Daggers Drawn: The Real Heroes of the SAS & SBS

by Mike Morgan

Overview

Mike Morgan presents 25 stories about the larger-than-life exploits of the SAS and SBS in World War II, supported by a selection of rare archive and action shots.

These vivid stories, including some new and previously unpublished, supported by an updated selection of rare archive and action photographs, explore the larger-than-life escapades of the Special Air Service in the Second World War. From an SAS Jeep patrol in France, outnumbered fifty-to-one, who shot their way out to safety in their bullet-riddled vehicle and killed a quarter of their SS opposition, to an SAS soldier who talked his way through enemy roadblocks in North Africa in full British uniform and tore a strip off the guard for neglecting to check his papers, this is the first comprehensive collection of all the best stories in one book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780752478333
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	11/30/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

MIKE MORGAN is a senior journalist with the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette and is the author of Sting of the Scorpion, Daggers Drawn and D-Day Hero (The History Press). He lives in North Yorkshire.

Read an Excerpt

Daggers Drawn

Real Heroes of the SAS & SBS

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By Mike Morgan

The History Press

Copyright © 2012 Mike Morgan
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-7833-3

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CHAPTER 1

The Fearless Legends

David Stirling, Paddy Mayne, Anders Lassen VC, Roy Farran

SIR DAVID STIRLING DSO – SLAYER OF GOLIATHS

David Stirling's groundbreaking special force, the Special Air Service, is today the envy of the world. Many experts would agree that the brilliant Scot who created such a potent mix of skill, daring and subterfuge during the Second World War ranks alongside Hannibal and Wellington as one of the most extraordinarily gifted and original military thinkers of all time. The SAS that the modest Special Forces maestro created six decades ago is as vital a part of Britain's twenty-first century military forces today as it was in the arid North African desert back in 1941.

Paradoxically, it is widely accepted that the brave, enigmatic, lanky Scot with the disarmingly polite manner and rock-steady gaze was not the most obedient soldier in the British Army during the Second World War by a long way, as he was the first to admit. In a regular regimental role, he would never have made a front-line general of the breathtaking ability of Rommel or awesome discipline of Montgomery. In fact, his almost pathological disdain for red tape and obsession with risky, imaginative schemes meant that if his behind-the-lines unit, the SAS, had not exploded into being in the searing heat of the desert, he might never have risen above the rank of captain in a conventional military unit and would now be unrecognised and long forgotten.

Doubters Defeated

Stirling was no ordinary man as even the doubting, egotistical Field Marshal Montgomery, British high commander of the all-conquering Eighth Army and not an early admirer of Stirling's unconventional tactics and requirements, had eventually to concede. Though fearless at the sharp end in countless danger-charged SAS raids in the Western Desert, Stirling was head and shoulders above the rest of his generation in terms of Special Forces tactical innovation, employing unrivalled imagination, improvisation and determination. It is these qualities, and his own powerful and fiercely private personality, that set him apart from the rest. His story is essentially a battle royal, not only with the enemy but a continuous fight against doubters in high places on his own side, a classic David and Goliath contest he almost always won.

Stirling's story, as told here, is presented to show his achievements as a unique and historic military leader. It has been stripped of most of the danger-fraught raiding missions that are regaled in the following tales from his finest fellow officers and troopers. History remembers him for his inspired creation of the SAS by a stupendous force of will, but Stirling had many key advantages to complement his bravery, consummate military skills and natural vision.

Stirling was born into one of the most important families in Scotland, part of the aristocracy, and his father was a general with an impressive military background. Consequently, from the outset, Stirling had connections at the highest level both politically and militarily, and he was commissioned into one of the elite units in the British Army, the Scots Guards. Sometimes he rode roughshod over officialdom to get what he wanted, sometimes he used diplomacy, subtle persuasion and his key contacts to achieve the same result. But the deadly formula he conceived for his desert raiding force proved to be not the flash-in-the-pan success that many predicted, but a cast-iron winner that could be modified and applied to virtually any campaign, at any time, in any era. Consequently, the chameleon-like complexity of Stirling's military mind has bequeathed to the present day a simple, unshakeable fact: a small force of well-trained, well-armed, determined men operating deep behind enemy lines can achieve damage and destruction totally out of proportion to its size. This concept remains as true today as it was then. Stirling created an original combat unit, much copied but never equalled – the feared and envied Special Air Service.

