SAS: Behind enemy lines, Analysing the Origin and Development of the SAS, 1941-45
The Special Air Service, commonly referred to as the SAS, is a special forces unit of the British Army established in 1941 by Lt. Colonel Sir David Stirling. Stirling believed that instead of fighting the enemy in a frontal attack, specialised groups could go behind enemy lines to wreak havoc on the German and Italian forces. Stirling’s vision for a small, highly mobile raiding force was revolutionary within the British Army, which still relied heavily on conventional large-scale operations (National Army Museum, n.d.). With the idea in place, Stirling now had to convince the British command to turn it into reality, a task that would soon prove to be quite difficult. So how exactly did the SAS transform from a dangerous experiment into an elite unit, celebrated for their innovative war tactics between 1941 and 1945? This article argues that Stirling’s perseverance, coupled with the innovative tactics and rigorous training of the SAS overcame early disaster to prove the power of non-traditional warfare, securing the future of the SAS and being essential in the liberation of North Africa, Europe and beyond.
The Early Days of the SAS
After developing his plan for a highly mobile, specialised force, David Stirling faced resistance from traditional military leadership. The Scottish officer was often viewed as a maverick rather than a model soldier, because in the eyes of traditional commanders a soldier was meant to show discipline, respect the chain of command, and most importantly, follow orders without question. To propose his idea to high command, he slipped past the guard of the Middle East Headquarters in Cairo after failing to gain a pass. Stirling managed to convince General Sir Neil Ritchie that such a unit could offer a new advantage. The name of his creation was L Detachment. This was meant as a deception maneuver, since Stirling wanted to keep the new unit a secret and confuse the Axis powers. The “L” was chosen deliberately to make the enemy think there were already similar units, suggesting a much larger force than actually existed. The term “Detachment” implied it was part of a bigger brigade, the Special Air Service Brigade, reinforcing the illusion of a new large airborne formation.
The first operation of L detachment on November 16 and 17 of 1941, was called “Operation Squatter”. It revealed both the potential and fragility of Stirling’s new war tactic. Five aircraft carrying 55 paratroopers were to land behind Libyan lines in the middle of the night to plant explosives on both German and Italian aircraft. They would then go to a meeting point in the desert, where the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), a unit specialised in desert navigation, would be waiting for them. Yet extreme weather conditions, poor coordination and limited experience undermined the mission. Early SAS missions were marked by extreme weather, unreliable navigation, and high casualty rates. All of this shaped the disastrous outcome of Operation Squatter (Winterman, 2011).
Earlier, ground beacons had been placed to guide the aircraft, but were made invisible due to a storm. Once on the ground, confusion set in. It took David Stirling two hours to locate his team. Several men had to be left behind due to injuries sustained during the parachute drop. This failure exposed that the initial idea of parachute drops was poorly suited to the extreme desert weather, a lesson Stirling would soon apply.
Other teams were not better off. Lieutenant Paddy Mayne’s group was also forced to leave two men behind. One of the aircraft was hit by enemy artillery, with a shell fragment lodged behind the compass, causing the pilot to fly in circles. Those men were eventually taken prisoner. As if these setbacks were not enough, the weather took a turn for the worse. Heavy rain followed the desert storm, ruining the explosives and rendering the mission impossible.
Operation Squatter was, by most measures, a disaster. Not only did they fail to destroy any enemy aircraft, but 21 of the 55 men were either dead, missing, or had been taken prisoner. Stirling was worried that this would be the end of the SAS. Operation Squatter had shown how quickly things could go wrong, but it also showed Stirling the potential of his new unit. The SAS’s lack of preparation, training, and suitable equipment had shown its consequences. For example, to practice parachute landings, they jumped off moving vehicles. Not because they wanted to, but because they had no other resources.
Rather than abandoning the idea, Stirling focused on his mistakes and adapted his tactics. Parachute drops would soon be replaced by vehicles in cooperation with the LRDG, a change that directly addressed the navigation and casualty problems from Operation Squatter. Stirling’s only worry was that the unit would be disbanded, but the headquarters was worrying about other things. The Afrika Korps, a German unit, had managed to penetrate into Egypt.
The LRDG got orders to attack the airfields at the Gulf of Sirte so the Italians and Germans wouldn’t be able to damage Lieutenant-Colonel Reid and his troops, who were coming from the south. Reid had previously succeeded in taking over Jalo and wanted to march even further. The LRDG, however, was not trained to attack, only to observe and navigate through the desert. So the mission went to the SAS. Now they finally had a chance to prove themselves.
