Special Operations.Com

SAS Founding Fathers, Part One

By Mr. Ryan Wulfsohn for Special Operations.Com

	David Stirling
	Paddy Mayne
	Bill Stirling
	Brian Franks

David Stirling ( Lt. Col. A. D. Stirling, DSO, OBE, Scots Guards )

Born 1915, died 1990. Attended Ampleforth College and Cambridge University, but mostly educated at Newmarket Racecourse and White's Club. Between his two periods at Cambridge an art student in Paris, later a trainee architect and then cowboy in Canada and the US. Training in the Rockies for his proposed climb on Mount Everest at the beginning of the war, he quickly enlisted and was one of the first volunteers for the Commandos in 1940. Previously served with the ski battalion which was formed for service in Finland and disbanded before leaving the UK when the Finns made peace with the then German-allied Russians. Went to the Middle East with No.8 Commando as part of Layforce, but saw little action before his unit was disbanded.

After being injured testing out the parachutes that Jock Lewes "found", came up with a detailed plan for the use of small groups to attack targets far behind enemy lines. Stirling sneaked into Middle East Headquarters to present his plan to the highest-ranking officer he could find; from the beginning he was convinced his unit must be answerable only to the highest levels of command. He found Major General Neil Ritchie, then Deputy Chief of General Staff, who liked the idea and passed it on to the Commander-in-Chief. General Sir Claude Auchinleck, C-in-C Middle East, soon authorised the formation of L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade. Stirling was promoted to Captain and allowed to recruit six officers and sixty other ranks from the remnants of Layforce. The name was part of a deception plan to convince the Germans a brigade of airborne troops had arrived in Egypt.

The detachment set up camp at Kabrit near the Suez Canal and began training. Its first "raid" was on a nearby New Zealand camp to steal much-needed supplies. The first raid against the German and Italian forces in Libya was to coincide with the offensive to relieve Tobruk, Operation Crusader, in November 1941.

Stirling's first operation was a complete disaster. Few men were parachuted near the intended targets, German airfields, and only twenty-two made the rendezvous with the patrol from the LRDG which was to bring them back to friendly territory. However the survivors were soon back in action, for Stirling insisted on them remaining in the desert and launching another raid immediately. This time they were transported by the vehicles of the Long Range Desert Group. Sixty-one enemy aircraft were destroyed for no losses and Stirling was back in business.

He was promoted to Major and allowed to recruit more men. Soon they, in cooperation with the LRDG, whose main mission was that of deep-penetration reconnaissance, were raiding the German and Italian rear areas with great regularity. Sometimes, when attacking coastal targets, men of the Special Boat Section were attached. The emphasis remained on airfields; often several small teams each hit one on a single night, sneaking through the perimeter to place explosives. Stirling himself took to driving a Ford V8 modified to look like a German staff car, known as the "Blitz Buggy". He crashed it several times, once injuring Captain Randolph Churchill, the Prime Minister's son, who was briefly attached to the unit. Besides dealing with the top brass and planning all the operations, Stirling also took part in most of them.

Later in 1942, Stirling arranged for a group of Free French paratroopers to join his detachment. He also acquired jeeps and supply trucks, lessening his dependence on the LRDG and enabling the SAS to undertake operations which lasted weeks rather than days. With this growth and success came problems. Most of the smaller raids were successful but the one on Benghazi in September 1942 was not. Launched on the same night as the famous Tobruk raid, it involved almost all of L Detachment, then about 100 strong, directly attacking the perimeter of the strongly-held port. Heavy resistance was encountered and the assault called off; later some of the jeeps were caught by German aircraft in the open and destroyed. However Stirling returned to Cairo to good news. He was now a Lieutenant Colonel and Commanding Officer of the 1^st Special Air Service Regiment. The beige beret( originally white), badge and wings were given official recognition, having been worn in defiance of regulations for some time. ( General Auchinleck however had given his personal approval.) The SB Section, the final remnants of the Middle East Commandos( No. 1 SSR ), members of the Greek Sacred Squadron, the Special Identification Group and other volunteers were to bring the regiment up to strength.

