers Leave for High-Paid Jobs and go Private on Parade, Sunday Express, 3 March 2002. SAS Closing in; War on Terror; Rout of the Taliban, Sun, 15 November 2001. In this article the SAS is mentioned only once, yet the name dominates the headline. The Mirror similarly stated, SAS Ready to go in; Elite Soldiers have Bin Laden and Henchmen in Their Sights, 18 September 2001. Dropped into Hell; The Amazing Story the MOD Wanted Kept Secret, Sunday Mirror, 20 April 2003. Once again the memory of previous SAS activities in Iraq is invoked as the newspaper informs its readers the mission was ‘a near mirror-image of the ill-fated Bravo Two Zero mission’. Additional informationNotes on contributorsDavid R. WillcoxDavid R. Willcox, 30 Mountfield Rd, Ealing, London W5 2NG, UK. E-mail: davidrwillcox@hotmail.com
Referência(s)