In July 1941 North Africa was the main scene of British combat operations against the German army. A British force based in Egypt confronted German and Italian troops defending the Italian colony of Libya. The Western Desert (as this area was known to the British) was a hostile environment in which to wage war. Roads were poor along the coast and almost nonexistant in the hinterland. Armies, heavily dependent upon their lines of supply, rely on a variety of installations - vehicle parks, POL (Petrol, Oil, Lubricants) dumps, airfields and staff headquarters - to ensure the maintenance of their fighting power. In the Western Desert these installations were largely concentrated along the coast, near the ports where supplies would arrive from Europe. As an army moved further from its main port, so its supply line became mor tenuous and more vulnerable.
David Stirling, a Scots guards Lieutenant, had participated in a number of large-scale raids on communications targets along the Cyrenaican coast. These had all ended in failure, as the size of the force made their presence in the cavinity of the target easily detectable. These unsuccessful ventures nagged at Stirling and he started thinking about alternative methods of raiding that might be employed.
Stirling concluded that the concept of raids against the enemy "soft" targets was still sound, but that the forces hitherto used were too large and cumbersome to achieve the surprise necessary for a successful attack. He proposed that a small unit of four or five men could successfully infiltrate enemy lines and strike at lightly defended targets. Their usefulness could be increased by making these men extremely versatile fighters, able to reach their targets by sea, land of parachute. His ideas were soon brought to the attention of the commanders of the British Middle East forces, General Sir Claude Auchinleck and Mojor-General Sir Neil Ritchie. They gave Stirling permission to implement his ideas, placing him in charge of the SAS's operational planning and training. The SAS began as "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade - a name chosen to deceive German intelligence into thinking that a whole new airborne brigade had been formed - and it's 65 members set up their training camp at Kabrit on the Suez Canal.
The first SAS raids were launched against the airfields at Timimi and Gazala on 16 November 1941. The men were tobr dropped by parachute from the bombers and make their way to their targets over land. unfortunately, these two initial operations were failures because weather conditions were totally unsuitable for parachute drops. The raids bore fruit of another kind, however. After landing, some of the SAS parties managed to make their way to their rendevouz with the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) which was to drive them back to the base. Here Stirling met David Lloyd Owen of the LRDG, who suggested that him men should be used to drive the SAS to it's targets. The result was on a second pair of raids, conducted in December, two SAS groups succeeded in destroying a total of 61 enemy aircraft.
Throughout 1942, the SAS raided enemy airfields, supply dumps, and shipping in harbours. Mibility was improved by the acquisition of a number of jeeps which were heavily armed with Browning M2 .50 calibre and Vickers K machine guns. During the Bagush raid on the night of 7 july 1942, these jeeps were put to good effect when they charged across the airfield, shooting up the enemy aircraft with thei machinguns.
After the defeat of Rommels forces at El Alamein in November 1942, the SAS concentrated its efforts against the roads used by the German and italian Forces in retreat. It successfully forced some enemy traffic off the raods during the night, thereby complementing the RAF's ground-attack aircraft which harried daytime movements. Once Anglo-American forces had landed in the French North Arfrican colonies (Operation torch), German and Italian forces moved into Tunisia, where they occupied defensive positions prepared by the French in case of an Italian attack from Libya. once again the SAS went into action against the enemy's supply lines. However, the Tunisian countryside was not as suitable for its operations in Libya had been. The flattish desert wastes of the Libyan interior were replaced by the scrub-covered Tunisian hills and cultivated valleys. The population was also less sympathetic than the Libyans to an Allied victory. The result of these factors was that the SAS had a rather mixed record of operations. Many members of the Regiment were captured, including the commanders and founder, David Stirling. Their nuisance value is reflected however, by the fact that the Germans thought it necessary for form a special company to hunt down SAS raiding parties. |
