The Daring Dozen (44 page)
Authors: Gavin Mortimer
Tags: #The Daring Dozen: 12 Special Forces Legends of World War II
8
. West Point ‘Howitzer’ Yearbook, Class of 1929
9
. Ogburn,
The Marauders
10
. Ibid
11
. Ibid
12
. Ibid
13
. Ibid
14
. Ibid
15
. Charles Newton Hunter,
Galahad
(Naylor Co., 1963)
16
. Ogburn,
The Marauders
17
. Ibid
18
. Ibid
19
. Ibid
20
. Ibid
21
. Hunter,
Galahad
22
. Masters,
The Road Past Mandalay
23
. Ibid
24
. Ogburn,
The Marauders
25
. Masters,
The Road Past Mandalay
26
. Ogburn,
The Marauders
| 88mm | a German anti-tank and anti-aircraft gun |
| AA | anti-aircraft |
| Abwehr | the German military intelligence organization |
| BAR | Browning Automatic Rifle |
| Brandenburgers | German Special Forces unit |
| Bren gun | Czech-derived British light machine gun with a range of 2,000 yards |
| C-47 aircraft | a military transport aircraft manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company |
| CAA | Civil Aviation Authority |
| Caique | a Greek fishing boat used by the Special Boat Squadron |
| CO | commanding officer |
| DCM | Distinguished Conduct Medal, the equivalent of the DSO – second only to the VC – and awarded to NCOs and other ranks |
| DSO | Distinguished Service Order, the second highest British military decoration for officers |
| DZ | drop zone, for paratroopers and supplies |
| EAM | National Liberation Front, a left-wing political movement in Greece composed predominantly of Communists |
| EDAS | National Republican Greek League, a non-communist Greek resistance group |
| ELAS | Greek People’s Liberation Army and the military arm of the EAM |
| Fallschirmjäger | German parachute regiment |
| Führer | German for leader, the title given to Adolf Hitler |
| Garand | the .30 calibre M1 Garand was the semiautomatic rifle issued to US troops |
| Gestapo | Geheime Staatspolizei , the secret police force of Nazi Germany |
| GHQ | General Headquarters |
| Gurkhas | Nepalese soldiers who have served in the British Army for nearly 200 years |
| Italian Gold Medal | a medal awarded to Italian junior officers and soldiers for deeds of outstanding gallantry in war |
| Italian Silver Medal | a medal awarded to Italian junior officers and soldiers who distinguished themselves in combat |
| Iron Cross | a German military decoration categorized into first and second class |
| Knight’s Cross of the | superior to the Iron Cross and awarded for |
| Iron Cross | outstanding bravery or leadership in the face of the enemy |
| LCA | Landing Craft Assault, 12m-long vessel capable of carrying 35 men |
| Légion d’honneur | the highest decoration in France, divided into five categories |
| LRDG | Long Range Desert Group |
| MC | Military Cross |
| Medal of Honor | the highest military decoration awarded by the United States |
| MEHQ | Middle East Headquarters |
| NCO | non-commissioned officer |
| petrol bowser | a petrol tanker |
| ‘pigs’ | Italian term for human torpedoes |
| RAF | Royal Air Force |
| RTU’d | Returned to Unit |
| SAS | Special Air Service |
| SBS | Special Boat Squadron |
| SFHQ | Special Forces Headquarters |
| SHAEF | Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force |
| Sherman | the M4 Sherman was the most common tank of the US Army |
| SOE | Special Operations Executive |
| SRS | Special Raiding Squadron |
| SS | Schutzstaffel , the paramilitary force of Nazi Germany |
| SSRF | Small Scale Raiding Force |
| Tommy gun | Thompson sub-machine gun |
| VC | Victoria Cross |
| Vickers K | rapid-firing machine gun designed for aircraft and later used by the SAS |
| wadi | a dry river bed in the desert that contains water only when it rains heavily |
| WAAF | Women’s Auxiliary Air Force |
| Waffen SS | the military force of the Schutzstaffel |
Adleman, Robert and George Walton,
The Devil’s Brigade
(Corgi, 1968)
Ambrose, Stephen¸
Band of Brothers
(Simon & Schuster, 1992)
Asher, Michael,
The Regiment
(Penguin, 2007)
Bagnold, Ralph,
The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes
(Springer, 1971)
Blackman, Mike,
Paddy Mayne Diary
(unpublished, 1945)
Borghese, J. Valerio,
Sea Devils
(Naval Institute Press, 1995)
Byrne, John,
The General Salutes a Soldier
(Hale, 1986)
Calvert, Michael,
Fighting Mad
(Pen & Sword, 2004)
Cooper, Johnny,
One of the Originals
(Pan, 1991)
Cowles, Virginia,
The Phantom Major
(Collins, 1958)
Devlin, Gerard M.,
Paratrooper!