By the time the Allied offensive at El Alamein broke through in November 1942, Paddy Mayne and A Squadron were already deep behind enemy lines. Stirling was soon on his way with B Squadron, to join in an offensive on the German/Italian lines of communication. This involved small patrols, of 2 or 3 jeeps each, attacking targets along a 600km front. Later operations moved westward as the enemy retreated toward Tunisia. In January 1943 the SAS were far ahead of 8^th Army and coming close to 1^st Army, the Anglo-American forces which had landed in Algeria and were soon threatening Tunisia themselves. Stirling and a small patrol were trying to get through to 1^st Army when they were surprised and captured by German armoured cars. They quickly escaped, but Stirling was picked up by an Italian patrol several days later.

The " Phantom Major " was destined to spend most of the rest of the war in POW camps. He escaped four times, but his 6 feet 5 inch height always gave him away; he ended up in the infamous Colditz castle, the place where the Germans sent persistent escapers. When the war against Japan ended he was preparing to take an SAS force to the Far East. In 1946 Stirling moved to what was then called Southern Rhodesia and became involved in several business ventures, including in the farming and timber industries. He had briefly considered and rejected peacetime soldiering. Later he returned to the UK and during the 1960s was heavily involved in covert support for the Royalist guerillas in the Yemen, fighting the Egyptian-backed government which had deposed them. A force of about fifty British and French mercenaries served in this campaign, which ultimately ended in failure, due to the influx of large numbers of Egyptian troops( about 50 000 ) and the British withdrawal from the neighbouring Aden Protectorates. In the late '60s Stirling founded the security company Watchguard with ex-22SAS CO John Woodhouse, and was also involved in a television company.

Stirling did not stay long with Watchguard and in the 1970s his main interest was the Better Britain Society, a group lobbying for constitutional reform in the UK. He returned to the security industry in the '80s. David Stirling was knighted in 1990 and died a few months later.

Paddy Mayne ( Lt. Col. R. B. Mayne, DSO, Royal Ulster Rifles )

Born 1915, died 1955. A Belfast lawyer, he also played international rugby as a lock forward for the British Isles and had been heavyweight boxing champion of the Irish Universities. He joined No.11 Commando as a Second Lieutenant in 1940 after his infantry battalion, then serving in Scotland, was converted to anti-aircraft artillery. Went out to the Middle East with Layforce and served in the invasion of Syria in June 1941. 11 Commando was landed at the Litani river mouth and captured all its objectives but lost over 100 men killed. Mayne was mentioned in despatches for his gallantry in action.

However, Mayne's enormous capacity for drink and violence got him into trouble. He was under close arrest for punching his CO when Stirling recruited him, saying " This is one commanding officer you never hit and I want your promise on that. " He got it and a legendary partnership was born. Mayne led one of the patrols in the disastrous first operation and was soon leading many of the airfield raids. On one occasion, when the supply of Lewes bombs had been expended, he disabled an aircraft by ripping out its control panel with his hands. ( Lewes bombs were small thermos-shaped incendiary devices, named after their inventor) Stirling made a mistake when he transferred the newly-promoted Captain to training recruits after the death of Jock Lewes on the last day of 1941. Mayne hated the job- he wanted to be in action. He even accused Stirling of moving him there so that he could overtake the Ulsterman's score of aircraft destroyed. After a few weeks Stirling put Mayne back on operations and Sergeant Major Pat Riley took over administration and training.

