Who were David Stirling and Paddy Mayne, when was the SAS founded and what happened at Colditz Castle?
These rough, tough misfits helped pioneer Britain’s elite commando unit
THE Special Air Service was founded during the Second World War and started as they meant to go on — deep undercover.
David Stirling, then aged 25 and the son of a Scottish laird, came up with the idea for the elite raiding force in the spring of 1941. Here is the story of how the SAS was born...
Who was David Stirling and how did the idea for the SAS come about?
The 6ft 6in Scottish aristocrat, mountaineer and cowboy quit Cambridge University to be an artist in Paris and later joined the Scots Guards.
He was training to climb Mount Everest when the Second World War broke out and volunteered for a commando unit in the Middle East.
While recovering in hospital from partial paralysis of his legs after an unofficial parachute jump went wrong, he hatched a cunning plan to launch surprise attacks using small teams of crack soldiers.
He scribbled down his plans for small raiding groups, independent of the traditional military.
They would operate deep behind enemy lines, destroying aircraft and supply links before melting away before their opponents had time to respond.
The amazing true story of the men who forged the special covert force in World War Two has been revealed in BBC series SAS: Rogue Warriors.
In December 1941, the new SAS unit proved its worth by raiding a German airfield at Sirte, Libya. They blew-up 24 aircraft in all.
Among the crack game-changing squad was Paddy Mayne, who later took over as head of the SAS.
The troops then began using modified Jeeps mounted with machine guns to shoot up enemy vehicles and planes and blew them up with handheld Lewes bombs, invented by an SAS instructor
In 15 months Stirling's forces put hundreds of enemy vehicles out of action and destroyed more than 250 aircraft on the ground, plus dozens of supply dumps, railways and telecommunications networks.
Stirling was dubbed the "Phantom Major" by German Field Marshall Rommel, and Britain's commander Field Marshall Montgomery described him as "mad, quite mad". He was rumoured to have personally strangled 41 men.
He was finally captured by the Germans in 1943. He escaped and was recaptured by the Italians. After four more escape attempts he was sent to the notorious Colditz prison where he spent the rest of the war.
Later he formed a private military company working in Gulf states. He was knighted in 1990 and died the same year aged 74.
Who was SAS hero Paddy Mayne?
Roiber Blair Mayne, known as Paddy, was a tough rugby player who played for Ireland and the British Lions before the war.
He was renowned for his explosive temper, a strong thirst for drink and an equal capacity for raw violence.
During the 1938 Lions tour it is said Mayne relaxed between matches by "wrecking hotels and fighting dockers".
While stationed in Cyprus with a commando unit in 1941 he got into trouble for beating up a fellow officer after a heavy drinking session.
After that Mayne was recommended to join Stirling's irregular force, and pioneered the use of Jeeps for hit-and-run raids on German airfields.
He is said to have personally destroyed up to 100 planes - many more than any fighter pilot on either side of the war.
And it was he who was chosen to take over the SAS when Stirling was captured in 1943.
In the latter stages of the war he led the SAS in successful beehind-enemy-lines campaigns in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Norway.
Mayne was one of the most decorated servicemen in British history, winning the DSO four times. A campaign to award him the Victoria Cross reached Parliament in 2006.
After the war he worked as a solicitor in Newtownards. He was killed in a car crash with a tractor after a drinking session in 1955.
What happened at Colditz Castle?
The most notorious POW camp of the second world war was where serial escapers like Stirling were locked up - because it was said to be "impossible" to get out of.
The 11th century castle is situated on a rocky outcrop above the River Mulde, making it ideal as a high-security prison.
This did not stop British, French, Dutch and Polish officers devising ingenious escape plans including one involving a home-made glider.
There was dozens of schemes in operation at any time including many tunnels.
Two British men were dubbed the "Colditz ghosts" as they hid from guards for more than a year, living under floorboards and in cupboards, and reappeared at times to cover for other imates at roll-call when they were busy digging tunnels.
In total more than 30 men succeeded in escaping from Colditz. Some vaulted over walls and barbed wire fences, and several got out hidden in mattresses, tea chests, rubbish and delivery vans.
One group including Airey Neave - later an MP who was assassinated by the IRA - walked out of a gatehouse dressed as German guards.
Author Pat Reid, who later wrote about life in the camp, escaped Colditz by cutting through window bars and shimmying through a ventilation shaft before making his way to Switzerland.
Stirling took charge of black market operations inside Colditz in which prisoners traded Red Cross parcel goodies for items they could use to escape such as tools, maps and forged ID papers.
Other notable inmates included tin-legged Spitfire ace Douglas Bader and Q actor Desmond Llewellyn.
