Episode 1 SAS: Rogue Warriors


Episode 1

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On a November night in 1941, high above the North African desert,

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five ancient RAF planes clawed their way through a ferocious storm.

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Inside, 55 paratroopers from a new and intensely secret combat unit

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were ready to jump over the target.

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But the planes were lost, far behind enemy lines

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and under heavy fire.

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The pilot turned to the officer in command and asked,

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"Should we turn back?"

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Many would not survive the mission.

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All the men knew it.

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None hesitated.

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One by one, they hurled themselves into the gale.

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These were the first men of the SAS.

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Today, the Special Air Service is the world's most famous combat unit,

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with the motto Who Dares Wins.

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But the story of how it came into existence has been, until now,

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a closely-guarded secret.

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With unprecedented access to the SAS archives,

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unseen footage

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and exclusive interviews with its founding members...

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..this series tells the remarkable story behind

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an extraordinary fighting force.

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It was essential that some success should be recorded

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and recorded quickly.

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That band of vagabonds had to grasp what they had to do.

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We should never have dropped under those conditions.

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But, if we hadn't,

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there would never have been an SAS, that is for sure.

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The SAS is one of the most mysterious military organisations

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in the world.

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Its missions are closely guarded secrets.

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The records are kept securely locked away.

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Now, for the first time,

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the SAS has agreed to open up its archive and allow me to reveal

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the true story of their formation

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during the darkest days of World War II.

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This is the official image of the wartime SAS.

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The one-dimensional macho men of popular myth.

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But the archive reveals that, in truth, they were, by turns,

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eccentric, resilient, intelligent, amateur,

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and, in some cases, borderline psychotic.

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The regiment very nearly died at birth.

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It faced as many enemies inside the British military establishment

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as it did on the battlefield.

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But these rogues and misfits fought from the deserts of North Africa

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to the very heart of Nazi Germany

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and recorded it all in the archive's most revealing artefact.

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Hidden in the SAS archives is this - the war diary.

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An extraordinary scrapbook of combat reports and original photographs,

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secretly put together by the men themselves in a leather binder,

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liberated from Nazi Germany.

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It lists every detail of every mission.

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But, more than that, it also contains the words and memories

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of the men who carried out those missions,

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providing a unique insight into the psychology,

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character and personalities of the people who forged the SAS.

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In the summer in 1941, at the height of the war in the Desert,

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a bored and eccentric young army officer

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was planning to take on the German and Italian forces

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with an elaborate scheme that was imaginative, radical,

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and entirely against the rules.

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This young soldier wasn't exactly the stuff

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of traditional military heroes.

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He lacked the most basic military discipline.

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He'd never seen any actual fighting.

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And he couldn't even march straight.

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He was so tall and so lazy

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his comrades nicknamed him the Giant Sloth.

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David Archibald Stirling was a dreamer

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who had once hoped to be the first man to climb Mount Everest,

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or perhaps become a famous artist.

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When the war came, Stirling joined the commando force in Africa

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hoping to seize military glory.

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His seniors considered this unlikely.

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One report described him as "irresponsible and unremarkable."

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But Stirling wasn't quite the layabout

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his commanders thought he was.

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Britain was losing the war.

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And Stirling, who was nothing if not self-confident,

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believed he knew just what to do to reverse the tide.

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'Film roll. 42, 53, take one.'

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In 1987, David Stirling agreed to tell his complete story on film.

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Hidden away for decades,

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it is an extraordinary first-hand account from the maverick visionary

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who dreamed of reinventing the way war was fought.

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From the start, we knew we would never make it to a regiment

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unless we succeeded in establishing a new role.

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It had to be regarded as a new type of force

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to extract the very maximum out of surprise and guile.

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By 1941, the Axis powers of Hitler and Mussolini had overrun Europe

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and were seeking to dominate the Mediterranean.

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Under the command of Hitler's most formidable general, Erwin Rommel,

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they seemed close to achieving just that.

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His aircraft dominated the skies,

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effectively halting any counterattack.

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For the British to break the deadlock,

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a way had to be found to destroy the enemy's aircraft on the ground.

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But with his airfields hundreds of miles

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behind the lines in the desert,

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massed British commando raids were practically impossible.

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Stirling could see what the generals could not.

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That the commando force were simply too large and cumbersome

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to be fit for purpose.

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He began to imagine what it would be like if the unit was split up

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into smaller raiding parties.

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These would be far more mobile and could react quickly to changes

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in terrain or weather.

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They might be able to penetrate deep behind enemy lines

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and attack several targets at once without warning.

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First of all I had to relate it to an operation in order to capture

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the imagination of the top command.

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Stirling knew that the Germans had used paratroopers to great effect

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and he believed that the British should develop a force of their own.

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Parachuting would give him the advantage of novelty

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when selling the idea of his unit,

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and it might be quite fun to try it as well.

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Stirling acquired a shipment of parachutes,

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and, with no training whatever,

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carried out his first experimental jump.

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He simply strapped on a parachute and jumped out of a plane.

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I was a bit unlucky,

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because my parachute, when it opened,

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was attached to the tail pin,

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and, before it broke loose,

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it took off a panel or two off the parachute.

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I descended a good deal faster than my companions.

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I couldn't move either of my two legs

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and I went to Alexandria Hospital.

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And, of course, it gave me a marvellous opportunity

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to do some homework on the project.

