Customer Reviews

First Into Action: A Dramatic Personal Account of Life in the SBS

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The SBS (Special Boat Service) is Britain's Special Forces unit that corresponds to the U.S. Navy SEALs. It is not as well known as Britain's SAS (Special Air Service), and I must admit that I had never heard of it until I ran across one of Duncan Falconer's novels half a year ago.

Duncan Falconer was a member of the SBS for a dozen years from around 1975, getting in at age 19, the youngest ever for a new member. "First Into Action" is his personal account of his life in the SBS plus a bit about his childhood and his entering the British Royal Marines.

If you're really keen on books about Special Forces units and the men who serve in them then I can recommend "First Into Action". Duncan Falconer does tell it like it is, and the story is very interesting.

Readers who are not so fascinated with the reality of Special Forces will find this book less appealing.

The most powerful impression I got from reading this book is that the men of the SBS are a bunch of suicidal maniacs! (I exaggerate - please bear with me.)

Duncan Falconer spends most of this book describing three aspects of the SBS: how dangerous it is, how self-motivated and intrepid the members are, and how often things go totally wrong.

The selection procedure is described, and it becomes obvious that in order to become a member of the SBS you have to be willing to push yourself to the point of physical injury. And the instructors come across as sadists.

After you become a member of the SBS you spend a lot of time doing exercises (or "rehearsals", as they call them) to keep your skills up to snuff. High-altitude parachuting, submarine exits, climbing oil rigs during a violent storm, testing new weapons and explosives, diving in freezing water, descending from a helicopter onto a bucking ship, etc., etc. You name it, the SBS can do it, or die trying. And a lot of them do die trying.

In addition to the many deaths there are a large number of injuries, some that heal and some that result in being incapacitated, perhaps even ending up in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.

There are also an incredible number of screw-ups in the missions that the SBS is involved in that can be considered humorous. In fact, large portions of the book are written in a tongue-in-cheek tone that is intended to be a contrast to the serious and heroic books by former members of the SAS and other Special Forces units.

Speaking of the SAS, another theme of "First Into Action" is the rivalry between the SBS and the SAS. The title of the book refers to the claim that the SBS is always (or almost always) the first British military unit sent into any conflict, before the SAS or anyone else.

Duncan Falconer writes with scorn about several SAS missions that went awry, including the famous Bravo Two Zero during the first Iraq war, and the accidental killing of an SBS operative during the Falklands War.

On the back cover of the paperback edition I read it said that Mr. Falconer had a "leading role" in SBS operations in the Falklands. This isn't true. In the text of the book Duncan Falconer writes that he was not involved in the Falklands at all, although he recounts several stories about the SBS teams that were there.

Much of the book describes Mr. Falconer's personal experiences during his time in Northern Ireland combating the IRA. This is fairly interesting, but not the kind of work that most Special Forces fans prefer to read about.

A few final points: The book is too long in my opinion, and it suffers from there being no dates whatsoever for the various events that take place. It's nice that there is a glossary of the military terms and acronyms used - I referred to it fairly often.

In conclusion, this book will appeal to Special Forces fans because it's a very honest look at the SBS, one of the world's best Special Forces units. My three-star rating of "First Into Action" is largely due to it being outside my normal reading preferences. For me it was an OK read, but Mr. Falconer's novels ("The Hostage" and "The Hijack") are more to my taste - I give them both four stars.

Rennie Petersen

Great book, much better than I expected. Some reviewers say they are annoyed with the author's coldness, brevity and lack of detail of certain events but I think that's due in part to the need for confidentiality of those events. I was not bothered by it and did not feel like it detracted from the book. I thought it had a plethora of information and events were explained very thoroughly. If it was too DETAILED or too GENERAL then I would question it's authenticity. I like the anonymity of the SBS, as the author says, it makes their job easier. This is the book to read if you want to read about the SBS or even the SAS. I'm burned-out on all the SAS/SEAL hoopla and wanted something a little different. The SBS are not as well known as the SAS in Britain and even less so here in the US, I only found this book when I was unknowingly transferred to Amazon.uk. Great book.

This is one of my favourite books. The book is a great insight into probably the United Kingdoms most elite special forces unit, surpassing the much more well known SAS. Many activities attributed to the SAS are in fact conducted by the much less well known SBS. The SBS founded by Roger Courtney came into existence before the SAS and it was an SBS element that helped form part of the original SAS. The author describes some of the super human feats that these ordinary men achieve, such as leaving submarines through torpedo tubes, scaling and assaulting two hundred foot oil platforms after swimming there first and being transported on the outside of submarines whilst running the risk of being succked through the rear propellars!

This if the first "recent" account of the SBS that I've read (as opposed to older WW2 and immediate post-WW2 histories and books such as COCKLESHELL HEROESwhich, while interesting, are rather dated. By way of contrast, "First into Action" dates from the period around the Falklands War (early 1980's) through to the Gulf War and Bosnia (late 1990's) and as such is a "recent" account. And one that I really enjoyed. Falconer goes into quite a bit of detail about SBS selection and training, altho not to the same level of detail as you'll find in books about the US Navy SEALS.

There's not much detail on actual missions and exercises, but what he does tell you is quite riveting. That said, a good chunk of the book is actually taken up with accounts of his time spent with 14 Int Det in Northern Ireland in operations against the IRA/PIRA. Interesting, but you can read about Northern Ireland in any number of books and there's not much on the SBS in that part of the book. That would however be my only real quibble, and it's not much of one because even the Northern Ireland stuff is really interesting.

Falconer is a good writer, the book's a good read from start to finish and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to read up a bit on the SBS. He does take quite a few digs at the SAS, for reasons he points out in the book itself, but don't expect any revealing details about the SBS itself.

Great book. This is a first hand account of life in the little known Special Boat service. I had heard of the SBS, but very little is known about this counterpart of the SAS. Although there were somethings the author could not elaborate on, this is completely understandable due to security reasons. Having said that this is a great read on the author's personal experiences in the SBS. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about the british special forces who have a wealth of experience on the world's stage.

Others have already gone into detail about the subject matter of this book so I won't do a real review just reiterate that this book is a great piece of information on the little know or discussed SBS. Unlike many former SF or SO authors Mr. Falconer is not only informative but a entertaining author. If you have a chance check out his fiction. Each novel gets better and better.

A very interesting book about a mysterious British special forces unit. I've read some books about the SAS but I must admit that I hadn't heard about the SBS before.

First Into Action: A Dramatic Personal Account of Life in the SBS
This is truly one of the most incredible insights into the real world workings of a unique Special Forces unit, which known to the public, however receives little attention. The author of the book, is an ex-SBS Opertive who shares his own experiences; most are extremly amazing feats of human courage. However, some are very sad and leave the reader pondering questions, such as, "how would I have handled this?". This is a truly must read for anyone interested in Special Operations, especially from a view outside our (United States) armed forces!

Not nearly as detailed as a lot of other books of this true stories of the special forces genre, but interesting none-the-less. I would recommend it to people (like me) who have never read about or heard of the SBS. It's a fairly quick read and won't take up much of your time. Besides, the author has some pretty amusing anecdotes.

Being an x bootneck and having little knowledge of the sbs. I jumped at the chance to read this. I loved it from start to finish. Read it in two days. Interesting funny loved the characters. The bit i found really interesting was when he was sent to 42 cdo. I was in 40 cdo and met an sbs guy who was sent to our unit for eighteen months. He said very little about their training but brought untold amount of experience to our troop.