When the SAS were equipped with jeeps, Mayne was in his element. Although he enjoyed shooting up German aircraft with the fast-firing Vickers "K" machineguns(stripped from obsolete aircraft), undoubtedly his favourite activity was driving a jeep through the Officer's Mess after particularly heavy drinking sessions in camp at Kabrit. However there was little time for this as the detachment spent more and more time behind enemy lines. The first mass jeep raid took place in late July 1942, with eighteen of the vehicles attacking Sidi Haneish. First they approached the airfield in single file, then fanned out into line abreast formation and opened fire to kill and confuse the enemy guard force. A flare was fired and the jeeps changed formation again, driving onto the airfield itself in columns of two with the first three forming an arrowhead around the navigator's vehicle. They opened fire again, this time with all 68 machineguns(4 on each jeep), firing at 1200 rounds per minute each, and drove around the airfield. At least forty aircraft were destroyed and one SAS man killed. By the end of the North African campaign the SAS had destroyed over 400 enemy aircraft.

When the regiment was formed, Mayne became a Major and Officer Commanding A Squadron. This sub-unit contained most of the experienced men; other squadrons were formed but required training before they could become operational. They were back behind enemy lines in October 1942 but could only carry out a few raids before the rapid Allied advance caught up with them. Mayne then operated from the old LRDG base at Kufra, sending patrols as far west as the Mareth Line, the German/Italian defences in eastern Tunisia. In January 1943 he and his men were sent to Lebanon for a ski course. B and C Squadrons and some French patrols were now in the desert and the veterans were to be given a break.

The capture of David Stirling caused great confusion. He kept all the current and future plans for the SAS in his head and no-one could really replace him. Command of the regiment immediately went to the most senior officer, Major Vivian Street, OC B Squadron, but he was inexperienced in SAS operations. Lieutenant Colonel H. J. Cator, once CO of 51 Commando, was appointed, but on 19 March 1943 the 1^st SAS Regiment's 47 officers and 532 other ranks were split into three groups.

The French and a few others joined 2SAS; A and B Squadrons became the Special Raiding Squadron under Mayne( Street had in the meantime been captured); and C and D formed the Special Boat Squadron under George Jellicoe.

The SRS had a squadron headquarters and three troops, each of three sections. After training at Azzib in Palestine, the squadron sailed from Suez bound for Sicily in July 1943, 287 strong. Mayne's men captured three coastal batteries in the initial landings and later cleared Agusta, but this was not the role they were meant for. In September they went to the "Toe" of Italy with 8^th Army, performing jeep-borne reconnaissance in front of the main forces. Their next assignment was to Brigadier Durnford-Slater's half of the Special Service Brigade now operating in Italy. The SRS together with Nos.3 and 40(RM) Commandos was to seize the port of Termoli on the Adriatic coast. They landed to the west of the town on 3 October and linked up with the advancing land forces, but soon the Germans launched a ferocious counter-attack. The British forces suffered serious casualties in holding the town, during several days of heavy fighting. The SRS lost 68 men killed and wounded; again it had been a misuse of their talents, although it showed that they were capable of carrying out any kind of offensive operation.

Mayne's squadron sailed for the UK from Algiers in December 1943. Here it was decided to form an SAS Brigade and the SRS became the 1^st SAS Regiment again, being expanded accordingly, with Mayne as a Lieutenant Colonel to command it. The other elements were to be 2SAS, who arrived a few months later, the French 3 and 4SAS, and the Belgian Independent Parachute Squadron(later 5SAS). The brigade would come under the command of I British Airborne Corps and changed to the maroon beret of the Airborne Forces. Mayne and some of his veterans didn't, wearing their beige berets whenever out of sight of the top brass.

After much conflict between the SAS commanders and the Airborne Forces staff( see below), it was decided to use the Brigade in its proper strategic role in the coming invasion of France. A special section was established at I Airborne Corps headquarters to coordinate its operations with those of Special Forces Headquarters(SFHQ), under which came the US Office of Strategic Services(OSS) and British Special Operations Executive(SOE) efforts in support of the invasion.

Of particular concern were the Jedburgh teams, three-man units whose mission was to liaise with and train the French Resistance. If possible each Jedburgh had one American, one Briton and one Frenchman (supplied by the Gaullist intelligence service, the BCRA ), but in practice this was not often achieved. Like the SAS and the OSS Operational Groups( OGs ) they usually operated in uniform. OGs were similar in many ways to the SAS; seven of these 34-strong teams were deployed in France from July to September 1944. They included Frenchmen as well as high proportion of Scandinavian-Americans, for they had originally been intended to operate in Norway.

