By Smartencyclopedia

The history of the British Army’s Special Air Service (SAS) regiment of the British Army begins with its formation during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War and continues to the present day. It includes its early operations in North Africa, the Greek Islands, and the Invasion of Italy. The Special Air Service then returned to the United Kingdom and was formed into a brigade with two British, two French , and one Belgian regiments, and went on to conduct operations in France, Italy again, the Netherlands, and finally into Germany.

After the war, the SAS was briefly disbanded, only to be reformed as a Territorial Army regiment, which then led to the formation of the regular Army 22 SAS Regiment. The SAS has taken part in most of the United Kingdom’s wars since then.

The Special Air Service began life in July 1941, during the Second World War, from an unorthodox idea and plan by Lieutenant David Stirling (of the Scots Guards) who was serving with No. 8 (Guards) Commando. His idea was for small teams of parachute-trained soldiers to operate behind enemy lines to gain intelligence, destroy enemy aircraft, and attack their supply and reinforcement routes. Following a meeting with Major-General Neil Ritchie, the Deputy Chief of Staff, he was granted an appointment with the new Commander-in-Chief Middle East, General Claude Auchinleck. Auchinleck liked the plan and it was endorsed by the Army High Command. At that time, there was already a deception organization in the Middle East area, which wished to create a phantom airborne brigade to act as a threat to enemy planning. This deception unit was named K Detachment Special Air Service Brigade, and thus Stirling’s unit was designated L Detachment Special Air Service Brigade.

The force initially consisted of five officers and 60 other ranks. Following extensive training at Kabrit camp, by the River Nile, L Detachment undertook its first operation, Operation Squatter. This parachute drop behind Axis lines was launched in support of Operation Crusader. During the night of 16/17 November 1941, L Detachment attacked airfields at Gazala and Timimi. Due to Axis resistance and adverse weather conditions, the mission was a disaster with 22 men killed or captured (one-third of the men). Given a second opportunity, L Detachment recruited men from Layforce Commando, which was in the process of disbanding. Their second mission was more successful; transported by the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), they attacked three airfields in Libya, destroying 60 aircraft without loss.

In October 1941, David Stirling had asked the men to come up with ideas for insignia designs for the new unit. Bob Tait, who had accompanied Stirling on the first raid, produced the winning entry: the flaming sword of Excalibur, the legendary weapon of King Arthur. This motif would later be misinterpreted as a winged dagger. Regarding mottoes, “Strike and Destroy” was rejected as being too blunt. “Descend to Ascend” seemed inappropriate since parachuting was no longer the primary method of transport. Finally, Stirling settled on “Who Dares Wins,” which seemed to strike the right balance of valour and confidence. SAS pattern parachute wings, designed by Lieutenant Jock Lewes and depicted the wings of a scarab beetle with a parachute. The wings were to be worn the right shoulder upon completion of parachute training. After three missions, they were worn on the left breast above medal ribbons. The wings, Stirling noted, “Were treated as medals in their own right.”

Their first mission in 1942 was an attack on Bouerat. Transported by the LRDG, they caused severe damage to the harbor, petrol tanks and storage facilities. This was followed up in March by a raid on Benghazi harbor with limited success although the raiding party did damage 15 aircraft at Al-Berka. In the June 1942 Crete airfield raids at Heraklion, Kasteli, Tympaki and Maleme significant damage was caused but of the attacking force at Heraklion only Major George Jellicoe returned. In July 1942, Stirling commanded a joint SAS/LRDG patrol that carried out raids at Fuka and Mersa Matruh airfields destroying 30 aircraft.

September 1942 was a busy month for the SAS. They were renamed the 1st SAS Regiment and consisted of four British squadrons, one Free French Squadron, one Greek Squadron, and the Special Boat Section (SBS).

