SAS

Special Air Service

Who Dares Wins Is Their Motto

The previous page was: "SAS Secret Diary"

During the war the British Army Commandos spawned several other famous British units such as the Special Air Service, the Special Boat Service and the Parachute Regiment. The British Army Commandos themselves were never regimented and when the war ended they were disbanded.

Some Commandos were designated for different tasks from the start. No.2 Commando was always intended to be a parachute unit. In June 1940, they began parachute training and were re-designated the 11th Special Air Service (SAS) Battalion, which eventually became the 1st Parachute Battalion.

Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army they are part of the United Kingdom's Special Forces (UKSF) and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world.

The SAS together with the Special Boat Service (SBS), Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), and the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG) now form the UKSF under the command of the Director Special Forces.

The Special Air Service was a unit of the British Army during the Second World War, and it was formed in July 1941 by David Stirling and originally called "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade.

The "L" designation and Air Service name being a tie-in to a British disinformation campaign, trying to deceive the Axis into thinking there was a paratroop regiment with numerous units operating in the area (the real SAS would 'prove' to the Axis that the fake one existed).

It was first conceived as a commando force to operate behind enemy lines in the North African Campaign and initially consisted of five officers and 60 other ranks.

Reaper-Mirach

Its First Mission In November 1941

Was a parachute drop in support of the Operation Crusader offensive. Due to enemy resistance and adverse weather conditions, the mission was a disaster: 22 men, a third of the unit, were either killed or captured.

However, its second mission was a great success: transported by the Long Range Desert Group, it attacked three airfields in Libya, destroying 60 aircraft without loss.

In September 1942, it was renamed the 1st SAS, consisting at that time of four British squadrons, one Free French, one Greek, and the Folboat Section.

During an SAS patrol in North AfricaIn January 1943, Stirling was captured in Tunisia and Paddy Mayne replaced him as commander. In April 1943, the 1st SAS was reorganised into the Special Raiding Squadron under Mayne's command and the Special Boat Squadron was placed under the command of George Jellicoe.

The Special Raiding Squadron fought in Sicily and Italy along with the 2nd SAS, which had been formed in North Africa in 1943, in part by the re-naming of the Small Scale Raiding Force.

Part of the Special Boat Squadron fought in the Aegean islands and the Dodecanese islands until the end of the war. Others raided along the coasts of Burma and in the Far East.

In 1944 the SAS Brigade was formed from the British 1st and 2nd SAS, the French 3rd and 4th SAS and the Belgian 5th SAS.

It was tasked with parachute operations behind the German lines in France working with the Frecnch Resistance and carried out operations supporting the Allied advance through Belgium, the Netherlands, and eventually into Germany.

At The End Of The War

The British Government saw no further need for the SAS and disbanded the force on the 8th October 1945. However, in the following year, it was decided there was a need for a long-term deep-penetration Commando type unit, and a new SAS Regiment was to be raised as part of the Territorial Army.

Ultimately, drawn from the Artists Rifles, which was raised in 1860, and was headquartered at Dukes Road, Euston. They took on the SAS mantle as 21st SAS Regiment (V) on 1st January 1947.

In 1950, a 21 SAS squadron was raised to fight in the Korean War. After three months of training in England, it was informed that the squadron would no longer be required in Korea and so it instead volunteered to fight in the Malayan Emergency.

Upon arrival in Malaya, it came under the command of Mike Calvert who was forming a new unit called the Malayan Scouts (SAS). Calvert had already formed one squadron from a hundred volunteers in the Far East.

This became 'A' Squadron — the 21 SAS squadron then became 'B' Squadron; and after a recruitment visit to Rhodesia by Calvert, 'C' Squadron was formed from 1,000 Rhodesian volunteers.

The Rhodesians returned home after three years service and were replaced by a New Zealand squadron. By this time, the need for a regular army SAS regiment had been recognised.

22 SAS Regiment was formally added to the British army list in 1952, and has been based at Hereford since 1960. In 1959, a third regiment the, 23 SAS Regiment, was formed by renaming the Reserve Reconnaissance Unit, which had succeeded MI9 and were experts in escape and evasion.

22 SAS Regiment

Since serving in Malaya, men from the regular army have joined the 22 SAS Regiment and have taken part in covert reconnaissance and surveillance by patrols and some larger scale raiding missions in Borneo.

Another operation against communist guerillas included the Battle of Mirbat in the Oman. The Battle of Mirbat took place on 19th July 1972, during the Dhofar Rebellion in Oman, which was supported by Communist guerrillas from South Yemen.

Britain assisted the Omani government by sending elements of its Special Air Service both to train soldiers and compete against the 'Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman guerrillas' for the "hearts and minds" of the Omani people.

They have also taken part in operations in the Aden Emergency; Northern Ireland; and Gambia. Their Special projects team assisted the West German counter-terrorism group GSG 9 at Mogadishu. During the Falklands War 'D' and 'G' squadrons were deployed and participated in the raid on Pebble Island.

Operation Flavius was an anti–terrorist operation in Gibraltar against the 'Provisional Irish Republican Army'. The SAS counter terrorist wing famously took part in a hostage rescue operation during the Iranian Embassy Siege in London.

It directed NATO aircraft onto Serb positions and hunted down war criminals in Bosnia. Then in the Gulf War, in which 'A' 'B' and 'D' squadrons deployed, was the largest SAS mobilisation since the Second World War.

It was also notable for the failure of the Bravo Two Zero mission in the first Gulf War. In Sierra Leone it took part in Operation Barras, a hostage rescue operation, to extract members of the Royal Irish Regiment.

Modern-day Pages Fast Boats Pages Joe Wezley pages

The Iraq War

The SAS formed part of Task Force Black and Task Force Knight, with 'A' Squadron 22 SAS being singled out for exceptional service by General Stanley McChrystal, the American commander of the NATO forces. During a six month tour it carried out 175 combat missions.

In 2006 members of the SAS were involved in the rescue of peace activists Norman Kember, James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden. The three men had been held hostage in Iraq for 118 days during the Christian Peacemaker hostage crisis.

Operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan do and have involved soldiers from the 21st and 23rd SAS Regiments.

Various British newspapers have speculated on the SAS involvement in Operation Ellamy and the 2011, Libyan Civil War. The Daily Telegraph reports that "defence sources have confirmed that the SAS has been in Libya for several weeks, and they played a key role in coordinating the fall of Tripoli."

While the The Guardian reports "They have been acting as forward air controllers – directing pilots to targets–and communicating with Nato operational commanders. They have also been advising rebels on tactics."

In recent years SAS officers have risen to the highest ranks in the British Army. General Peter de la Billière was the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in the 1990 Gulf War.

General Michael Rose became commander of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994. In 1997 General Charles Guthrie became Chief of the Defence Staff the head of the British Armed Forces.

Lieutenant-General Cedric Delves was appointed Commander of the Field Army and Deputy Commander in Chief NATO Regional Headquarters Allied Forces North in 2002–2003.

The next Link below will be: "Navy Seals"

Special Air Service (SAS) Navy Seals

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