A Squadron of 1SAS was the first full squadron into France on 21 June 1944, smaller parties having parachuted in before. Mayne was in soon afterward with a small headquarter patrol, linking up with different squadrons for operations all over Northern France. Squadrons established bases in woods and forests, having either parachuted in with their jeeps or infiltrated through German lines. They sometimes did so in cooperation with the local resistance, though the SAS found many resistance groups to be unreliable. From these bases attacks were launched on the German lines of communication, such as the mining of roads, destruction of railways and bridges, ambushes on convoys and sometimes raids on logistics centres and concentrations of troops. A typical camp had about fifty men in it, sometimes more. Mayne was behind enemy lines for most of the next four months and personally led many raids. He had a number of close calls, such as the time he and his patrol arrived to hide-up at a farmhouse only to find it occupied by Germans. A short firefight ensued but like Anders Lassen( see Cockleshell Heroes ), Mayne was a fearsome fighting soldier and his skills never let him down. Where the Germans were weak the SAS could establish liberated zones but often they found it harder to hide than in the vast spaces of North Africa. Also unlike in Libya and Tunisia, captured SAS men could expect little mercy- most were executed.

By the winter of 1944 most of 1SAS had either linked up with the advancing Allied forces or infiltrated back through the German lines by jeep or on foot. They had killed over a thousand Germans and destroyed a huge amount of equipment, as well as calling in many air strikes. There was little work for them over the winter as the front line stabilised and they were eventually sent back to the UK for a month.

On 7 April 1945 Mayne took B and C Squadrons back to the continent for what was to be the last campaign of the war. They were to operate in support of the 4^th Canadian Armoured Division, then fighting near Meppen in north-west Germany. Mayne's first task (Operation Howard) was to force a gap in the German lines on the division's left flank. The SAS jeeps, although heavily armed and now also partially armoured, were not really suited to this task and soon the column was held up and several men killed. Mayne's response was to drive his jeep to the head of the column and then right at the enemy with all guns blazing, drawing fire and enabling the pinned-down troops to advance. Soon the two squadrons were making progress, but came under heavy attack again the next day, being well forward of the rest of the division. They stopped in a forest for the night, having advanced 50km(30 miles) but with several jeeps being damaged and now under tow. In the morning German troops began sweeping the forest and Mayne sent forward five men with Bren guns to engage them. He was a keen photographer so accompanied the Bren gunners carrying only a camera. Luckily Canadian tanks arrived to take the pressure off the SAS. The rest of the war was spent on similar operations, first with the Canadians and later with a British armoured brigade.

In May 1945 1SAS went to Norway with the rest of the SAS Brigade, where they had the task of disarming the German troops in the Bergen area. The British SAS regiments were disbanded in the UK in October and Mayne discharged soon afterward. He had received four Distinguished Service Orders for his incredible courage and leadership under fire. After a period with the British Antarctic Survey in the Falklands and South Georgia, he returned to his law practice in Newtownards but never really settled back in civilian life. Paddy Mayne was killed in a car accident in 1955.

Bill Stirling ( Lt. Col. W. J. Stirling, Scots Guards )

Born 1912, died 1983. Unlike his younger brother David, finished his degree at Cambridge and then served a three year short-service commission in the Scots Guards. Worked in the Stirling family companies for several years and returned to the army at the beginning of the war. He joined a forerunner of SOE known as Military Intelligence(Research) or MI(R) and was involved in the first raiding operation of the war in April 1940. This was called Operation Knife and was to be a sabotage mission in Sognes Fjord in southern Norway, which had been recently occupied by the Germans. The demolition party had to return home after its submarine was depth-charged and damaged, without carrying out the raid. A number of the would-be raiders, including Stirling and Mike Calvert, then received permission to open an irregular warfare training facility. This was located near Lochailort on the west coast of Scotland and known as the Special Training Centre; it was the prototype for SOE's Special Training Schools and the Commando Depot at Achnacarry. Stirling became a Major and chief instructor, while one of the fieldcraft instructors was Freddie Spencer Chapman, who later spent three years in the jungles of Japanese-occupied Malaya. Later in 1940 Bill helped Bob Laycock set up No.8 Commando and went out to Egypt via the Cape with Layforce.