Operation Green Room: First Successes
Operation Green Room took place about a month after Operation Squatter. The plan was to go with one group led by Stirling to investigate Sirte, the biggest airfield, on December 14. That same night, another group would go to El Agheila. On December 21, Bill Fraser and his men would attack Agedabia.
While Stirling drove to Sirte, they were spotted by Italian aircraft. They hid the cars and covered them with camouflage cloths before quickly hiding themselves. The aeroplanes could no longer see them, yet they still fired for about fifteen minutes before they gave up and left. Luckily, no one got injured. This showed that Stirling’s decision to use vehicles instead of aircraft offered a significant tactical advantage. This decision was made after Operation Squatter, when Stirling realised that parachute drops would only heighten the risk for casualties. Stirling decided to acquire a number of heavily armed jeeps to carry out attacks much more swiftly, giving the SAS more chance to evade or overwhelm enemy patrols (Undiscovered Scotland n.d). On top of that the vehicles carried extra fuel, water, and explosives for long trips. Teams could travel farther and bring heavier firepower than with parachute drops (DDay.Center n.d.).
Due to the realisation that the Italians knew of their presence, Stirling made a slight change to the plan. Learning from Operation Squatter, particularly the wide dispersal of the SAS men across the desert, leaving them vulnerable and costing them a lot of time to regroup, Stirling decided to split into two groups. The idea was that if one of them failed, the other might still succeed. Another difference with Operation Squatter was that the two groups were much smaller. During the first mission of the SAS over 50 men were sent out, but during Operation Greenroom there were only 15 to 20 men. This gave them the ability to move faster and lowered the risk of being spotted by the enemy. These would all soon prove to be very wise choices. One team managed to plant bombs on about 14 aeroplanes and destroyed the dashboards of 10 others. That was not all; they destroyed tanks and a warehouse with ammunition as well. Bill Fraser’s group achieved something similar at Agedabia.
Another group soon found out that the airfield of El Aghelia was empty. They blew up some trucks and stumbled across an Italian patrol who immediately surrendered. Lewes decided that they were going to use the Italian vehicle as a disguise, and together with the British trucks, they drove to Mersa Brega, a small military base. They were not discovered because British vehicles were sometimes taken by Italian and German troops. The SAS soldiers placed the bombs on the enemy vehicles, and it only took a few minutes before they were discovered. After a twenty-minute gunfight, they quickly left, and by a miracle, no one got hurt. It is because of Lewes that the mission became more successful. Thanks to his adaptive and problem-solving thinking, they still managed to do much damage despite the many challenges they faced. This effectiveness was the direct result of extensive training. The goal was to make every single man independent. There were lectures on quite advanced medical care, on intelligence-gathering, signalling and demolitions. On the range, the men had to familiarize themselves with every form of weapon including German and Italian ones. There was strenuous PT and swimming in the Suez Canal (Kemp, 2000, 13). This level of preparation clearly distinguished the SAS from conventional military units, once again demonstrating that the SAS was no ordinary unit. The decision to implement the intense training followed after the realisation that the men were not skilled enough for Operation Squatter, contributing to the disastrous outcome of it. The SAS operated in small teams, therefore, being able to survive on your own was important, hence why they started focusing on individual competence and adaptability.
The full mission was completed by December 23, when they celebrated Christmas. The SAS managed to kill or wound 50 enemies and destroy over 60 aircraft and dozens of vehicles. No SAS soldier got hurt (Macintyre, 2018, 108). The mission was a huge success, and gave a huge boost to the men’s morale. Operation Green Room secured the future of the SAS and strengthened their position in the British Army. Where their first mission had exposed weaknesses in training and execution, Operation Green Room demonstrated that these shortcomings had been taken care of. The improvements were evident in both preparation and performance. Following the disastrous outcome of Operation Squatter, the SAS had completely reformed its training and operation approach, placing more emphasis on individual competence, flexibility and coordination. The unit proved that it could rapidly learn from failure and adapt accordingly, turning their weaknesses into strengths within a short period. In only a year, the SAS managed to destroy over 400 aircraft (Johnson, 2022). The raids proved that destroying enemy aircraft on the ground was more effective than fighting them in the air, since some German aircraft were superior to the Royal Air Force. The effects of Stirling’s new and innovative war tactics proved to be very useful for the Allied Forces, despite early concerns from higher command. The SAS would continue their way in Africa and were so successful that in 1942, they were expanded to the 1st SAS Regiment. On top of that, some of the men were also rewarded with promotions. And their success did not end here, but would continue in Europe.
