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THE SAS STRIKE
Clandestine Operations During World War II
On the night of 26th July 1942 approximately 60 SAS men in heavily armed Willys jeeps travelled 70 miles in pitch darkness across the sandy wastelands of Egypt with the intention of wreaking havoc on the German airfield at Sidi Haneish.
When they arrived the runway suddenly lit up with artificial lighting as a Luftwaffe bomber prepared to land. They were in the right place, on time, as planned.
Lieutenant Colonel David Stirling (the founder and at that time officer commanding of the SAS) prepared to give the signal to attack.
The men of Rommel’s Africa Corps were about to get a nasty shock.
The following narrative is from Ben Macintyre’s fantastic book ‘SAS Rogues Heroes’ which I have intermingled with recollections of the raid from Sally Dugan's equally worthwhile book 'Commando - The Elite Fighting Force of the Second World War':
Stirling fired the Verey light [flare gun]. The night turned green, and then exploded.
As the convoy smashed through the perimeter, the fusillade erupted, sending the airfields defenders scrambling for cover. Forming up on the runway tarmac between two long rows of parked aircraft, the double line rumbled forward at walking pace, laying down a brutal blanket of strafing fire to left and right as sixty-eight guns opened up from a range of 50 feet.
The noise was infernal, a terrible symphony of 'roaring, belching fire' merging with the boom of igniting fuel and the crack of exploding ammunition. For Stirling, it was the sound of victory, a 'tremendous feu de joie' [tremendous bonfire].
The first aircraft detonated with such force that the men on the nearside felt their eyebrows and eyelashes singeing. Some planes did not just explode in the inferno, but seemed to 'crumple and disintegrate as the bullets ploughed into them'. A bomber, coming in to land, was hit by a volley from the leading jeeps just as it touched down; the plane burst into flames and slewed to a stop. ‘It was like a duck shoot,’ said Johnny Cooper, Stirling’s front gunner. ‘I really couldn’t miss.’ In the rear, Seekings blasted away in concert through the smoke. From somewhere, a mortar started up, followed by the steady rap of a Breda gun and a rattle of small-arms fire.
Stephen Hastings, in one of the rear formation of two jeeps, recalls the action:
‘Then we got into the dispersal area and there were the aircraft on either side and these streams of bullets. You'd see them zipping through the fuselage, and then the plane would glow for a minute and - woof - would go up in flames. We got among some Stuka dive-bombers, which we feared and disliked particularly, and it was very refreshing to see them go up in flames.’
At that moment Stirling's jeep was hit by a round and grinded to a halt as expressed by Johnny Cooper:
‘Halfway back up that runway our jeep stopped. David was driving and he said, "What the bloody hell is going on?" The bonnet [also known as the hood] opened, and it was steaming, and of course we had a Breda fifteen-millimetre shell right through the engine. So we bailed out.’
They scrambled on to the jeep behind, where a figure sat motionless in the rear seat, 'back curiously straight and head and shoulders resting on the guns'. John Robson, a twenty-one year old artilleryman, had been shot through the head.
The column made another pass around the perimeter, picking off planes parked away from the main runway. A second Verey light, this one red, soared upwards, Stirling's signal to withdraw. One officer recalled a small but typical coda: 'As we moved off the aerodrome Paddy Mayne spotted an untouched bomber and, jumping from his jeep with a bomb in his hand, ran up to it and, placing the bomb in its engine, ran back and caught us up.'
The jeeps, no longer in formation, hurtled for the gap in the fence and out into the open desert. Mike Sadler lingered at the south-west corner of the field, watching for any stragglers and photographing the devastation. Some of the wrecks were still burning when the Germans towed them away.
Once in the open, a mile outside of the perimeter, the jeeps split into groups of three or four and scattered south, with orders to find somewhere to lie up for the day, under camouflage, and then head for the rendezvous under cover of darkness.
In total a staggering thirty-seven aircraft were destroyed during the raid!
The attackers, made up of mostly British Commonwealth and Free French troops, lost two men - the aforementioned John Robson and Frenchman Andre Zirnheld.
May they and any Axis casualties rest in peace.
Many more raids were to follow and many more planes were to be destroyed as the Special Air Service became infamous desert warriors.
Written by Guy Walker.
21st July 2022
(Article No.53)
Sources: 'SAS Rogue Heroes - The Authorized Wartime History from the Secret SAS Archives' by Ben Macintyre (Penguin Books, 2017), 'Commando - The Elite Fighting Forces of the Second World War' by Sally Dugan (Channel 4 Books, 2001), Imperial War Museum collections, The National Army Museum / Mary Evans Picture Library, Warfare Network webpage, Opposing Fronts webpage, asisbiz website, NIOD website, Dragases images, Google Maps, Research Gate webpage, nzet Victoria webpage.