(St Martin’s Press, 1979)
Fergusson, Bernard,
Beyond the Chindwin
(Fontana, 1955)
Gilchrist, Donald,
Castle Commando
(Oliver & Boyd, 1960)
Hastings, Stephen,
Drums of Memory
(Pen & Sword, 1994)
von der Heydte, Baron Friedrich,
Return to Crete
(WDL, 1959)
Hoe, Alan,
David Stirling
(Warner Books, 1994)
Hunter, Charles Newton,
Galahad
(Naylor Co., 1963)
James, Malcolm,
Born of the Desert
(Greenhill, 1991)
Keegan, John,
Six Armies in Normandy
(Pimlico, 1992)
Keyes, Elizabeth,
Geoffrey Keyes of the Rommel Raid
(George Newnes, 1956)
Kurowski, Franz,
Jump Into Hell
(Stackpole, 2010)
Langley, Mike,
Anders Lassen of the SAS
(New English Library, 1988)
Lefevre, Eric,
The Brandenburg Division
(Histoire and Collections, 2000)
Linklater, Eric,
The Campaign in Italy
(HMSO, 1951)
Lloyd-Owen, David,
The Long Range Desert Group
:
Providence Their Guide
(Harap, 1980)
Lodwick, John,
The Filibusters
(Methuen & Co., 1947)
Lucas, James,
Kommando: German Special Forces of World War Two
(Arms & Armour Press, 1985)
Majdalany, Fred,
Cassino: Portrait of a Battle
(Longmans, 1957)
Masters, John,
The Road Past Mandalay
(Phoenix edition, 2012)
Mortimer, Gavin,
Fields of Glory
(Andre Deutsch, 2001)
Mortimer, Gavin,
Stirling’s Men
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004)
Mortimer, Gavin,
The SAS in World War II: An Illustrated History
(Osprey Publishing, 2011)
North, John,
North West Europe
(HMSO, 1953)
Ogburn, Charlton,
The Marauders
(The Overlook Press, 2002)
Peatross, Oscar,
Bless ’em all
(ReView Publications, 1995)
Pitt, Barrie,
The Special Boat Squadron
(Century, 1983)
Pleydell, Malcolm,
Born of the Desert
(Greenhill Books, 2006)
Public Record Office,
Special Forces in the Desert War 1940–43
(Public Record Office War Histories, 2001)
Raff, Edson,
We Jumped to Fight
(Eagle Books, 1944)
Rooney, David,
Mad Mike
(Pen & Sword, 1997)
Ross, Hamish,
Paddy Mayne
(Sutton, 2003)
Royle, Trevor,
Orde Wingate
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995)
Schmidt, Heinz,
With Rommel in the Desert
(Harap, 1951)
William Schofield,
Frogmen: First Battles
(Branden Publishing, 1987)
Sharpe, Michael and Ian Westwell,
German Elite Forces
(Chartwell Books, 2007)
Skorzeny, Otto,
Skorzeny’s Special Missions
(Greenhill Books, 2006)
Strawson, John,
A History of the SAS Regiment
(Guild, 1984)
Thompson, Julian,
The War Behind Enemy Lines
(Pan, 1999)
Tolland, John,
The Last 100 Days
(Bantam, 2000)
Twining, General Merrill,
No Bended Knee
(Presido, 1994)
Woodburn, Kirby S. et al.
The Official History, War Against Japan, Volume III: The Decisive Battles
(HMSO, 1961)
Wukovits, John,
American Commando
(Caliber, 2009)
First and foremost, I would like to thank all those veterans of the Special Air Service who shared with me their memories of Paddy Mayne, David Stirling and Mike Calvert. Such men are thin on the ground now and their memories are thus more precious than ever. So thank you to Albert Youngman, Mike Sadler, Bob Lowson and Jimmy Storie.
The staff at the Churchill Archives in Cambridge were most helpful in providing me with access to the formidable collection of papers in the Ralph Bagnold collection, as was Simon Offord and his team at the Documents and Sound Department of the Imperial War Museum. Similarly, thank you to the National Archives at Kew and the National Army Museum.
Cristiano D’Adamo kindly let me quote from an interview with Emilio Bianchi conducted by Andrea Piccinotti in the 1990s and which is available to see at
http://www.regiamarina.net
. Similarly thank you Cy Stapleton and Dr Colin Heaton for permission to quote from interviews Dr Heaten conducted with Hans-Dietrich Hossfelder in 1985 and 1994.
Emily Holmes and Kate Moore at Osprey were their customary efficient selves in the editing of the book and in securing an array of excellent photos.
I would also like to thank the following publishers for their kind permission to quote from the books mentioned: New English Library (
Anders Lassen of the SAS
by Mike Langley); Warner (
David Stirling
by Alan Hoe); Weidenfeld and Nicolson, (
Orde Wingate
by Trevor Royle); Pan (
One of the Originals
by Johnny Cooper); Greenhill (
Born of the Desert
by Malcolm Pleydell and
Skorzeny’s Special Missions
by Otto Skorzeny); Sutton (
Payne Mayne
by Hamish Ross); Stackpole (
Jump Into Hell
by Franz Kurowski); Caliber (
American Commando
by John Wukovits); Eagle Books (
We Jumped to Fight
by Edson Raff); Corgi (
The Devil’s Brigade
by Robert Aldeman and George Watson); WDL (
Return to Crete by
Baron von der Heydte); Naval Institute Press (
Sea Devils
by J Valerio Borghese); The Overlook Press (
The Marauders
by Charlton Ogburn). I have tried to contact all copyright holders of material quoted. If I have overlooked any sources I apologise and if the copyright holder concerned would contact me I would happily acknowledge their generosity in future editions of
The Daring Dozen
.
Also available from Osprey Publishing as e-books
SAS Heroes
by Pete Scholey and
Soldier I
by Pete Winner and Michael Paul Kennedy
