' () in
Tunisia. Previously a company of
Free French paratroopers, the French SAS squadron were the first of a range of units "acquired" by Major Stirling as the SAS expanded. At the beginning of each episode in the first series, the viewer is informed that the series is "Based on a true story", and that "the events depicted which seem most unbelievable… are mostly true". In the second series the message was changed to "Inspired by true events... But be aware... This is NOT a history lesson." Unlike the main trio of Stirling, Mayne, and Lewes, the character of Eve Mansour is fictional. Sofia Boutella notes, however, that her character is influenced by real-life female spies such as
Noor Inayat Khan and
Virginia Hall. As military historian
Antony Beevor noted, while events surrounding the creation of the SAS "certainly defy belief", it is true that "some liberties with the precise record" were taken – for example, in the scripting of a romantic association between
David Stirling and Mansour, the French intelligence agent. However, his opinion was that these were "mainly additions, fleshing out characters and context", rather than being significant "distortions" of the facts. Historian
Damien Lewis also said it was "nonsense" to portray Mayne as a "thug and drunken lout", when he "cared passionately for those men he commanded". Moreover, it was Stirling who asked General De Gaulle to have Frenchmen in the SAS because he needed men ready to do anything to deal with the Germans. So the was sent, which became the
French Squadron SAS.
Gavin Mortimer wrote that the "main problem with
Rogue Heroes is that it is true to David Stirling's version of how the SAS was born. But as I make clear in my recent biography of Stirling,
The Phoney Major, based on two decades of research, he was a master at twisting the truth to suit his own ends", adding that Paddy Mayne "was not the borderline psychopath depicted in
Rogue Heroes. I know because I've interviewed scores of men who served under Mayne in the SAS." ==References==