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Undaunted by his disastrous first parachute jump,

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Stirling was inspired to develop his plan in a different way.

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The forces defending the Axis airfields were expecting

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to be attacked from the Mediterranean,

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and so had all their guns trained to the North.

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What if Stirling and his parachutists attacked them

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from the opposite direction?

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To the south lay the Great Sand Sea,

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a vast waterless desert covering 45,000 square miles.

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Temperatures here can reach 120 degrees by day

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and plummet to freezing at night.

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It is not an easy place to live.

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But it is a very easy place to die.

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One of the most hostile environments on Earth.

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The Germans and Italians considered it virtually impassable

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and therefore left it largely unprotected.

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Stirling observed this was one sea the Hun was not watching.

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From here, they could wreak havoc on the remote airfields

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by attacking from where they were least expecting.

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And then slip back into the embracing emptiness

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of the Sand Sea before the enemy knew what had hit them.

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Stirling had just drawn up the blueprint for an entirely new type

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of warfare that might be the key to defeating Rommel.

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We would have to have access to intelligence.

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We were going to develop methods and techniques

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which were new in Army terms.

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And, therefore, we would have to have a special status of our own.

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But, first, this lowly lieutenant with no battle experience would have

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to persuade high command that his idea could actually work.

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Housed in a large block of commandeered flats

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and surrounded by barbed wire,

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British HQ in Cairo was an impenetrable fortress

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of old-fashioned thinking.

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Stirling knew his plan was so radical

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that if it passed through the normal channels, it would perish

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on the desk of the first officer who read it.

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In the eyes of some, sneaking in by parachute,

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blowing up planes in the middle of the night and then running away

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was a job for saboteurs,

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not soldiers of His Majesty's Armed Forces.

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Well, that meant I had to more or less ignore

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the normal rules and regulations because there was no way

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that anybody was going to back the scheme,

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except possibly at the very top.

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Stirling's only option was to get his plan directly

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into the hands of the top brass.

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How he did so has become the stuff of myth.

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Still on crutches after his accident,

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Stirling hobbled up to the entrance where he was stopped by two guards.

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Unfortunately, I didn't have a pass and I was refused admittance,

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so I had to use my crutches as a kind of ladder

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to get over the wire when the guards weren't looking.

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Going as fast as his stiff legs could carry him,

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he burst into a room marked Adjutant General.

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It was an unfortunate choice.

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I had forgotten he was the same chap who tried very hard

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to have me sacked

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when I didn't take my military training very seriously.

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So when I appeared and put a paper for him to read,

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he was absolutely outraged.

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Hearing the guard thundering upstairs,

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he dashed into the next room.

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Which turned out to contain General Sir Neil Ritchie...

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..the very man he wanted to see.

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It took him rather by surprise, and he settled down to read it.

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He really got quite engrossed in it

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and had forgotten the rather irregular way it had been presented.

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He said this is something we can use.

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This is an almost perfect Stirling story.

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It has the patina of a tale

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polished, told, and retold after dinner.

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It is entirely possible that the whole thing was invented.

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But, whatever the truth of how Stirling got his notes

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under the noses of high command, his timing couldn't have been better.

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Richie's superior, General Sir Claude Auchinleck,

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had recently taken over as commander in chief and was under intense

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pressure from Winston Churchill to strike back at Rommel.

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With a major British counterattack looming,

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Stirling's plan could hamper enemy air power at a critical moment.

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And, if it failed,

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all that would be lost would be a handful of adventurers.

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Stirling was a mere lieutenant and an undistinguished one at that,

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but he had now won permission to create and command what looked

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suspiciously like a private army.

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To the fury of many at British HQ,

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Stirling was promptly promoted to captain and authorised to raise

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a force of six officers and 60 men.

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The Special Air Service, or SAS, was born.

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The name was the brain child of Brigadier Dudley Clarke,

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the chief of military deception in the Middle East.

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Operating from the basement of a Cairo brothel,

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Clarke distributed misinformation to baffle and mislead the enemy.

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He was also a master of disguise, with a taste for cross-dressing.

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Clarke wanted to convince the enemy that the British

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had a large airborne force in the area

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and so he invented the SAS Brigade in the form of

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Stirling's real, but very small, force of men.

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Clarke gave them the important sounding title - L Detachment,

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Special Air Service Brigade.

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Stirling would later joke that the L stood for learner.

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Stirling now set about recruiting men who would live up to the promise

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of the name Clarke had given them.

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'17, take one.'

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Those he chose were also interviewed in 1987.

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'Roll 67, take one.

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'29, take one.

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'41, take one.'

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Conventional soldiers were rejected out of hand.

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Stirling was looking for something rather different.

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An ability to think and react independently.

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I heard some, what you might term as a conversation that

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there was do or die boys being formed in Egypt.

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You'll get the diehards,

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they've got a nice, comfortable job polishing their seat.

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You was looking for men that you thought

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was better than the present ones that you were serving under.

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I had a lot of problems getting into the Army.

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A, because I was too young,

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and, B, because they thought that I wasn't big enough.

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I thought I was big enough.

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The adjutant sent a message saying,

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"There's a Lieutenant Stirling wants to see you."

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Then I realised he had an interest.

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He said, "Do you want to do something special?"

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Said to me, "What will your wife say if she finds out

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"that you've joined this parachute unit?"

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I said, "She won't know anything at all about it."

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So I was accepted.

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The men he chose were supremely brave

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and just short of irresponsible.

