Book excerpt: By early 1944 the tide of the war was flowing steadily against the Germans, but to the Western Allies the need for a speedy victory was becoming more apparent with each new Russian advance and each new hint of the horror at work in the camps of occupied Europe. The SAS, born in North Africa as a strategic raiding force behind enemy lines, was well suited to performing a similar role in the different terrain of the Italian mountains and French forests. Here, after making common cause with the local partisans, they could cut the road and rail likes which served the front line German armies. Hitler knew as much, and was determined that the SAS should pay a terrible price for their efforts. In October 1942 he had issued the infamous Commando Order, which decreed that the raiders captured behind enemy lines, whether in or out of uniform, would be summarily executed. Denied the safety net usually provided by the rules of war, the SAS embarked on each new mission knowing that it would end in either success or death. Soldier Z SAS: For King and Country tells the riveting story of the undertaking and execution of these death-defying operations and of how, later, in the final days of war and the opening weeks of peace, the survivors at last began to seek out the murderers of their comrades and bring them to justice.