User Guide

A major blow to the SAS came during one of their last North African opera-
tions when Stirling—by now a Lieutenant Colonel—was captured. After four
escapes and recaptures, he was ultimately sent to the infamous Castle Colditz in
Germany, a supposedly escape-proof prison. Little did the Germans know that
some of the captured RAF pilots at Colditz were busily at work building a glider
(the “Colditz Cock”) out of stolen bed slats and curtain fabric, intending to launch
it from the roof by a catapult powered by a falling rock-filled bathtub. To the great
disappointment of the glider builders, Colditz was recaptured by the Allies, and
Stirling freed, before they had a chance to see if their creation would really fly.
In addition to its effect on morale, the major consequence of Stirling’s capture
was that the SAS no longer had a special champion at HQ. It soon came under the
organizational command of other parachute regiments or raiding formations.
Nonetheless, it continued as an extremely effective force, by now grown to two reg-
iments (one commanded by Stirling’s brother). In subsequent months the SAS and
its SBS continued to operate in the Greek islands, and later in Sardinia and Italy.
When the Allies landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944, they found that their
way had already been prepared by SAS units; and when the Germans tried to
rush reinforcements to the beachheads, they found railway lines and road bridges
blown up by small independent SAS units, while others harried them and kept
thousands of troops tied up in German rear areas, making them unavailable to
fight the invaders. Basic SAS technique was to set up a base in a remote area
(forests, mountains, etc.) with good parachute landing zones, then make sorties
to attack the Germans. In many of these operations, they enlisted the aid of local
underground forces such as the French Maquis; in later operations, their areas of
endeavor spread to the Low Countries and ultimately even into Germany itself.
Throughout the war, SAS units were effective to an extent far beyond their mod-
est numbers. After all, if a handful of men could not only destroy materiel and
interrupt lines of communication, but also keep hundreds or even thousands of
Germans occupied looking for them, those Germans were rendered ineffective for
other tasks. Similarly, the mere threat of SAS interference often forced the
Germans to change their plans.
THE SAS SINCE WORLD WAR II
In the years since World War II, the SAS has remained in existence. It also
remains, by choice, a somewhat shadowy organization, one that’s extremely
reluctant to reveal details about its makeup or operations. SAS teams have
served “behind the scenes” in almost every conflict in which Great Britain has
been involved, ranging as far afield as fighting insurgents in Yemen, Oman, or
Malaysia, operating covertly against drug cartels in South America...or as close
to home as Northern Ireland or even downtown London, where an SAS opera-
tion stormed and recaptured the Iranian embassy from terrorists in May of 1980.
At any time, the regular SAS regiment numbers only about 350 officers and men,
but in overt conflicts such as the Falkland Islands or the Gulf War, its effectiveness
has been far beyond its modest numbers. For example, it’s widely believed that
the reason that Royal Air Force Tornados were so effective against many of
Saddam Hussein’s concealed mobile Scud missile launchers was that most of them
were pinpointed and targeted by four-man SAS teams operating—sometimes for
days on end without any support—within Iraq.
4
INTRODUCTION TO THE SAS