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Uncomplaining and unconventional rogues

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who could fight a new and secret sort of war.

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In a sense, they weren't really controllable.

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They all had this individuality.

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The object was to give them the same purpose.

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Most of them were escaping from conventional, regimental discipline.

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They didn't fully appreciate they were running into

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a much more exacting type of discipline.

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That band of vagabonds had to grasp what they had to do.

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We had to get down to training immediately.

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Stirling's enemies at British HQ couldn't stop him.

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But they could make life as difficult as possible

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for his band of renegades.

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The new detachment arrived at the designated spot to find a sign post

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with the unit's name scrawled on it,

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a few ragged tents, and a couple of chairs.

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Someone said, "Where's the camp?"

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And David said, "That's the first job you do is to steal one."

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It happened there was a New Zealand brigade

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particularly well-supplied with camp facilities,

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including a grand piano.

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So, we decided while the New Zealanders were out on their march,

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we would take what we were entitled to.

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We stole tents, we stole a piano, bars, the whole camp.

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By next morning, we had a really spectacularly effective,

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probably the best camp in the area.

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We thought it was great.

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We thought this is the unit to be with.

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And so started L Detachment.

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Forging a new fighting unit required someone who understood

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the practicalities of combat.

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David Stirling was the inspiration for the SAS

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but the man to turn that into hard military reality

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was Lieutenant Jock Lewes.

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This is hitherto unseen footage of Jock Lewes before the war.

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Athletic, rich, patriotic and handsome,

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a darling of the society magazines.

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"Be someone great", his father had told him.

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And, when war came, Lewes set about fulfilling that injunction.

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Jock was encouraged by his parents to be someone great...

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..ever since he was a child.

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Jock had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do.

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He wanted to shorten the war.

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He was fulfilling the greatness that his mother and father

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had expected him to rise to.

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While Stirling had been planning the SAS from his hospital bed,

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Lewes had come to a similar conclusion on the field of battle.

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He was a man Stirling was determined to have on his team.

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I put him in charge of training.

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It's something he had been longing to do.

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He improvised all kinds of new training techniques.

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This is the only footage of Lewes's unique style of parachute training.

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British paratroopers had never been dropped into the desert before.

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Without a plane available for training,

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Lewes decided to improvise.

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None of us had ever parachuted in our lives.

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Let's get that straight. None of us had done it.

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So, he had a brilliant idea.

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He thought it was anyway.

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And we got some trucks.

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And the idea was at 10mph, we'd jump off it backwards.

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So we did it. And then he thought 20mph.

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30mph, I'm afraid we gave up.

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But Jock went on.

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So what could you do?

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He jumps off a truck at 40 mile an hour

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and he asks you to jump off at 30.

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You just did it.

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Lewes's training was harsh, exacting and extremely dangerous.

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Many broke bones, including Jock himself,

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but his steely determination captured the imagination of his men.

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That was the thing with Jock Lewes's training.

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He said, "Never run away."

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He says, "Because once you start running, you stop thinking."

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It was very sound advice.

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But there was another secret side to Jock Lewes that would have given

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Stirling pause, had he known about it.

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Lewes had very nearly become a fascist.

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Touring Germany before the war,

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Lewes had become deeply impressed by the organisation and strength

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of the Third Reich.

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Lewes even fell in love with a young German woman.

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Senta Adriano was a society beauty and an enthusiastic Nazi.

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Then came Kristallnacht,

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the night of broken glass,

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as the Nazis went on the rampage against the Jews.

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And the politically naive Lewes suddenly saw with horrible clarity

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the true nature of the regime he had so enthused over.

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Lewes found a new love - Mirren Barford.

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Unimpeachably British and a woman worth fighting a war for.

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From the battlefront, Lewes wrote Mirren ever more loving letters.

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And she replied with similar passion.

0:25:020:25:04

Finally, he asked for her hand in marriage,

0:25:060:25:09

but not until he had vanquished the enemy.

0:25:090:25:11

"I swear I will not live to see the day when Britain hauls down

0:25:120:25:16

"the colours of her beliefs before totalitarian aggression.

0:25:160:25:21

"I willingly take up arms against Germany."

0:25:210:25:23

Lewes's ruthlessness and determination,

0:25:250:25:28

his utter dedication to the task of defeating Germany,

0:25:280:25:32

was that of a man who had been wronged by a faithless lover.

0:25:320:25:36

One who had made a terrible mistake

0:25:360:25:38

and was now determined to make amends.

0:25:380:25:41

Jock's letters to Mirren and her letters back to him

0:25:450:25:50

are the incredible love story of two people who'd only met ten times.

0:25:500:25:57

But because he was convinced that he was going to marry her,

0:25:580:26:04

he was able to reveal everything to her.

0:26:040:26:08

He couldn't tell her what the military orders were,

0:26:120:26:16

but he could tell her of the huge challenges he was facing.

0:26:160:26:20

How his faith was really being tested.

0:26:220:26:25

He was a Christian.

0:26:270:26:29

He didn't enjoy killing.

0:26:290:26:33

And he had to find a way of squaring the circle.

0:26:330:26:38

These letters and this love affair, at a distance,

0:26:400:26:45

was what enabled Jock to bear the burden.

0:26:450:26:48

-TV ANNOUNCER:

-Our paratroops have been training in the western desert

0:26:520:26:56

as well as in Britain.