A True World Beater

Stirling's simple and yet highly effective concept was as successful in the Falklands, the Gulf and Kosovo as in the war-torn Western Desert, Italy, France and Germany two generations ago. Britain still leads the way in this deadly Special Forces game of Russian roulette. Twenty-first-century technology in the form of satellite navigation, hi-tech communications and weaponry has, however, increased the power of the SAS phenomenally. In marked contrast, in the Second World War in the desert Stirling's SAS attacked on foot with small arms, combat knives and time bombs and found their way to and from the target by compass or the stars and, later, by trucks and jeeps bristling with machine-guns.

After transferring to the Middle East Commando from his regiment, Stirling plotted his great raiding enterprise. He predicted with unerring accuracy that the German and Italian forces strung out along the North African coast were vulnerable to attack by small groups of well-trained, determined saboteurs. The swashbuckling way he went about achieving his famed tilt at glory is now part of military folklore.

It largely came about because Jock Lewes, a highly methodical and adventurous officer in the Welsh Guards, who had also come out to the Western Desert with No. 8 Commando, had by pure chance stumbled across some parachutes destined for India. The 'liberated' consignment of fifty parachutes fell into his hands and he began to experiment with them, despite the fact that there were no instructors, manuals or training facilities. Parachuting was then in its infancy and could be a decidedly risky business in unqualified hands. However, Stirling, knowing that this method of attack would be perfect for raiding behind enemy lines, joined the enterprise with alacrity, even though the static lines had to be fixed to the legs of the seats of the ancient aircraft they were using and there was a high chance of the chutes snagging on the fuselage or tail of the aircraft on exiting. This is precisely what happened to Stirling on one of his early practice jumps. Because his damaged parachute spilled out air far more quickly than it should have done after catching against the tail in the slipstream, he hit the stoney ground very hard, severely injuring his back, so badly in fact, that his legs were temporarily paralysed and he had to spend several weeks convalescing in hospital. During this enforced spell of confinement, he penned his historic plan for the formation of a desert raiding force, the unit that was to become the Special Air Service.

Going Straight to the Top

How Stirling ensured that his scheme was read by the most senior officer possible is now a legendary part of history. In his mind, there was only one person to approach. That person was the Commander-in-Chief, Gen Auchinleck. Stirling knew very well that he had no chance of gaining an interview with Auchinleck if he applied through the normal, official channels and so with typical verve he decided to 'gatecrash' the general's headquarters without any pass or permission.

Still on crutches after his parachuting accident, he arrived unannounced at the headquarters of Middle East Command and cheekily tried to bluff the sentry into letting him in, predictably without success. However, when the sentry's attention was distracted momentarily by the arrival of a staff car, Stirling took his chance and simply hobbled in, soon finding himself lost in a maze of corridors. The first door he opened contained a major who, almost disastrously, remembered him from his early days with the Scots Guards when the officer had lectured him in the complexities of combat. Stirling recalled with embarrassment that he had found the lectures so tedious, he had often fallen asleep! Consequently, the major was highly annoyed with this 'upstart's' sudden intrusion. Stirling mumbled an apology, saluted smartly and beat a hasty retreat. It looked as though Stirling was certain to be defeated at the first hurdle in his audacious scheme, but before leaving the building he opened one last door and found himself face to face with the Deputy Commander Middle East, Gen Ritchie. Rapidly apologising for his interruption, Stirling blurted out the reason for his visit and handed over his plan for Gen Auchinleck's attention.

