Special Forces Brothers in Arms

Eoin & Ambrose McGonigal: War in the SAS & SBS

Patric McGonigal

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781399082204
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

The McGonigal brothers, Eoin and Ambrose were fiercely independent characters. Born and educated in southern Ireland to a catholic family but raised in Belfast, they wasted no time in enlisting at the outbreak of War in 1939. Both outstanding sportsmen, their leadership potential was quickly recognized. Eoin was one of the first two officers selected from an Irish regiment for Commando training in 1940. After leading a troop at the River Litani battle in Syria, he became the youngest of the original officers selected for the fledgling SAS and quickly made a name for himself. Tragically, he was lost after parachuting behind enemy lines in Libya. His body was never recovered and many unanswered questions remain today. Ambrose, having carried out multiple coastal raids with the Commandos and winning two Military Crosses, later led operations for the SBS in Yugoslavia and Italy. Post-war, he had a short but notable legal career as a Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. Light is also shone on the brothers' close friend, the legendary Blair Mayne and the controversial decision to downgrade the award of his Victoria Cross. This is a thought-provoking account of lost and fulfilled potential and unswerving loyalty at a time of political and religious turmoil

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword: Lord Ashcroft
• Introduction: Judge Christopher Ian McGonigal
• Maps
• Heroes
• Vows
• Chapter 1 Brothers
• Chapter 2 ‘A Certain Piquancy’: ‘A Declaration of War on the Irish Nation’
• Chapter 3 Malone Road, Belfast
• Chapter 4 Leaders of Boys
• Chapter 5 Brothers in Law
• Chapter 6 Leaders of Men: ‘Oh, that’s for me’
• Chapter 7 The Royal Ulster Rifles: ‘wild young men’
• Chapter 8 11 (Scottish) Commando in Arran
• Chapter 9 Landour Spirit: ‘I’ll shoot you, Blair’
• Chapter 10 Longing for a show: ‘the best trained, disciplined and soldier-like unit of the whole lot’
• Chapter 11 Egypt–Cyprus: ‘C Battalion of Layforce’
• Chapter 12 Litani River, Syria: Commando Assault 9 June 1941
• Chapter 13 Aftermath: ‘my silver cigarette case’
• Chapter 14 Blair v Keyes: ‘a truculent Irishman’
• Chapter 15 ‘Blooded’
• Chapter 16 ‘L’ Detachment SAS Brigade: a new breed of dervishes
• Chapter 17 The Final Four Months with a ‘band of vagabonds’
• Chapter 18 Kabrit: ‘Stirling’s Rest Camp’
• Chapter 19 Parachute Training: ‘nice and soft in the sand’
• Chapter 20 A Monstrous Scheme: ‘desert marching is not meant for Irishmen!’
• Chapter 21 The First (and Last) Parachute Mission: Operation Squatter
• Chapter 22 ‘Eoin has not yet come back’
• Chapter 23 Subsequent Missions
• Chapter 24 The VC: ‘a signal act of valour’
• Chapter 25 Ambrose
• Chapter 26 Raiding across the Channel: a ‘bare-knuckled fighting opponent’
• Chapter 27 Sark
• Chapter 28 ‘Hiltforce’
• Chapter 29 The SBS: ‘urgently required for operations in Yugoslavia’
• Chapter 30 Into the Balkans: ‘an aggressive, independent Irishman’
• Chapter 31 Croatia – Unie, Cherso, Lussino, Istria: ‘Kill the f——ing lot of them’
• Chapter 32 King Farouk and the Charismatic Company Commander
• Chapter 33 Eoin: ‘A Huge Character of a Guy’
• Chapter 34 An Unknown Soldier
• Chapter 35 Ambrose after Demob: ‘The Black Prince’
• Chapter 36 The First Death Sentence since the Troubles Began
• Chapter 37 McElhone: ‘shot in the back’
• Chapter 38 ‘A Torturer’s Charter’
• Chapter 39 ‘A lawyer, a judge, a soldier and a gentleman’
• Chapter 40 Brothers and Brothers in Arms
• Chapter 41 The Brothers – final notes
• Chapter 42 Heroes
• Chapter 43 Commando
• Appendices
• Bibliography and Sources