0:26:560:26:57

In late 1941, the War Office allowed a newsreel to be made

0:26:570:27:01

of the unit in training,

0:27:010:27:02

quite possibly as part of Dudley Clarke's deception operation.

0:27:020:27:06

This rare footage shows Stirling in shorts,

0:27:060:27:10

introducing General Auchinleck to his men.

0:27:100:27:13

What we had was chaps who came from all walks of life

0:27:140:27:18

and there was short ones, tall ones, medium height.

0:27:180:27:21

We had to blend all that into a fighting body.

0:27:210:27:23

Stirling said that although he needed men who would be prepared

0:27:250:27:28

to kill at close quarters, he didn't want psychopaths.

0:27:280:27:32

Which was exactly how many people described

0:27:330:27:36

Stirling's most challenging recruit - Lieutenant Blair Mayne,

0:27:360:27:40

known as Paddy.

0:27:400:27:41

Paddy was very, very different.

0:27:410:27:45

The antithesis of Jock.

0:27:450:27:47

A former Irish rugby international,

0:27:500:27:53

Mayne was a hard drinker with a volcanic temper.

0:27:530:27:57

This is Stirling introducing Paddy Mayne to the general

0:27:590:28:03

but the Irishman had little respect for authority.

0:28:030:28:05

Stirling later claimed he'd found Mayne in prison,

0:28:070:28:10

awaiting court martial.

0:28:100:28:11

He found reason to knock out his commanding officer

0:28:110:28:16

and was doing time.

0:28:160:28:18

I persuaded him that our position was a good one and he joined up.

0:28:180:28:23

Recruiting Paddy Mayne was like adopting a wolf.

0:28:250:28:29

Exciting, certain to instil fear, but not necessarily sensible.

0:28:290:28:34

He had a marvellous battle nostril.

0:28:350:28:39

He knew how to exploit surprise.

0:28:390:28:41

And what looked to be absolutely foolhardy was legitimate with Paddy.

0:28:410:28:46

But I'd tell him, very firmly,

0:28:460:28:49

this commanding officer wasn't for hitting.

0:28:490:28:52

Stirling and his men were ready for battle,

0:28:540:28:57

and so it seemed was their commander-in-chief Claude Auchinleck.

0:28:570:29:01

Operation Crusader was planned as an all-out attack to relieve

0:29:020:29:07

the besieged town of Tobruk - a vital coastal stronghold.

0:29:070:29:10

But Tobruk was flanked by air fields,

0:29:120:29:14

bristling with enemy aircraft.

0:29:140:29:16

These would undoubtedly attack

0:29:170:29:19

Auchinleck's advancing ground forces,

0:29:190:29:22

unless they could be attacked first.

0:29:220:29:24

Stirling proposed to parachute in the SAS

0:29:240:29:28

deep behind enemy lines before the British ground attack.

0:29:280:29:31

These could then attack the individual air fields

0:29:320:29:35

and destroy as many aeroplanes as possible

0:29:350:29:38

using a new weapon designed by Jock Lewes.

0:29:380:29:41

Jock knew he had to find a bomb that would blow up an aircraft

0:29:430:29:48

and he had to find one that was light enough to carry.

0:29:480:29:51

The men could hear the occasional explosions during lunchtime when,

0:29:510:29:56

of course, Jock was working again.

0:29:560:29:58

Jock had mixed up a mixture of plastic, thermite and steel filings.

0:30:000:30:05

That was the secret - steel filings.

0:30:050:30:07

Of course, the thing blew up.

0:30:070:30:09

It was a great moment, a great moment.

0:30:110:30:13

He jumped for joy.

0:30:140:30:16

Shouting out and hugging the nearest NCOs.

0:30:170:30:21

He knew he'd cracked it.

0:30:210:30:22

And he knew that the SAS were going to be fully operational.

0:30:220:30:27

The war diary contains the SAS's first-ever battle order.

0:30:340:30:38

The top secret directive from HQ ordering the mission to go ahead.

0:30:380:30:42

Stirling and almost his entire force

0:30:460:30:48

would be dropped deep into the desert

0:30:480:30:51

with just five days' supply of food and water.

0:30:510:30:54

Armed with the new Lewes bombs,

0:30:570:30:59

the men would sneak onto the airfields at night

0:30:590:31:02

and plant their explosives on every aircraft they could find.

0:31:020:31:05

To escape from the desert,

0:31:070:31:08

a rendezvous was set up with the trucks of the LRDG -

0:31:080:31:12

the Long Range Desert Group,

0:31:120:31:14

a unit experienced in desert reconnaissance.

0:31:140:31:18

The pick-up point was dangerously close to the enemy.

0:31:180:31:21

The LRDG would wait no more than three days

0:31:210:31:24

before leaving the men alone in the desert.

0:31:240:31:27

Lewes was elated at the prospect of action at last.

0:31:300:31:34

His letters home ring with the chivalric tones of a crusader.

0:31:340:31:38

"We wait to prove ourselves.

0:31:380:31:40

"This unit cannot now die.

0:31:400:31:42

"It is alive and will live gloriously."

0:31:420:31:45

But for all Lewes's visions of glory,

0:31:470:31:50

there was one factor over which no-one had any control -

0:31:500:31:54

the weather.

0:31:540:31:55

With just hours to go before takeoff,

0:32:030:32:05

the weather forecast was atrocious.

0:32:050:32:08

Heavy rain and winds of at least 30 knots,

0:32:110:32:15

twice the maximum speed for parachuting.

