As Rommel is about to overrun Tobruk, Stirling ignores ill preparation and a disastrous weather forecast, so no surprise only 22 of his 55 initial SAS men survive the parachute dropping and during and flood after the storm. For lack of a proper procedure for a nocturnal meeting, distinguishing from the enemy, boisterous singing and stripping starkers has to do. These probably had got lost without crafty jeep leader Mike Sadler, who first leads them to a ruin fit as camp, then helps them steal equipment from an Anzac regiment and finally brings them to three Italo-German airfields. Jack has a field days as his self-designed Lewes-bombs are fixed and Paddy, near-suicidal after his mate's fatal parachute crash, leads a machine-gun-attack on enemy pilots and crew. It's a resounding success, which delights colonel Dudley Wrangel Clarke and impresses both Cairo HQ and French spy Eve Mansour.
—KGF Vissers