Special Air Service

• 1. Introduction

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  The Special Air Service, known as the SAS, took its name from a bluff. When it first appeared in the Second World War, it was called "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade. Neither the letter nor the words Air Service described anything real. Both were chosen to serve a British disinformation campaign. The aim was to persuade the Axis that a paratrooper regiment with many units was operating in the area. The real unit would then supply the proof that the imaginary one existed.

  Today the SAS is a special forces unit of the British Army, organised as a corps. Its roles include counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, direct action and special reconnaissance. Much of what it does is classified, and the British government does not comment on its operations.

  How did a small unit built on a trick become one of the most imitated fighting forces in the world? What do its soldiers actually do, and how are they chosen? And what happens when a force this secret is asked to answer for its conduct?

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• 2. Desert Raiders

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  In July 1941, David Stirling formed a unit of only five officers and 60 other ranks. It was conceived as a commando force that would work behind enemy lines in the North African Campaign.

  The first mission came in November 1941. It was a parachute drop in support of the Operation Crusader offensive, codenamed Operation Squatter. German resistance and bad weather turned it into a disaster. Only 22 men, a third of the unit, made it back to base. The rest were killed or captured.

  The second mission reversed that result. The Long Range Desert Group carried the raiders to three airfields in Libya. There they destroyed 60 aircraft without suffering a single loss.

  By September 1942 the unit had been renamed 1st SAS. It now held four British squadrons, one Free French squadron, one Greek squadron and the Folboat Section.

  In January 1943, Colonel Stirling was captured in Tunisia, and Paddy Mayne took over as commander. In April 1943 the 1st SAS was reorganised as the Special Raiding Squadron under Mayne. The Special Boat Section was placed under George Jellicoe.

  The Special Raiding Squadron fought in Sicily and Italy alongside the 2nd SAS. That regiment had been formed in North Africa in 1943, partly by renaming the Small Scale Raiding Force. Its commander was Bill Stirling, the brother of David.

  The Special Boat Squadron, meanwhile, fought in the Aegean Islands and the Dodecanese until the war ended.

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• 3. Behind German Lines

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  In 1944 the SAS Brigade was formed from six parts. The 1st and 2nd Special Air Service were British. The 3rd and 4th were French, later known as the 3e and 2e Régiments de Chasseurs Parachutistes. The 5th was Belgian, and its lineage continues in the Belgian Special Forces Group. F Squadron handled signals and communications.

  The brigade's task was to parachute behind German lines in France and support the Allied advance. Its operations there included Houndsworth, Bulbasket, Loyton, Kipling and Wallace-Hardy. The advance then ran through Belgium and the Netherlands, where Operation Pegasus took place. It ended in Germany with Operation Archway and Operation Howard.

  On the 18th of October 1942, Hitler issued the Commando Order. For SAS men, it meant that capture could end in summary execution. The threat proved real.

  In July 1944, after Operation Bulbasket, the Germans executed 34 captured SAS commandos. In October 1944, after Operation Loyton, they executed another 31.

  The SAS Brigade Memorial at Sennecey-le-Grand in France commemorates the wartime dead of the Belgian, British and French SAS.

  Mike Sadler was the last original member of the Special Air Service and the last survivor of the Long Range Desert Group. He died on the 4th of January 2024, at the age of 103.

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• 4. Reborn in Peacetime

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  On the 8th of October 1945, the British government disbanded the SAS, seeing no further need for it. The following year, planners concluded that a long-term deep-penetration commando unit was needed after all. A new SAS regiment was to be raised within the Territorial Army.

  The Artists Rifles, raised in 1860 and headquartered at Dukes Road, Euston, took on the role. On the 1st of January 1947 it became 21st SAS Regiment (V).

  In 1950, a 21 SAS squadron was raised to fight in the Korean War. After three months of training in Britain, it learned it was no longer needed there. Its men volunteered for the Malayan Emergency instead.

  On arrival in Malaya, the squadron came under Mike "Mad Mike" Calvert, who was forming a unit called the Malayan Scouts (SAS). He had already built one squadron from 100 volunteers in the Far East, which became A Squadron. The new arrivals became B Squadron. After a recruiting visit to Rhodesia, Calvert formed C Squadron from 100 Rhodesian volunteers. They went home after three years, and a New Zealand squadron took their place.

  By then the army had recognised that it needed a regular SAS regiment. The 22 SAS Regiment was formally added to the army list in 1952 and has been based at Hereford since 1960. In 1959 a third regiment, 23 SAS, was formed by renaming the Reserve Reconnaissance Unit. That unit had succeeded MI9, and its members were experts in escape and evasion.

  Other countries soon copied the model. Canada formed a Special Air Service Company in 1947 and disbanded it in 1949. New Zealand formed an SAS squadron in June 1955 to serve alongside the British in Malaya, and it became a full regiment in 2011. Australia formed its 1st SAS Company in July 1957, and in 1964 it became the Special Air Service Regiment.

  The returning Rhodesian C Squadron became the basis for the Rhodesian Special Air Service in 1961. Colonel Charles Alvin Beckwith served with 22 SAS as an exchange officer. He later formed the American unit known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta.

  France's 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment adopted the motto "who dares wins", as did Israel's Sayeret Matkal and Shaldag units.

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• 5. Decades of Operations

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  In Oman, the Jebel Akhdar War brought 22 SAS men into reconnaissance patrols and large raiding missions. In Borneo, during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, they carried out covert reconnaissance and surveillance. They returned to Oman to fight Communist-backed rebels in the Dhofar Rebellion, where the Battle of Mirbat took place. They also served in the Aden Emergency, Northern Ireland and Gambia.

