A History of the SAS by John Strawson

Author:John Strawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
Published: 2023-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Scratchley then made the point that it was quite wrong for the SAS to come under airborne forces, except for transport through the air when parachuting. The SAS were not parachutists in the customary use of the word. They merely had to be able to reach their objectives by any means – land, ship, submarine or air – and therefore were required to be able to parachute. What was more, under good dropping conditions it was practically impossible for even a small number of men to parachute into the correct area of enemy-held territory without being observed. This might be all right for airborne forces being dropped en masse to seize and hold important ground for a time until main ground forces linked up with them, but was quite inappropriate if you wished a small group to be dropped somewhere when the success of their mission depended absolutely on their not being seen. Thus, Scratchley concluded, the tasks of the airborne forces and SAS were widely different. Small wonder, therefore, that

There has been a hell of a rumpus between SAS and Airborne … No one on the Airborne planning staff has had any experience in our type of work. Bill Stirling’s tactless criticism which boiled over after his genuine efforts to help had been turned down, ended in his dismissal and we were unemployed. Whether because 21st Army Group got fed up with us, or because they can use us later, I don’t know. My hope is that the latter is correct. Genral [sic] F. de Guingand is obviously much too busy at the moment, but he has always seen the possibilities of SAS and I hope will again. I am backing the fact that he will want us, even if we are the ‘bonus’ that the Airborne staff call us. Everyone needs a bonus every now and then. My views are that we should be used as a stiffener to SOE and the Maquis – as soldiers. We did that kind of work well in Italy. I don’t think that the question before you is whether SAS troops are worth while or not, but under whose command they should come.

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