Operations they took part in included Operation Agreement and the diversionary raid Operation Bigamy. Bigamy, which was led by Stirling and supported by the LRDG, was an attempt at a large-scale raid on Benghazi to destroy the harbor and storage facilities and to attack the airfields at Benina and Barce.^[9] However, they were discovered after a clash at a roadblock. With the element of surprise lost, Stirling decided not to go ahead with the attack and ordered a withdrawal. Agreement was a joint operation by the SAS and the LRDG who had to seize an inlet at Mersa Sciausc for the main force to land by sea. The SAS successfully evaded enemy defences assisted by German-speaking members of the Special Interrogation Group Part D Squadron and captured Mersa Sciausc. The main landing failed, being met by heavy machine gun fire forcing the landing force and the SAS/LRDG force to surrender.^[10] Operation Anglo, a raid on two airfields on the island of Rhodes, from which only two men returned. Destroying three aircraft, a fuel dump, and numerous buildings, the surviving SBS men had to hide in the countryside for four days before they could reach the waiting submarine.

David Stirling, who was by that time sometimes referred to as the “Phantom Major” by the Germans, was captured in January 1943 in the Gabès area of Tunisia by a special anti-SAS unit set up by the Germans. Stirling escaped and joined a group of Arabs; unfortunately, they sold him back to the Germans for 11 pounds of tea.

He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war, escaping numerous times before being moved to the supposedly ‘escape proof’ Colditz Castle. He was replaced as commander of 1st SAS by Paddy Mayne. In April 1943, the 1st SAS was reorganized into the Special Raiding Squadron under the command of Mayne and the Special Boat Squadron under the command of George Jellicoe. The Special Boat Squadron operated in the Aegean and the Balkans for the remainder of the war and was disbanded in 1945.

The Special Raiding Squadron spearheaded the invasion of Sicily Operation Husky and played more of a commando role in raiding the Italian coastline, from which they suffered heavy losses at Termoli. After Sicily, they went on to serve in Italy with the newly formed 2nd SAS, a unit that had been formed in Algeria in May 1943 by Stirling’s older brother Lieutenant Colonel Bill Stirling.

The 2nd SAS had already taken part in operations in support of the Allied landings in Sicily. Operation Narcissus was a raid by 40 members of the 2nd SAS on a lighthouse on the southeast coast of Sicily. The team landed on 10 July with the mission of capturing the lighthouse and the surrounding high ground. Operation Chestnut involved two teams of ten men each, parachuted into northern Sicily on the night of 12 July, to disrupt communications, transport, and the enemy in general.

On mainland Italy, they were involved in Operation Begonia which was the airborne counterpart to the amphibious Operation Jonquil. From 2 to 6 October 1943, 61 men were parachuted between Ancona and Pescara. The object was to locate escaped prisoners of war in the interior and muster them on beach locations for extraction. Begonia was involved in the interior parachute drop by the 2nd SAS. Jonquil entailed four seaborne beach parties from the 2nd SAS with the Free French SAS Squadron as protection. Operation Candytuft was a raid by the 2nd SAS on 27 October. Inserted by boat on Italy’s east coast between Ancona and Pescara, they were to destroy rail bridges and disrupt rear areas.

Near the end of the year, the Special Raiding Squadron reverted to their former title 1st SAS, and together with 2nd SAS were withdrawn from Italy and placed under the command of the 1st Airborne Division.

In March 1944, the 1st and 2nd SAS Regiments returned to the United Kingdom and joined a newly formed SAS Brigade of the Army Air Corps. The other units in the Brigade were the French 3rd and 4th SAS, the Belgian 5th SAS, and the F Squadron which was responsible for signals and communications, the brigade commander was Brigadier Roderick McLeod. The brigade was ordered to swap their beige SAS berets for the maroon parachute beret and given shoulder titles for 1, 2, 3, and 4 SAS in the Airborne colors. The French and Belgian regiments also wore the Airborne Pegasus arm badge. The brigade now entered a period of training for their participation in the Normandy Invasion. They were prevented from conducting operations until after the start of the invasion by the 21st Army Group. Their task was then to stop German reinforcements from reaching the front line, by being parachuted behind the lines to assist the French Resistance.

