For the first time ever an elite British operator tells the gruelling story of his selection into the Pathfinders, Britain's secret soldiers. Pathfinder selection is a brutal physical and psychological trial lasting many weeks. It rivals that of the SAS and takes place over the same spine-crushing terrain, in the rain-and-snow-lashed wastes of the Welsh Mountains. For two decades no one has been able to relate the extraordinary trials of British elite forces selection, until now. Captain David Blakeley goes on from completing selection to serve with the Pathfinders in Afghanistan post 9/11, where he had a gun held to his head by Al Qaeda fighters. From there he deploys to Iraq, on a series of dramatic behind-enemy-lines missions wherein he and his tiny elite patrol are outnumbered, outgunned, and trapped. This is a unique and extraordinary chronicle of the making of a warrior. It culminates in Blakeley fighting back to full recovery from horrific injuries suffered while on operations in Iraq, to go on to face SAS selection.