0:32:150:32:17

Weather was against us going.

0:32:190:32:21

We were all given the option of opting out.

0:32:210:32:24

High command sent a message allowing Stirling to cancel the mission.

0:32:290:32:32

But, after months on the sidelines,

0:32:350:32:37

this was Stirling's first and perhaps his only chance

0:32:370:32:41

to demonstrate his radical new method of warfare.

0:32:410:32:44

Stirling and Lewes could have been tempted to say, "We'll cancel this."

0:32:450:32:51

But because of the opposition to the SAS in HQ Cairo,

0:32:520:32:56

they felt absolutely that if they didn't take this chance,

0:32:560:33:02

they might never get another chance again.

0:33:020:33:04

I wasn't prepared to see the first of our operations,

0:33:070:33:11

because of bad weather, being postponed.

0:33:110:33:14

It couldn't be postponed, it had to be cancelled.

0:33:140:33:18

We refused absolutely.

0:33:180:33:20

They gave us the option. So we went ahead.

0:33:200:33:23

Stirling almost certainly made the wrong decision

0:33:310:33:34

in allowing the operation to go ahead.

0:33:340:33:36

But if he had made the right decision and called it off,

0:33:390:33:43

there would probably never have been an SAS.

0:33:430:33:45

That evening, we were given a meal.

0:33:470:33:49

It was out of this world, the RAF had laid it on.

0:33:490:33:52

It was like the Last Supper.

0:33:520:33:54

I think the RAF thought they'd never see any of us again, you know.

0:33:560:33:59

Five of the RAF's cumbersome and outdated Bombay aircraft

0:34:100:34:15

clambered into the darkness.

0:34:150:34:17

With Stirling's men holding tight,

0:34:170:34:19

the planes flew into the worst storm in the area for 30 years.

0:34:190:34:24

As soon as they reached the coast,

0:34:310:34:32

the enemy's air defences opened up with a storm of anti-aircraft fire.

0:34:320:34:36

The plane inside was absolutely lit up.

0:34:410:34:44

Jock got up and just walked up and down as though nothing cared at all.

0:34:440:34:49

He gave you confidence.

0:34:490:34:51

"Well, he's not frightened, why am I frightened?"

0:34:510:34:53

He said, "Not to worry, but we'll have to jump.

0:34:530:34:55

"We don't know where we are, but we're going to jump."

0:34:550:34:57

It was a night without any moon, pitch-black.

0:34:570:35:02

And they dropped the 65 men

0:35:020:35:07

taking part all over the bloody shop.

0:35:070:35:11

Seized by the wind, most of the parachutists

0:35:170:35:20

landed miles from the drop zone.

0:35:200:35:22

Several, unable to unclip their parachutes in the high wind,

0:35:250:35:29

were scraped to death on the desert floor.

0:35:290:35:31

I don't know whether you know the desert at night-time,

0:35:540:35:57

but it gets as black as hell.

0:35:570:35:59

My arms, I had to hold them close to my chest because I was in pain.

0:36:010:36:07

Armed only with revolvers and a handful of grenades

0:36:110:36:14

and barely a day's supply of water,

0:36:140:36:17

as an attacking force, Stirling's team was now useless.

0:36:170:36:20

And, now, somehow, lost in the wilderness of sand,

0:36:220:36:26

the survivors would have to find their way to the rendezvous point.

0:36:260:36:29

Ahead of them lay a 36-hour march through high winds and driving rain.

0:36:290:36:35

Undaunted, Lewes said, "At least we won't die of thirst."

0:36:370:36:40

We saw this light in the distance.

0:36:520:36:54

Jock thought it was a star.

0:36:550:36:57

I said, "No, no, it's not a star.

0:36:590:37:01

"It's a light. That's the thing."

0:37:010:37:04

The handful of survivors had found the only way to get back out

0:37:040:37:09

of the desert - the trucks of the LRDG.

0:37:090:37:12

One of the last out was Stirling.

0:37:120:37:15

Dazed and exhausted, he asked, "Has anyone seen my men?"

0:37:150:37:19

One aircraft had been shot down,

0:37:250:37:27

some men had been killed in the parachute drop, some captured,

0:37:270:37:31

others dragged to their deaths, or left to die in the desert.

0:37:310:37:34

Only 21 of the 55 had returned.

0:37:360:37:39

Stirling remained at the desert rendezvous for two more days,

0:37:470:37:51

scanning the horizon in the hope that other stragglers

0:37:510:37:54

might eventually emerge.

0:37:540:37:56

None did.

0:37:580:37:59

It was tragic because there was so much talent in those who we lost.

0:38:010:38:05

We had to try and survive.

0:38:070:38:10

Thinking that 21 of us came out of that, we thought of the others...

0:38:190:38:23

We didn't know where they were, whether they were alive or dead.

0:38:230:38:26

I think most of us wanted to continue.

0:38:260:38:28

We'd gone through so much,

0:38:300:38:32

so whatever happened afterwards was going to be, as you would say,

0:38:320:38:35

a piece of cake. It wasn't, of course, but...

0:38:350:38:38

The raid had failed utterly.

0:38:400:38:43

But in disaster, as so often, lay the germ of salvation.

0:38:430:38:47

The thought now occurred to Stirling that if the LRDG could get them out

0:38:470:38:51

of the desert, they could surely drive them in as well.

