The making of the SAS, the men who dare

[Valin]

The Telegraph:

A new book reveals the early history of the SAS in unprecedented detail and allows us insights into the modern regiment.
Tim Collins
9/22/11


Founding member Colonel 'Paddy’ Mayne transformed SAS operations Photo: SAS REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION

Travelling through France this summer on the A6 towards Auxerre, I made a detour to a tiny hamlet called Les Ormes to pay homage to a fellow SAS man.

In August 1944, the SAS had dropped into the countryside of central France in an operation code-named “Kipling”. The mission was to disrupt stiff German resistance and to provide information for the advance of General George Patton’s US divisions. At that time the only “behind lines” special forces in the world were British, and they were much in demand.

On August 23, a two-jeep SAS patrol was on an administrative move when it encountered a distraught French lady outside Les Ormes. She warned that the SS were in the village and about to shoot 20 French hostages as they sought to curb SAS activity. A Canadian trooper called Fauchois, fluent in French, was the first to insist they did something. Lance Corporal “Curly” Hall agreed the right thing to do was to “have a crack”.

So, living up to the regiment’s motto “Who dares wins”, they set off at high speed, the French lady screaming at them to turn back with the words “There are hundreds of them!”

As they turned into the village square, they saw drawn up in front of the church the hostages and mobs of SS. The first to die was the SS officer who, pistol in hand, turned to stare in disbelief at the jeeps. He had found the SAS he was searching for. In seconds, the square was a charnel house with dead and dying SS troops moaning as the captives made good their escape.

(Snip)

SAS War Diary, 1941—1945

(Note: If you have not read Steven Pressfield's Killing Rommel: A Novel Do yourself a great big favor.)