Far from being angry, Ritchie studied the proposal intently and then, to Stirling's surprise, said he would discuss the idea with the C-in-C at a suitable juncture. Stirling would be summoned back to a conference at a future date once the details had been digested. He had been incredibly lucky and he knew it. In fact, he could not believe his good fortune in even having his scheme assessed. However, at this stage of the war, a sabotage force of the type proposed by Stirling was just the sort of initiative that might help alter the balance in favour of Britain and her allies. The desert war was precariously poised on a knife-edge and could swing either way. Gen Auchinleck had succeeded Gen Wavell as Commander-in-Chief the previous July when the entire Middle Eastern Army was on the defensive. There was a great deal of pressure for a major offensive to be mounted to drive the Axis out of North Africa, but resources were scarce.

Auchinleck's Big Gamble

The canny Auchinleck saw there was the possibility of great gain for little expenditure in Stirling's bold enterprise and so invited him back for interview. The result was that Stirling was promoted captain and given permission to recruit a force of sixty-six men from Layforce Middle East Commando. His unit, under the direct authority of the C-in-C, would include seven officers and many well-trained NCOs with, exactly as Stirling suggested, raiding groups based on four-man squads attacking enemy aircraft on the ground with time bombs. The go-ahead was given to set up a training camp in the Canal Zone at Kabrit. Stirling was given operational command, with permission to acquire any supplies necessary. The first objective would be to attack German airfields the night before Auchinleck's major November offensive. Known as L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade, this newly formed unit gave Stirling an independent command beyond his wildest dreams. In practice the 'brigade' only existed on paper, but Middle East headquarters wanted the Germans to be fooled into believing it was real as soon as they got wind of it, which they invariably did through their efficient spy network.

Jealousy Spawned

Stirling had achieved the near-impossible, but the official blessing from Auckinleck given so readily to such a junior, relatively unproven officer caused considerable resentment among other units. Many more similar and unfounded jealousies sprang up concerning the SAS during the rest of the war.

Stirling showed great personal courage and sound leadership while training for the first momentous SAS mission when two men plunged to their deaths on an early training parachute jump in the desert due to defective harness clips. He had the problem sorted and then made sure he was first out of the aircraft the next day to prove the point that all was well. It was a brave gesture much appreciated by his troops who were waiting to jump in dread. From the outset, he set an unwavering example to his fellow officers that they should never expect their men to do anything that they were not prepared to do themselves. Many veterans remember this as one of Stirling's finest qualities.

Drop into Windswept Hell

L Detachment's first mission was an unmitigated disaster, as detailed in Jock Lewes's tragic story recounted later in this book. The parachutists were dropped in a howling gale and the men scattered over a wide area. Many of the party were killed or lost and never seen again. None of the allocated airfields could be attacked as the bombs and weapons' containers were also scattered beyond reach of those who survived the jump. Though there were initial fears that this first raid would be the last for the fledgling SAS, the high command kept faith and persevered with the unit despite the overwhelming disappointment. Fortunately, success soon came and was spectacular. This came with the decision to abandon parachuting until later in the war and to introduce the experienced Long Range Desert Group to transport the SAS raiders to and from their targets by truck.

Although Stirling could easily have sent other officers in his place, he personally led many of the famous early desert raids, displaying great bravery and determination. He also showed an uncanny ability to conceive and plan a bewildering number of complex operations which were carried out by various raiding patrols under his command, details of which were largely carried in his own head. He was mentioned in despatches several times, but many feel his brilliance should have been rewarded with the highest honour, the VC. Later, he developed the efficient method of using mobile teams in heavily armed jeeps, combining the devastating firepower of Vickers K machine-guns with 'sticky bomb' sabotage, destroying a colossal total of more than 400 of the enemy's best fighters and bombers in the desert alone, as well as countless ammunition dumps, petrol supplies, trains and enemy forces on the ground.

The Big Jeep Raid

There was no bolder example of Stirling's innovative approach in the desert than the massed jeep raid on Sidi Haneish, near Fuka in 1942. Stirling had taken delivery of twenty brand-new jeeps when reconnaissance reported that the airfield at Sidi Haneish was jam-packed with aircraft, especially the precious transport carriers that the enemy was very short of.