0:38:510:38:55

With their distinctive Arab headdress

0:39:040:39:06

and their specially customised vehicles,

0:39:060:39:08

the Long Range Desert Group were part soldiers and part explorers

0:39:080:39:13

who had made the desert their home.

0:39:130:39:15

They had honed their skills by developing

0:39:170:39:19

advanced desert mapping techniques and using their own sun compass.

0:39:190:39:24

Their expertise made them the ideal desert scouting force,

0:39:270:39:31

primarily gathering intelligence while occasionally attacking

0:39:310:39:35

the enemy and committing piracy on the high desert.

0:39:350:39:38

One of the LRDG's best navigators

0:39:410:39:43

was 21-year-old Corporal Mike Sadler.

0:39:430:39:46

Now aged 96, he's the only man left to have fought alongside

0:39:460:39:50

the original soldiers of the SAS.

0:39:500:39:53

How do you navigate in the desert?

0:39:530:39:56

-How do you do it?

-It was a bit of an art, really.

0:39:560:39:59

It came naturally somehow.

0:39:590:40:01

And so I was fairly successful at it.

0:40:010:40:05

Sun threw a shadow onto a little sun compass

0:40:100:40:14

and you had to set the disc depending on the time of day

0:40:140:40:17

and the latitude that you were on and all that.

0:40:170:40:19

Come nightfall,

0:40:210:40:23

we had to establish whether we were right or not by observing the stars.

0:40:230:40:27

And that was the thing which I found so fascinating.

0:40:290:40:32

Sadler came to the LRDG as a gunner,

0:40:400:40:43

but had become obsessed with plotting courses across the sands.

0:40:430:40:47

As I'd been taking interest in it,

0:40:480:40:51

the first thing they said was, "Would you like to be a navigator?"

0:40:510:40:54

And I couldn't believe it.

0:40:540:40:57

So I said, "Yes, I would."

0:40:570:40:59

And I never looked at an anti-tank gun again, with great relief!

0:40:590:41:03

Stirling soon realised that men with the desert expertise of Mike Sadler

0:41:050:41:09

could deliver the SAS on time and on target

0:41:090:41:12

far better than the RAF ever could.

0:41:120:41:15

He was a very quiet fellow.

0:41:150:41:17

He never raised his voice.

0:41:170:41:19

But he was a bit inclined to forget you because he was not concentrating

0:41:190:41:23

so much on the job in hand.

0:41:230:41:26

He was thinking much more about higher matters.

0:41:260:41:29

Stirling took his new plan back to Cairo to find HQ in a state of panic.

0:41:380:41:43

The Axis had inflicted a major defeat on the British,

0:41:450:41:48

driving them out of Libya and back into Egypt.

0:41:480:41:51

But Rommel's rapid advance

0:41:530:41:55

had left his forces overstretched and vulnerable.

0:41:550:41:59

This was an opportunity for Stirling to attack again.

0:41:590:42:03

We were rather on tiptoe, got hold of a truck or two,

0:42:030:42:06

and we were equipped to undertake our first series of operations

0:42:060:42:11

with the Long Range Desert Group.

0:42:110:42:13

Ahead of them lay a 350-mile journey to the enemy-held coast,

0:42:160:42:21

courtesy of the LRDG,

0:42:210:42:23

or the Libyan Taxi Service, as the SAS had taken to calling them.

0:42:230:42:27

Stirling had less than half his force left.

0:42:340:42:37

Every single one of them was determined to get back into the war.

0:42:370:42:41

They headed into the desert in the certain knowledge

0:42:470:42:49

that if they failed again,

0:42:490:42:51

this would be their last mission together.

0:42:510:42:54

It was essential for the unit that some success should be recorded and

0:42:540:42:59

recorded quickly.

0:42:590:43:01

Another failure like that and they would have disbanded it

0:43:010:43:03

before it even got off the ground.

0:43:030:43:05

There are few experiences more uncomfortable

0:43:290:43:33

than a long desert journey in a vehicle like this.

0:43:330:43:36

For three days, they rumbled and jounced their way north-west.

0:43:360:43:40

The heat and monotony inducing a state of sweaty semi-consciousness.

0:43:400:43:45

The trucks frequently broke down or sank into the sand

0:43:470:43:50

and had to be mended or laboriously dug out.

0:43:500:43:53

It was freezing by night, broiling by day.

0:43:530:43:58

The men called it devil country

0:43:580:44:00

and developed the desert sores and bad temper to prove it.

0:44:000:44:04

First few days, there was nobody, no Bedouins, no nothing.

0:44:080:44:13

But, as you got nearer the target,

0:44:150:44:18

so then the tension started to rise.

0:44:180:44:20

The trucks presented an easy target for the very aircraft

0:44:240:44:27

the SAS were aiming to destroy.

0:44:270:44:29

First got in bomber range,

0:44:320:44:34

then you got in fighter range,

0:44:340:44:36

and spotter planes, and they were liable to pick you up.

0:44:360:44:40

Then you moved in to the coastal belt,

0:44:420:44:44

you start to get a bit of shrub, stuff like that.

0:44:440:44:46

And the tensions start building.

0:44:460:44:49

Then you'd move in till you thought, "That's near enough."

0:44:490:44:52

The noisy trucks would attract too much attention.

0:44:520:44:57

The rest of the journey would be on foot.

0:44:570:44:59

The men hiked several miles until the target was in their sights.