Clandestine Operations During World War II
On the night of 26th July 1942 approximately 60 SAS men in heavily armed Willys jeeps travelled 70 miles in pitch darkness across the sandy wastelands of Egypt with the intention of wreaking havoc on the German airfield at Sidi Haneish.
When they arrived the runway suddenly lit up with artificial lighting as a Luftwaffe bomber prepared to land. They were in the right place, on time, as planned.
Lieutenant Colonel David Stirling (the founder and at that time officer commanding of the SAS) prepared to give the signal to attack.
The men of Rommel’s Africa Corps were about to get a nasty shock.
The following narrative is from Ben Macintyre’s fantastic book ‘SAS Rogues Heroes’ which I have intermingled with recollections of the raid from Sally Dugan's equally worthwhile book 'Commando - The Elite Fighting Force of the Second World War':
Stirling fired the Verey light [flare gun]. The night turned green, and then exploded.
As the convoy smashed through the perimeter, the fusillade erupted, sending the airfields defenders scrambling for cover. Forming up on the runway tarmac between two long rows of parked aircraft, the double line rumbled forward at walking pace, laying down a brutal blanket of strafing fire to left and right as sixty-eight guns opened up from a range of 50 feet.
The noise was infernal, a terrible symphony of 'roaring, belching fire' merging with the boom of igniting fuel and the crack of exploding ammunition. For Stirling, it was the sound of victory, a 'tremendous feu de joie' [tremendous bonfire].
The first aircraft detonated with such force that the men on the nearside felt their eyebrows and eyelashes singeing. Some planes did not just explode in the inferno, but seemed to 'crumple and disintegrate as the bullets ploughed into them'. A bomber, coming in to land, was hit by a volley from the leading jeeps just as it touched down; the plane burst into flames and slewed to a stop. ‘It was like a duck shoot,’ said Johnny Cooper, Stirling’s front gunner. ‘I really couldn’t miss.’ In the rear, Seekings blasted away in concert through the smoke. From somewhere, a mortar started up, followed by the steady rap of a Breda gun and a rattle of small-arms fire.
Stephen Hastings, in one of the rear formation of two jeeps, recalls the action:
‘Then we got into the dispersal area and there were the aircraft on either side and these streams of bullets. You'd see them zipping through the fuselage, and then the plane would glow for a minute and - woof - would go up in flames. We got among some Stuka dive-bombers, which we feared and disliked particularly, and it was very refreshing to see them go up in flames.’
At that moment Stirling's jeep was hit by a round and grinded to a halt as expressed by Johnny Cooper:
‘Halfway back up that runway our jeep stopped. David was driving and he said, "What the bloody hell is going on?" The bonnet [also known as the hood] opened, and it was steaming, and of course we had a Breda fifteen-millimetre shell right through the engine. So we bailed out.’
They scrambled on to the jeep behind, where a figure sat motionless in the rear seat, 'back curiously straight and head and shoulders resting on the guns'. John Robson, a twenty-one year old artilleryman, had been shot through the head.
The column made another pass around the perimeter, picking off planes parked away from the main runway. A second Verey light, this one red, soared upwards, Stirling's signal to withdraw. One officer recalled a small but typical coda: 'As we moved off the aerodrome Paddy Mayne spotted an untouched bomber and, jumping from his jeep with a bomb in his hand, ran up to it and, placing the bomb in its engine, ran back and caught us up.'
The jeeps, no longer in formation, hurtled for the gap in the fence and out into the open desert. Mike Sadler lingered at the south-west corner of the field, watching for any stragglers and photographing the devastation. Some of the wrecks were still burning when the Germans towed them away.
Once in the open, a mile outside of the perimeter, the jeeps split into groups of three or four and scattered south, with orders to find somewhere to lie up for the day, under camouflage, and then head for the rendezvous under cover of darkness.
In total a staggering thirty-seven aircraft were destroyed during the raid!
The attackers, made up of mostly British Commonwealth and Free French troops, lost two men - the aforementioned John Robson and Frenchman Andre Zirnheld.
May they and any Axis casualties rest in peace.
Many more raids were to follow and many more planes were to be destroyed as the Special Air Service became infamous desert warriors.
Written by Guy Walker.
21st July 2022
(Article No.53)
Sources: 'SAS Rogue Heroes - The Authorized Wartime History from the Secret SAS Archives' by Ben Macintyre (Penguin Books, 2017), 'Commando - The Elite Fighting Forces of the Second World War' by Sally Dugan (Channel 4 Books, 2001), Imperial War Museum collections, The National Army Museum / Mary Evans Picture Library, Warfare Network webpage, Opposing Fronts webpage, asisbiz website, NIOD website, Dragases images, Google Maps, Research Gate webpage, nzet Victoria webpage.