Stirling took a calculated gamble. He proposed to catch the Germans by surprise by driving directly on to the airfield in full moonlight in a mass jeep attack. But first he ensured that his SAS raiders practised the complex manoeuvre in the desert until they had it drilled to perfection. There would be no room for mistakes with more than sixty machine-guns firing at once in such close formation. Eighteen jeeps would approach the perimeter defences at speed and, on a signal from Stirling, open up with their machine-guns to shatter the defences. Once on the field, a green Very light would be sent up to change the jeep formation into a huge, moving arrowhead. This grouping would then file between the parked rows of planes blasting them with 1,000 rounds a minute from the deadly Vickers K machine-guns. The effect would be devastating.

However, as the SAS approached the airfield, they got the shock of their lives. It was suddenly brilliantly lit by floodlights! Stirling thought at first they had been rumbled, but then heard an enemy plane coming into land. Stirling, in the lead, quickly opened fire and the rest followed. Messerschmitts, Stukas, Heinkels and Junkers were set ablaze or blown apart in a cacophony of ear-shattering noise. In the classic book The Phantom Major, Virginia Cowles says: 'David's jeep was hit by a splinter. No one was hurt but the vehicle was put out of action. The whole movement came to a standstill. He shouted to the gunners to concentrate on the Breda [machine-gun] post and signalled one of the jeeps farther down the line to move forward and pick up himself and his crew.' He and his crew then calmly transferred to the other vehicle.

More planes on the perimeter were spotted and destroyed, one last one claimed by a Lewes bomb planted on foot by Paddy Mayne. The jeeps then roared off into the desert. The only casualty was one of the SAS gunners who was apparently hit by a mortar fragment and killed instantly. The great gamble had come off spectacularly, but was never repeated on this scale as it was appreciated that the Germans were unlikely to be caught cold in such fashion again. Stirling's example encouraged many others to rise to the challenge of destroying enemy aircraft and disrupting the supply chain to help defeat Rommel and achieve Britain's first victory over the Germans at El Alamein, the turning point of the war for the Allies.

Man of Vision

The effectiveness of Stirling's L Detachment SAS raiders was vindicated time and again in countless raids in the North African desert until his untimely capture in Tunisia in 1943. Key damage was consistently caused out of all proportion to the amount of men and resources deployed. Stirling's vision enabled the creation of a unique force, the like of which had never been seen before. Incarceration in the daunting Colditz Castle was a crushing blow for Stirling and the SAS, but not a fatal one, as by this time the unit had grown to such a size that it had attracted a large number of very able officers who were well schooled in Stirling's ways and the unit's future was assured. However, there is no doubt that Stirling's absence changed the course of future SAS operations for the rest of the war. It is tantalising to speculate what glories might have been achieved if Stirling had remained in charge, but it is equally certain that no one could have made a finer successor than the redoubtable Paddy Mayne.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Daggers Drawn by Mike Morgan. Copyright © 2012 Mike Morgan. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Title,
Dedication,
Acknowledgements,
Foreword By Major Roy Farran, DSO, MC and two bars,
Preface to the New Edition,
Introduction How the SAS was Born,
The Fearless Legends David Stirling, Paddy Mayne, Anders Lassen VC, Roy Farran,
Demons of the Desert Jock Lewes, Fitzroy Maclean, Bob Lilley, John Sillito, Johnny Cooper,
Blistering Action – France and Germany Derrick Harrison, Chalky White, Ian Fenwick, Bill Fraser,
Three Great SBS Commanders George Jellicoe, David Sutherland, John Lapraik,
The Hell that was Italy George 'Bebe' Daniels, Philip Pinckney, Reg Seekings,
Leading from the Front Brian Franks, Bill Stirling, Eric Barkworth,
Unsung Heroes Denis Bell,
New SAS Revelations,
Appendix I Maps,
Appendix II Official Citations: Lt Col Robert Blair Mayne and Maj Anders Lassen,
Bibliography,
Plates,
Copyright,