0:45:110:45:15

The first ops, sentries not on the alert.

0:45:180:45:21

300 or 400 miles behind the line.

0:45:250:45:27

It was cushy.

0:45:270:45:29

The war was never going to touch you.

0:45:290:45:30

Across the target airfields,

0:45:360:45:38

the men planted Lewes bombs on every aircraft they could find.

0:45:380:45:42

Setting the fuses to detonate simultaneously,

0:45:420:45:45

they fled before the destruction erupted.

0:45:450:45:49

When they went up, they went!

0:46:000:46:02

You had great big volumes of flames.

0:46:020:46:04

By early morning, Stirling and the LRDG had disappeared

0:46:100:46:14

back into the desert, leaving behind them an epic trail of destruction

0:46:140:46:18

and a bewildered enemy.

0:46:180:46:21

There is no defence against a small party, three or four determined men,

0:46:210:46:26

getting in.

0:46:260:46:28

But destroying aircraft wasn't enough for Paddy Mayne.

0:46:300:46:33

He decided to attack the men who flew them as well.

0:46:360:46:40

The war diary contains Mayne's chilling account of what followed.

0:46:450:46:50

"I stood there with my Colt .45.

0:46:510:46:54

"The others at my side with a Tommy gun and another automatic.

0:46:540:46:57

"We were a peculiar and frightening sight.

0:46:590:47:01

"Bearded and unkempt hair. I said, 'Good evening.'

0:47:010:47:06

"At that, a young German arose and moved slowly backwards.

0:47:060:47:11

"I shot him.

0:47:110:47:13

"I turned and fired at another, some six feet away.

0:47:130:47:17

"Then, the two machine gunners opened up.

0:47:170:47:19

"The room, by now, was in pandemonium."

0:47:210:47:25

Despite the success of the mission,

0:47:300:47:32

Stirling was appalled by the shooting of some 30 men

0:47:320:47:35

at point-blank range.

0:47:350:47:37

He reported, "It was necessary to be ruthless,

0:47:390:47:42

"but Paddy had overstepped the mark.

0:47:420:47:45

"I was obliged to rebuke him

0:47:450:47:46

"for over-callous execution of the enemy."

0:47:460:47:49

Paddy Mayne's brutal attack veered away from sabotage

0:47:510:47:55

and came close to cold-blooded killing.

0:47:550:47:58

It showed just how far the unit had already moved away

0:47:580:48:02

from conventional warfare.

0:48:020:48:04

Over the next two weeks, the SAS mounted raid after raid,

0:48:130:48:17

often unauthorised and picking targets at will.

0:48:170:48:21

Bill Fraser's party got the biggest bag.

0:48:210:48:25

They got 37 planes.

0:48:250:48:27

And we went back to the same place and got 24 planes,

0:48:280:48:32

and, eight days later, we went back and got another 24.

0:48:320:48:35

That's when it all started, that's when the results started coming in.

0:48:360:48:39

They destroyed everything,

0:48:420:48:44

terrorising and demoralising the enemy before disappearing

0:48:440:48:47

into their oasis hideout deep in the desert.

0:48:470:48:51

Obviously, there was jubilation.

0:48:510:48:53

We're back in business, sort of thing.

0:48:530:48:55

Must have been on Christmas Day, the LRDGs shot a gazelle.

0:48:580:49:03

We made a little bar in the sun and we had gazelle and rum and lime.

0:49:030:49:09

We had a very, very nice Christmas.

0:49:090:49:11

Fired up by success, Stirling would not allow even Christmas

0:49:110:49:15

to slow the pace of destruction.

0:49:150:49:17

Rommel was falling back, ever more dependent on air support.

0:49:170:49:21

The SAS would attack again.

0:49:210:49:23

But the Germans and Italians were getting wise

0:49:270:49:29

to the tactics of the SAS.

0:49:290:49:31

Aerial patrols were scouring the desert,

0:49:350:49:37

looking for the telltale dust plumes of the trucks.

0:49:370:49:40

It was only a matter of time

0:49:420:49:44

before the enemy would have Stirling's men in their sights.

0:49:440:49:47

You had so much faith in the people you were with

0:49:490:49:52

that no-one anticipated that anything was going to go wrong.

0:49:520:49:58

Jock Lewes could tell his fiancee Mirren Barford

0:50:030:50:07

very little about their secret mission in the desert

0:50:070:50:09

and could only hint at their great success.

0:50:090:50:11

In a telegram, he wrote,

0:50:120:50:14

"Back today with a pullable beard and a possible medal.

0:50:140:50:18

"Off again tomorrow. Merry Christmas to all."

0:50:180:50:20

In his private diary,

0:50:230:50:24

Lewes expressed the lofty, martial sentiments

0:50:240:50:27

that burned brightly in his heart.

0:50:270:50:30

"I feel my strength and fear is far away.

0:50:300:50:33

"I will not seek to save my life,

0:50:330:50:35

"but will choose the most difficult and dangerous work."

0:50:350:50:38

But beneath the chivalric tone lay a hint of martyrdom.

0:50:400:50:43

He was so passionate to end the war early

0:50:480:50:52

and get back to his love,

0:50:520:50:54

and that meant there was a high chance of being killed.

0:50:540:51:00

"I am prepared for this to be my life's work

0:51:010:51:05

"because it will be well done

0:51:050:51:08

"and a thing to be proud of here or anywhere.