He returned to the UK in November 1941 and served with the Scots Guards again, later returning to the Commandos.

When the Anglo-American forces landed in Algeria in November 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Stirling was there with No.62 Commando, the old Small Scale Raiding Force, which was to carry out raids on this new front. Much smaller than a normal Commando, with only about sixty men, they set up base at Philippeville and at the turn of the year became known as the 2^nd SAS Regiment. ( David Stirling was already thinking in terms of an SAS brigade, though this was not to happen for over a year still) The first operations of 2SAS were jeep-borne raids similar to those being undertaken by 1SAS, but the mountainous terrain of western Tunisia proved less suitable for these vehicles. Geoffrey Appleyard also led a raid on the Italian island of Pantelleria. When 1SAS was split, a few of its more experienced members joined 2SAS, while other members of the new regiment were recruited from base depots and the French troops in Algeria, who formed their own squadron. The new regiment first saw real action in the invasion of Sicily. One party captured a coastal battery on Cape Passaro, while others were parachuted onto the slopes of Mount Etna, to " spread alarm and despondency " in the German/Italian rear area. Meanwhile Stirling himself concentrated on recruiting and training more men and the never-ending battles with the top brass.

2SAS's next campaign was in Italy. After landing at Taranto there were a number of jeep recce operations, mainly under command of the 1^st Airborne Division. One of the three squadrons was sent to Termoli, initially to set up a base for future raids, but within a day, like the rest of the garrison, facing the full fury of the German counter-attack, spearheaded by armoured forces and some of the elite Fallschirmjager (paratroopers). Later a few more proper SAS operations were carried out, typically with groups of four-man teams being landed by MTBs and demolishing railways and bridges. Stirling was already in disagreement with higher authority over how the SAS should be used; they were being utilised more and more as amphibious assault troops, which was the proper role for the Commandos, or as a substitute for armoured reconnaissance forces.

The regiment went back to North Africa for a short time and then to the UK in March 1944. The SAS Brigade was now being formed in the Ayrshire area of Scotland and training done for the invasion of France.

The Airborne Forces staff proposed to drop the SAS just behind the German front line in an attempt to cut off the forward troops from their first-line reserves. Not only was this totally against the SAS method of attacking the enemy where he was weakest, not strongest, the lightly-armed troops would have been no match for the German armour and motorised infantry that they would have been up against. The SAS Brigadier, Roderick McLeod, was a gunner with no special operations experience but Paddy Mayne and Bill Stirling were dead-set against this plan. When Stirling asked the staff to reconsider, they refused, and he resigned his command. As his brother said of him, " he lost the battle but won the war ", for this drastic action did make them reconsider and eventually it was decided that SAS parties would be dropped no closer than 80km (50 miles) from the front line.

Stirling spent the rest of the war in rear echelon jobs. After his discharge he re-entered the business world, dividing his time between Keir( where the Stirling family home was in Scotland), London and various African countries. By the late 1950s he was running companies such as Stirling-Astaldi, Keir & Cawder Estates and Derbyshire Granite. Besides interests in the UK these companies were involved in activities including road-building, ore mining and quarrying in Africa. Bill also provided capital for a number of David's businesses. Later he retired to be laird of Keir, where he died.

Brian Franks ( Lt. Col. B. M. F. Franks, DSO, MC, Royal Corps of Signals )

Born 1910, died 1982. Both before and after the war a Territorial Army reservist, he joined No.8 Commando in 1940. Became the Signals Officer of Layforce, in which capacity he served in the fighting for Crete in 1941. Later he commanded the first squadron of the GHQ Liaison Regiment(" Phantom" ) established in the Middle East. This unit, divided into six-man teams, had the job of obtaining first-hand information from the most forward positions and reporting back directly to the theatre headquarters via high-powered radio. In 1944-45 F Squadron served in the signals support role for the SAS Brigade.

