How the SAS Transformed the Second World War

An edited excerpt of bestselling author and historian Damien Lewis in conversation with the Imperial War Museum, London

In North Africa, the SAS destroyed on the ground more warplanes than the RAF did at the same time. There were 387 proven, but more like 450 in reality. So, this small body of men who never numbered more than 600, moving in their fast-moving jeeps, destroyed more war planes on the ground than the entirety of the British Royal Air Force and that's an incredible achievement.

It all started in the unforgiving expanse of the North African desert. The North African campaign was particularly challenging because of the harsh geography of the desert environment. Bases were separated by thousands of miles of unmapped, arid desert, with the majority of navigable areas being towards the coast. At this uncertain stage of the Second World War, the Allies were looking for more modern and innovative methods that might turn the tide of war in their favor.

In North Africa, David Stirling, a Guards officer who had been trained as a commando was becoming increasingly frustrated with the way in which the officers in charge were operating, and felt that the unique skills possessed by him and his fellow commandos were being underutilized. He realised that the vast stretches of inland desert were being completely ignored, and there he saw an opportunity.

David Stirling had the idea that if he could get small bodies of men in through the desert, he could strike far behind the enemy lines, appear by complete surprise and hit the enemy where they least expected it. That was the genesis of the idea for what became the Special Air Service, the SAS.

To start with, David Stirling had about 60 volunteers and these were hand-picked individuals, mostly former commandos, like David Stirling was himself. Initially the idea was that they would insert by parachute, by air, drop deep into the desert, approach the air bases, the initial target of the raids on foot, carry out their raids, and then be returned from those raids by the vehicles of the Long Range Desert Group, which was the forerunner, you could argue, of all desert raiders. No one in Middle East High Command, which was the command supposedly in charge of them, wanted them to exist or succeed or do what they intended to do. This was seen as being ungentlemanly, piratical warfare in the extreme, not the way the British officers should behave, and no one was supporting it, apart from one or two of the top generals and Winston Churchill himself. One of the first things they had to do was to steal their own base, and they literally went round all the other Allied camps in the area stealing tents, chairs and tables, food for the mess, they even stole a grand piano for their sergeants mess, and that's how they first established their camp.

Following a disastrous first operation dropping in by air to attack three air bases, the commanders of the Long Range Desert Group suggested that, rather than parachute in, they should be driven. This began a series of operations with the LRDG that were extremely successful – proof that this fast moving, hit and run piratical kind of operation would actually succeed.

The unit's reputation grew as they successfully executed daring raids and sabotage missions behind enemy lines. This success attracted volunteers from other units and even civilians, and their numbers began to climb rapidly. In October 1942, the unit was renamed, becoming known more simply as the SAS. As the British Army recognised the effectiveness of the SAS tactics, more resources were allocated to the unit and this allowed them to experiment with new tactics.

The SAS acquired a few Jeeps to test out, and they were brilliant vehicles for traversing the desert. You could be very nimble in a 4x4 - great over all terrain, plus you could carry a lot of your equipment in the back. So they were perfect. But what they didn't have was weaponry. And so, they scavenged Vickers K machine guns from some obsolete Allied warplanes. They bolted them onto the jeeps on pivots, and they realised that they could drive into enemy air bases, use the machine guns on pivots to shoot up all the warplanes and drive out again just as quickly. As soon as they departed their base, they were a law unto themselves, and that's one of the things that got to middle East High commanders, a lot of the middle ranking officers, that they had no control over the SAS on the ground once they departed on operations. And that was the great strength of their way of waging war. It meant they could try things out. It meant they could think the unthinkable and put it into action. Just like that idea with the Vickers machine guns, and test out whether it was possible.

The SAS not only gained a reputation amongst the Allies, but Axis soldiers too. Word began to spread about the night-time raids, where, seemingly out of nowhere, Allied soldiers would attack and destroy vital equipment and supplies, then disappear just as fast.

German general, Erwin Rommel, said of the SAS "this one unit has caused me more harm and damage than any other unit of similar size within Allied forces." And it wasn't just harm and damage in terms of war material destroyed, it was actually much more harm and damage to the morale of his troops because if you can be attacked anywhere when you're asleep in your bed at night, hundreds of miles behind the front line, it's absolutely devastating for your morale.

After their time in North Africa, the SAS continued to grow in size. They would go on to play a vital role on D-Day and continue to disrupt, destroy and intimidate German forces to great effect throughout Sicily, Italy, France and Germany until the end of the war.

Watch the full interviw here: HOW DID THE SAS TRANSFORM THE SECOND WORLD WAR?