0:51:080:51:12

"I am losing my life

0:51:120:51:15

"in this hard, graceless, unpoetic,

0:51:150:51:20

"unbeautiful devotion."

0:51:200:51:24

He was a very studious character, Jock Lewes,

0:51:360:51:39

and, as a training officer and to go into action with,

0:51:390:51:43

he was a very good one, too.

0:51:430:51:44

He...

0:51:460:51:48

I think he probably had a slight too much regimentality

0:51:480:51:52

about him in active conditions.

0:51:520:51:54

I think that's one of the things that cost him his life.

0:51:540:51:57

Racing across the desert after a dawn raid,

0:52:020:52:05

Jock Lewes's convoy was spotted by a German plane.

0:52:050:52:08

In the open desert, they were sitting ducks.

0:52:110:52:14

The SAS trucks could not escape the speed and fire power

0:52:170:52:20

of their attackers.

0:52:200:52:21

As planes filled the sky, the men jumped for their lives.

0:52:240:52:27

But Jock Lewes delayed, gathering his papers.

0:52:290:52:31

He could see it was coming in,

0:52:330:52:34

it was coming in so low that everybody bears off.

0:52:340:52:37

Jock Lewes stayed too long in the truck...

0:52:460:52:48

..and he got caught in that fire.

0:52:490:52:52

Jock Lewes was buried where he fell.

0:53:010:53:04

His men would never know why he had delayed,

0:53:070:53:11

but perhaps he'd already given them a clue.

0:53:110:53:13

Never run away.

0:53:150:53:16

I regard him as a great leader.

0:53:190:53:21

I'd follow Jock anywhere.

0:53:210:53:23

He was a good fellow.

0:53:250:53:26

On New Year's Eve, the survivors of the Lewes raid limped back

0:53:450:53:49

to the oasis, bringing news

0:53:490:53:52

that one of the unit's most important members was gone.

0:53:520:53:55

Stirling was furious that Lewes's body

0:53:570:54:00

had been left behind in the desert.

0:54:000:54:02

But, then, it was Lewes himself who had insisted

0:54:020:54:05

that collecting the dead was a dangerous waste of time.

0:54:050:54:08

In Lewes's empty tent, his comrades found a letter from Mirren Barford,

0:54:120:54:17

joyously accepting his proposal of marriage.

0:54:170:54:20

-MIRREN:

-"Please remember you are my dearest and only love.

0:54:220:54:26

"Don't leave me ever.

0:54:260:54:28

"You always have my love and all I can do now

0:54:280:54:31

"is ask the almighty powers to be merciful

0:54:310:54:34

"and to keep you safe and free."

0:54:340:54:36

Mirren's letter accepting Jock's offer of marriage

0:54:380:54:42

arrived after Jock died,

0:54:420:54:45

but Jock did say one word before he died, and he said,

0:54:450:54:52

"Mirren."

0:54:520:54:53

We were a unit that if any...

0:55:010:55:03

anybody got killed, that was the end of it.

0:55:030:55:06

You know...

0:55:060:55:07

There was no shedding tears and getting handkerchiefs out,

0:55:090:55:14

or drying your eyes and thinking,

0:55:140:55:16

"There's my best pal. I'll get the Germans for this."

0:55:160:55:19

You know, like the Americans do it.

0:55:190:55:21

There was none of that.

0:55:210:55:23

I mean, you took your chance and that was it.

0:55:230:55:27

By January 1942,

0:55:350:55:37

L Detachment had destroyed more than 90 planes

0:55:370:55:40

and left almost as many enemy dead.

0:55:400:55:42

Behind them was a trail of wrecked munitions, vehicles,

0:55:420:55:47

and a demoralised and mystified enemy.

0:55:470:55:49

The SAS returned to Cairo with their heads held high.

0:56:030:56:07

Stirling was promoted to major, and Auchinleck,

0:56:130:56:16

recognising the great potential of his newest fighting force,

0:56:160:56:20

authorised the recruitment of six more officers and 40 more men.

0:56:200:56:24

L Detachment were no longer learners.

0:56:260:56:29

But success had come at a price.

0:56:290:56:31

34 men had been lost in the first doomed parachute raid.

0:56:390:56:43

And now the unit had also lost the man

0:56:450:56:48

who had been instrumental in their success.

0:56:480:56:50

It was very grave on all of us

0:56:520:56:56

and it did leave a very big gap.

0:56:560:56:59

The grave of Jock Lewes was never found,

0:57:010:57:04

lost forever in the Great Sand Sea.

0:57:040:57:07

Jock was absolutely key to this incredible regiment.

0:57:080:57:15

And, by the time he died,

0:57:150:57:17

everything he'd done had proved that it could survive,

0:57:170:57:22

but it still needed guarding.

0:57:220:57:26

Without his right-hand man,

0:57:280:57:30

Stirling would have to rely on the newly promoted captain, Paddy Mayne.

0:57:300:57:34

An officer as unpredictable and dangerous

0:57:360:57:39

as the new phase of war that was about to begin.

0:57:390:57:42

The SAS would have to adapt if it was going to survive.

0:57:440:57:48

But the game was changing.

0:57:520:57:53

The airfields were now being heavily defended

0:57:550:57:57

and, unknown to David Stirling,

0:57:570:57:59

the Germans were training special units to track,

0:57:590:58:03

intercept and kill the marauding SAS.

0:58:030:58:07

The hunters would soon become the hunted.

0:58:070:58:10

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