Special Forces - who's the best?

Personal account of the bravo two zero by Mike Coburn. This is the book the British Government tried to ban

www.scoop.co.nz... gives a brief detail of the book.

Should be able to get it in oz if not you can get it from whitcoulls New Zealand and sent over.

Damn good read.

I remember hearing about this. This guy who wrote this went through the courts and everything to get his story published. Been looking for this one for a while but could never remember the name of it. Thanks.

If you wanted a single unit who could do all those above described tasks you would pick the Australian SAS.

[edit on 13-5-2005 by JonDolshenko]

Dont start this mate, the ASAS are very good yes, no one is stateing that but there is no "best" SF.

Can we vote this thread the most boring/simple yet longest thread ever

TEAM AMERICA!!!

They are the best and now this thread is no longer boring.

There was an exact same thread as this posted back in 2002 by mad scientist, it had roughly the same number of posts but was moved to BTS

Without a doubt....British SAS. Even a SEAL would admit that. They go through training where men are expected to die. No joke. They will TRAIN in areas that being caught could mean war. These guys are the standard by which SEALs Delta and the rest are built from. The SAS is the toughest fighting force on earth. SEALs and Delta are awesome, but the Brits pretty much invented the modern special ops game. Or so I have heard.

not to be bias, i personally think that the british s.a.s. / s.b.s are the best special forces in the world.

there are many sf's out there and i wont dismiss any of them as the troops who fight for their sf are all top athletes and are all well trained but as i have read in other posts what we have to remember is that these men/women are all previously only normal troops that have gone through rigerous training and all need to be recognised as special. I personally would't like to mess with any of them when it comes to the crunch but am also happy to know they are there in time of need. I say all are special but will always believe the best of the best are the british s.a.s/s.b.s

these are a recognised force throughout the world, and like many are proven in combat either at home or on other duties, they do work alongside the u.s special forces to whom the british have made a deep relationship with. obviously people are going to say that their country has the best and it will be one that will never be proven it is a good question without doubt but will be one never properly answered ,sorry.

to all the members of any special forces team or any other force out there who may read this forum my heart goes out to you in those awful hours of combat (been there) and for those that have not ,please take a minute to recognise these people and save a thought for them and their loved ones who may not see them again

to D and Rogue1

it sounds like you love your book reading i have read a few and thought you both may like these two in paticular :

Sniper One
www.amazon.co.uk...

and

The Nemesis Files
www.amazon.co.uk...=sib_rdr_dp

have read both and are truly a brilliant read hope you enjoy them if you get them

Excellent book, gives great account of what a what a company of PWRR had to endure in 2004 in Al Amarah. If you want a real account of one of the biggest trouble spots in Iraq, give it a go.



Quite possibly the biggest load of tosh I've ever read. Pure fiction peddled as fact from some Royal Engineer Wannabe who wanted to make a name for himself. Might pass a couple of hours if you look at it as fiction.

i hear alot about the foreign legion,are they counted as special forces?,do they have a special forces section?.

im curious about them,are they as good as their myth suggests?.

I WOULD SAY delta . but marines and 82 airborne both suck i have been getting in fights with both since i was 15 and have yet lost one.

I say its the Japanese Ninja's, they have stealth using smokebombs, they can shoot you with poisonous darts and they can lick your finger which is very dangerous because Ninja's have trained their tongue for 10 years atleast meditating under cold Tibetan Waterfalls in winter without any clothes for protection making their tongues as hard as titanium steel. Look out!

[edit on 12-12-2007 by drexciya]

The French Foreign Legion is usually not considered a "special force". 99% of the material out there about the Legion is utter nonsense. They are well trained, but no more so than any conventional infantry unit (or, in the case of 2rep, airborne infantry).

Google Video has up a whole documentary on them that originally aired on the Discovery Channel. It is entitled, "Warriors of the French Foreign Legion". It makes for some interesting watching. They interview an American recruit and film a good deal of training. Some of the members posting in this thread will doubtlessly find the documentary an enjoyable way to spend 50 minutes.

The best special forces are the ones you don't hear about or know exist. Why? You typically only hear about a unit's failures, not it's successes. How do most people know about Delta? Somalia.

That said, the CIA Special Activities Division probably ranks very highly. You rarely hear about them. The last time they were in the news was when Mike Spann was killed in A-stan. Everything about them is a mystery, which means they rarely get caught doing whatever it is that they do.

[edit on 12-12-2007 by Grozny07]

I would have to say the S.A.S and S.B.S simply due to the nature of their roles and what is expected of them.

Could they take on a huge contingent of enemy soldiers and win?

No... they would be the first to tell you that.

S.A.S, get in, achieve the objective and get the hell out, hoping you have not been seen.

Because they are only human and smart enough to realise it.

I normally don't like sticking up for SF units (I think they're over rated to be honest). However I would suggest that they can take on larger enemy forces if required fo short periods, if only to withdraw.

An excellent example would be the Battle of Mirbat in Oman on 19 July, 1972. Here a 10 man section of SAS who were working as a training team along with a small contingent of local troops defended a position against 250 Adoo rebels until relieved by a further 22 members of G-Sqn, who attacked the Adoo from the rear, defeating their rear-guard. 2 Of the defending troopers died and 2 others were seriously wounded.

[edit on 13-12-2007 by PaddyInf]

Paddy, I remember it well. I was 12 miles down the road at Salalah and we were put on standby to go and reinforce them. As it turned out, we were not needed.

The 'Battle of Mirbat' as this action is known, clearly demonstrated that a handful of professional and well motivated soldiers are more than equal to the task holding their own against an assumed 'rag-tag' army of guerillas.

To their credit, the Ado had just about done everything right - the approach march, the taking of the old Askari Fort on the little hill overlooking the Mirbat fishing port and forming up to carry out the assault.

I believe about 600 Ado actually carried out the attack and one should point out that although the SAS (BATT ) team came up trumps, it was an extremely close run thing.

The Ado managed to get close enough to throw grenades at Tobin and Laba in the 25 Pdr gun pit and it was shortly after this that a couple of BAC Strikemasters rocketed and straffed the Ado who were closing rapidly on the BATT house.

This broke the attack and far from routing, the Ado apparently withdrew in good order, taking the majority of their wounded with them.

As to posters saying that special operations forces cannot take on a larger enemy force and win, I suggest people read a book by 'Tanky' Challenor - 'SAS and the Met'.

Most certainly NOT!

The very idea is most repugnant.

The title should go to 'Threadkillers Anonymous' which can be found in the hallowed pages somewhere within a dark, dank and cobweb strewn cellar that is BTS.

What on earth would the Great Green Very Special Dragon Lady Duzy say?

Maybe you would know,.... is it true that 1st SFOD-D(CAG) recruits from the Navy and the Air Force in addition to the Army?