RAID AND EVADE The SAS was initially formed to operate behind enemy lines in the desert, but members were soon being deployed to German-occupied Europe to take part in guerilla warfare
ILLUSTRATION: © KURT MILLER/SALZMANART.COM, ARCANGEL IMAGES X1, GETTY X1
It was only fitting that a unit that would finish World War II as a byword for boldness began its life with an act of audacity.
In July 1941, a tall, slender Scots Guards officer limped up to the front gate of Middle East Headquarters (MEHQ) in Cairo. Lieutenant David Stirling wasn’t long out of hospital, and he still carried the scars of a parachute accident the previous month. "The 25-year-old officer had spent his convalescence working on an idea that he now intended to present to General Claude Auchinleck, commander-inchief of the Middle East Forces.