In support of the invasion, 144 men of the 1st SAS took part in Operation Houndsworth between June and September, in the areas of Lyon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Dijon, Le Creusot, and Paris. At the same time, 56 men of the 1st SAS also took part in Operation Bulbasket in the Poitiers area. They did have some success before being betrayed. Surrounded by a large German force, they were forced to disperse; later, it was discovered that 36 men were missing and that 32 of them had been captured and executed by the Germans.

In mid-June, 178 men of the French SAS and 3,000 members of the French resistance took part in Operation Dingson. However, they were forced to disperse after their camp was attacked by the Germans. The French SAS were also involved in Operation Cooney, Operation Samwest, and Operation Lost during the same period.

In August, 91 men from the 1st SAS were involved in Operation Loyton. The team had the misfortune to land in the Vosges Mountains at a time when the Germans were preparing to defend the Belfort Gap. As a result, the Germans harried the team. The team also suffered from poor weather that prevented aerial resupply. Eventually, they broke into smaller groups to return to their lines. During the escape, 31 men were captured and executed by the Germans.

Also in August, men from the 2nd SAS operated from forest bases in the Rennes area in conjunction with the resistance. Air resupply was plentiful and the resistance cooperated, which resulted in carnage. The 2nd SAS operated from the Loire through to the forests of Darney to Belfort in just under six weeks.

Near the end of the year, men from the 2nd SAS were parachuted into Italy to work with the Italian resistance in Operation Tombola, where they remained until Italy was liberated. At one point, four groups were active deep behind enemy lines laying waste to airfields, attacking convoys, and derailing trains. Towards the end of the campaign, Italian guerrillas and escaped Russian prisoners were enlisted into an ‘Allied SAS Battalion’ which struck at the German main lines of communications.

In March the former Chindit commander, Brigadier Mike Calvert took over command of the brigade. The 3rd and 4th SAS were involved in Operation Amherst in April. The operation began with the drop of 700 men on the night of 7 April. The teams spread out to capture and protect key facilities from the Germans. They encountered Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945.

Still in Italy in Operation Tombola, Major Roy Farran and 2nd SAS carried out a raid on a German Corps headquarters in the Po Valley, which succeeded in killing the corps chief of staff.

The Second World War in Europe ended on 8 May and by that time the SAS brigade had suffered 330 casualties, but it had killed or wounded 7,733 and captured 23,000 of their enemies. Later the same month 1st and 2nd SAS were sent to Norway to disarm the 300,000-strong German garrison and 5th SAS were in Denmark and Germany on counter-intelligence operations. The brigade was dismantled soon afterwards. In September, the Belgian 5th SAS were handed over to the reformed Belgian Army. On 1 October the 3rd and 4th French SAS were handed over to the French Army and on 8 October the British 1st and 2nd SAS regiments were disbanded.

References

• Books:
  • “Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War” by Ben Macintyre
    • This book provides a detailed and engaging history of SAS from its founding in 1941 to its exploits during World War II.
  • “The Phantom Major” by Virginia Cowles
    • A classic account of the SAS’s early campaigns, focusing on the exploits of its founder, David Stirling.
• Articles:
  • “The Origins of the SAS” – Imperial War Museums
    • A comprehensive overview of how the SAS was formed and its missions during the North Africa campaign.
    • Link to IWM’s SAS History
• Documentaries:
  • “SAS: Rogue Warriors” (BBC Documentary)
    • A three-part series based on Ben Macintyre’s book, offering insights into the SAS’s operations and interviews with historians.
• Military Websites:
  • Special Air Service History – British Army Official Site
    • Official information on the SAS’s role and evolution during WWII and beyond.
    • Visit the British Army SAS Page
• Archives and Museums:
  • The National Archives (UK)
    • Houses declassified documents and operational reports related to the SAS during WWII.
  • The SAS Regimental Association Museum
    • Offers exhibitions and artifacts highlighting the SAS’s history and contributions.

Back Special Air Service (SAS) main article