From the abortive plan to murder Hitler, the Iranian Embassy siege in London and the dramatic scud hunt in the Gulf War, to the storming of a hijacked airliner in Marseilles in 1994, this book reports on the covert actions of the world's most elite special forces from World War II to the present. Although it focuses principally on Britain's SAS, the USA's Delta Force, Seals, Green Berets and Rangers, Germany's GS9, France's GIGN and the Australian SAS, the book also covers less well-known organizations, including Britain's SBS, Spain's GEO and BOEL and France's 2REP. Moving between Europe, the USA, South-East Asia, Central America and the Middle East, it gives a wide-ranging account of the origins, development and major undercover operations of special forces, with a detailed examination of their selection procedures and training, weaponry, communications and tactics.