Bob Laycock arrived back in the Middle East with his Special Service Brigade Headquarters in 1943 to take charge of the four Commandos involved in the invasion of Italy. Laycock himself was to go to Salerno with Nos.2 and 41(RM) Commandos, while a second Brigade HQ was formed under John Durnford-Slater for the other two commandos and the SRS. Franks became Brigade Major, today more accurately called the Chief of Staff, of this headquarters. As such he served with it in the fighting around Taranto and later at Termoli. He impressed the SRS and 2SAS men who fought at Termoli with his coolness under fire. Franks also possessed all the diplomatic skills needed in dealing with the top brass. Therefor when Bill Stirling resigned, he was appointed CO of 2SAS and continued the preparation for the invasion of Europe.

After D-Day Lieutenant Colonel Franks stayed in the UK a bit longer than Paddy Mayne. He took ninety men of 2SAS and Phantom to the Vosges Mountains in August 1944 for Operation Loyton. Here they mounted hit-and-run attacks on the Germans for ten weeks, sometimes aided by the Maquis (resistance; officially the French Forces of the Interior). Unfortunately a third of the force was lost. Other squadrons also carried out such missions and later a new squadron was sent to Italy under Roy Farran, specifically to work with local guerillas. Like 1SAS Franks' regiment returned to the UK for a short time in 1945. Operation Archway was to be the largest SAS operation of the war and began with a reinforced squadron each from 1 and 2 SAS landed at Ostend on 20 March. Totalling about 300 all ranks they came under Franks' command as Frankforce. Their first assignment was to the US XVIII Airborne Corps for short-range recce missions in northern Germany. Frankforce then helped the Guards Armoured Division in the seizure of the area around the Dortmund-Elms canal at the end of March. From then on the two squadrons worked with the armoured recce regiments of the three British armoured divisions, the jeeps' speed complementing the firepower of the armoured cars and tanks. By the end of the war both had crossed the Elbe, suffering light casualties in this last campaign. The SAS Brigade as a whole inflicted over twenty times as many casualties as they took in the operations of 1944/45, and in addition took about 5000 German prisoners.

When the SAS Brigade returned from Norway in August 1945 the French and Belgian regiments were given back to their own armies. Despite the efforts of Mike Calvert, who had taken over as Brigadier in February, and a report by the Directorate of Tactical Investigation which highlighted the SAS successes, the British regiments were to be disbanded. This happened in October, following which most of the non-Regular members were discharged. From then on Franks fought an almost lone battle for a reserve SAS unit to be established so that the skills of these veterans were not lost. He was later aided in this by the SAS Regimental Association which he had established. Eventually a compromise was agreed upon by the War Office. The Artists' Rifles, an old London TA battalion of the Rifle Brigade, was redesignated 21^st Special Air Service Regiment ( Artists' ) when the TA was reformed in 1947. ( The number 21 commemorated 1 and 2 SAS). At first the Artists' capbadge was worn but soon the winged dagger made a reappearance. Franks commanded this unit until 1950 and he was succeeded in the decade that followed by a number of other distinguished wartime officers now returned to civilian life. These included Charles Newman, who had led the famous St. Nazaire raid, who was followed by Jock Lapraik and then David Sutherland, both of whom had served in the SAS " orphan ", the Special Boat Service. 21 SAS 's worth was soon proved, when in 1950 a squadron under Tony Greville-Bell, one of Franks' wartime officers, joined the new regular unit in Malaya. Without Franks it is very possible that the SAS would have disappeared forever. Brian Franks worked in the hotel industry most of his life and was Managing Director of the Hyde Park Hotel from 1959 to 1972. He was also Honourary Colonel of 21SAS for many years, and later Colonel Commandant of the SAS Regiment.