NZSAS: The First Fifty Years is the first and only official history of New Zealand's elite Special Forces, the New Zealand Special Air Service (NZSAS).

From their first ever engagements in the jungles of Malaya in 1956, through to the Vietnam War and on to modern conflicts in East Timor and Afghanistan, this book traces the history and development of 1 NZSAS Group. Illustrated with maps and never-before-seen photographs, the book provides a rare and fascinating insight into the clandestine world of the NZSAS.

Since the best-selling biography Willie Apiata, VC: The Reluctant Hero was published by Penguin, public interest in the NZSAS has skyrocketed.

From Chief of the NZ Defence Force:

Like any family, 1 NZSAS Group's stories are part of the glue that binds them together. But for reasons of operational security, the activities and personalities of New Zealand's Special Forces have, until now, largely remained their own – shrouded in secrecy.

This book has an essential role in informing anyone with an interest in how this Unit's special capabilities have been relied on in numerous deployments, over a range of environments, across the decades of its existence.

Such unusual openness I believe cannot help but promote confidence, and ultimately improve the level of understanding of 1 NZSAS Group – whose history deserves the accolade it aspires to of being the elite Unit of the New Zealand Defence Force.

Review
By Oliver Riddell, Otago Daily Times

SAS secrets revealed in riveting read
"…It covers actions in Malaya, Thailand, Borneo, Vietnam, Bougainville, East Timor and Afghanistan, since 1955. Because many of those who served in East Timor and Afghanistan are still active in the unit, their identities are not revealed. But otherwise it is all pretty frank and revealing. With so few individuals involved, if it were not frank it would be fairly meaningless.

The young men who serve in the SAS are supremely fit and need to be strongly motivated. This book is based on interviews with many of them. Their motivation shines through, as does their pride in their achievements. The author ensures that this does not lead to seeing everything through the rose-tinted spectacles of nostalgia, although “failures” do tend to be seen as “mistakes”. Fair enough, as he does warn the reader of this…

Generally, the book shies away from politics. It focuses on who did what, where they did it, who they did it with, and how successfully they did it. The accounts of deep penetration into enemy territory (especially into thick tropical jungle) make riveting reading.

Anyone with an interest in elite defence units will enjoy the book."

Author Biography

Ron Crosby has an honours degree in law but over the last decade has increasingly been occupied with writing New Zealand historical and military books. Ron lives in Marlborough with his wife Margy, whose Te Rarawa/Te Aupouri descent, coupled with his legal work in the area of the Treaty of Waitangi, motivated his writing of The Musket Wars: A History of Inter-iwi Conflict 1806–1845 (1999). Other more recent publications have included Gilbert Mair: Te Kooti's Nemesis (2004), Andris Apse: Odyssey and Images (2006) and Albaneta: Lost Opportunity at Cassino (2007).