Contribution of the SAS during World War II and beyond
After their successes in Africa, they were soon deployed in Europe as the Allied forces began making plans for the liberation of Europe in 1943. They were part of the massive Allied invasion of Sicily and would prove to be essential during this mission. Paddy Mayne would lead the attack, since David Stirling had been captured in Africa. His capture brought new challenges. Paddy Mayne lacked some of the crucial characteristics that Stirling had in order to lead the SAS, such as strategic thinking and diplomacy. He was a respected and courageous leader, but was not popular among his superiors, most of whom felt like the best days of the SAS had passed. On top of that, he was denied a three-day leave to go to his father’s funeral and did not take the news lightly. Therefore, many men expected this to be the end of the SAS, but Mayne fought to keep the regiment intact. At last, they managed to find a compromise. The SAS would be split into the Special Boat Squadron and the Special Raiding Squadron. The latter would be led by Mayne himself. The SAS had changed from a small, mobile unit, into a larger regiment that consisted of more than 300 men. Instead of only operating behind enemy lines, they now also contributed to broader Allied operations. The SAS became more integrated into the British Army. It was crucial for the SAS, who had once been a free and independent regiment in Africa, to listen to the headquarters in order to ensure its future. This shows how determined these men were, and how much they believed in the SAS. They gave up a lot so that Stirling’s idea could continue to exist.
On July 10, 1943, the SRS was tasked with taking out the artillery defense along the Sicilian coastline. They managed to capture 700 enemy soldiers in a matter of minutes and all throughout the night they would continue to destroy enemy equipment and capture more men (Johnson, 2022). After this, they continued to fight their way through Italy. What they did not like however, was that during a mission in Bagnara, Stirling’s idea for the SAS was completely abolished. They had to lead direct, frontal attacks, something that any group of well-trained soldiers could do. The complete consequences of this would become clear later on. In Termoli they accidentally overtook the retreating German troops. An enormous gunfight ensued. In the end they did manage to take Termoli, but not without the loss and capture of SAS men. This proved that the SAS really needed their main advantage, which was the element of surprise.
After World War II the SAS was disbanded, but this was not necessarily the end of it. A small group of carefully selected SAS veterans were sent to Germany to search for missing SAS members and investigate the disappearance of villagers in Moussey. Their mission was to find war criminals and bring them to justice. The operation was top secret, and most SAS veterans were unaware of it (Lewis, 2025, 12). The fact that former SAS soldiers continued to be trusted with dangerous and highly secretive missions after the war demonstrates that the British Army still recognized the value of the SAS. This shows that even after the war, when the SAS no longer officially existed, they still fought for justice. This continued reliance on former SAS soldiers helped with the reintroduction of the regiment in the British Army later on.
Legacy of the SAS
During their stay in Europe the SAS worked together with local resistance groups, participated in operations of the Allied invasion of France and supported resistance movements across occupied Europe. Although they faced many challenges, they still managed to turn the SAS into one of the most elite units of the British Army. The SAS transformed from an unstable experiment into a cornerstone of Allied special operations. Stirling’s revolutionary idea of infiltrating behind enemy lines overcame initial resistance from traditional command by surpassing all expectations on how successful this new unit would be. By working together with the LRDG and embracing flexibility, they destroyed hundreds of aircraft during their stay in Africa.
Even after Stirling’s capture, Paddy Mayne’s determination preserved the SAS through their operations in Europe. Despite their frustrations with frontal assaults that went against Stirling’s idea, they still managed to contribute an enormous amount to the liberation of Europe.
Released from captivity and later knighted for his contributions, Stirling proved that military innovations demand courage, rapid adaptation and perseverance. After World War II, the SAS was disbanded, yet some SAS-veterans still wanted to ensure that war criminals would be brought to justice, partly as a form of respect for the relatives of the people who were killed by the Nazis. Shortly after, in 1947, the unit was revived, and to this day, the SAS is still one of the most elite special forces in the British Army.
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