  Britain's covert part in the Soviet-Afghan War ran through a private military contractor, Keenie Meenie Services, also called KMS Ltd. Through it, SAS men trained the Afghan Mujaheddin in weapons, tactics and explosives. Some were then sent for training in Pakistan, Oman and parts of the UK.

  In the Falklands War, B Squadron prepared for Operation Mikado, which was cancelled. D and G Squadrons deployed instead and took part in the raid on Pebble Island. Operation Flavius, against the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Gibraltar, was controversial.

  In Bosnia, 22 SAS directed NATO aircraft onto Serb positions and hunted war criminals. In the Kosovo War, it helped KLA guerrillas behind Serbian lines. According to Albanian sources, one SAS sergeant was killed by Serbian special forces.

  The Gulf War brought A, B and D Squadrons into action, the largest SAS mobilisation since the Second World War. It is also remembered for the failure of the Bravo Two Zero mission. Andy McNab wrote a memoir of that mission, later made into a 1999 miniseries. Chris Ryan told his own account in The One That Got Away.

  In Sierra Leone, the regiment took part in Operation Barras, a hostage rescue that extracted members of the Royal Irish Regiment.

  SAS officers have also risen to the top of the armed forces. Peter de la Billière was commander in chief of British forces in the 1990 Gulf War. Michael Rose took command of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994. In 1997, Charles Guthrie became Chief of the Defence Staff, the head of the British armed forces. In 2002-2003, Cedric Delves was appointed commander of the Field Army.

  After the September 11 attacks in 2001, two squadrons of 22 SAS deployed to Afghanistan, later reinforced by members of both Territorial SAS units. They carried out Operation Trent, the largest operation in the regiment's history, which included its first wartime HALO parachute jump. The regiment kept operating against the Taliban and other insurgents until 2006, when Iraq became its focus. In 2009 it redeployed to Afghanistan.

  In Iraq, the regiment operated even before the 2003 invasion. Afterwards it joined Task Force Black/Knight to fight the insurgency. In late 2005 and early 2006 it was integrated into JSOC, working alongside Delta Force against al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Sunni insurgency. The UKSF mission there ended in May 2009. The source credits 22 SAS with taking more than 3,500 terrorists "off the streets" of Baghdad.

  British newspapers speculated about SAS involvement in the 2011 Libyan civil war. The Daily Telegraph reported defence sources confirming that the SAS had been in Libya for several weeks. The Guardian reported that they acted as forward air controllers and advised rebels on tactics.

  Members of the Special Air Service were deployed to Northern Iraq in late August 2014. According to former SIS chief Richard Barrett, they would also be sent to Syria to track down the Islamic State fighters that the press labelled the Beatles.

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• 6. Troops and Counter-Terrorism

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  The regular regiment, 22 SAS, normally numbers between 400 and 600 people. It has four operational squadrons, called A, B, D and G. Each squadron has about 65 members under a major. It is divided into four troops, each led by a captain, plus a small headquarters section.

  Troops usually hold 16 members, and each patrol within a troop has four. Every patrol member brings one particular skill, such as signals, demolition, medicine or languages. Members are variously known as "blade" or "operator".

  The four troops specialise in different environments. Boat troop handles diving with rebreathers, kayaks and rigid-hulled inflatable boats. Air troop masters free fall and high-altitude parachuting, including HALO, High-Altitude Low Opening, and HAHO, High-Altitude High Opening. Mobility troop works with vehicles, specialises in desert warfare and learns advanced motor mechanics for field repairs. Mountain troop trains for Arctic combat and survival, using skis, snowshoes and climbing techniques.

  Squadron duties rotate. One squadron stays on counter-terrorism duty in the UK, a second is deployed, a third prepares to deploy, and the fourth readies for long overseas training such as jungle or desert exercises. In 1980, R Squadron was formed from ex-regular soldiers with a reserve commitment. It has since been renamed L Detachment.

  For much of the Cold War, 21 SAS and 23 SAS had a different job. If the Warsaw Pact invaded western Europe, they would have let enemy forces bypass them. They would then have stayed behind to gather intelligence, acquire targets and slow the advance.

  The counter-terrorism role has its own origin. In the early 1970s, Prime Minister Edward Heath asked the Ministry of Defence to prepare for an attack like the massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The SAS Counter Revolutionary Warfare wing was raised in response. It is now the Counter Terrorist Wing, and it was also once called the special projects team.

  The wing trains in close quarter battle and sniper techniques. It specialises in hostage rescue in buildings or on public transport, with aviation support from No. 658 Squadron AAC.

  Its first deployment was the Balcombe Street siege. The Metropolitan Police had trapped a Provisional Irish Republican Army unit, and it surrendered when it heard on the BBC that the SAS were being sent in.

  The first documented action abroad was at Mogadishu, where the wing assisted the West German group GSG 9 with Lufthansa Flight 181.

  The Iranian Embassy siege in London in 1980 made the regiment famous worldwide. A televised rescue freed all but two of the hostages.

  The team trains at Pontrilas Army Training Area. The site includes the Killing House, officially called the Close Quarter Battle House. It also has part of a Boeing 747 airliner that can be reconfigured to match the layout of almost any commercial aircraft.

  The on-call squadron splits into four troops. Two are on immediate notice and restricted to the Hereford-Credenhill area. The other two train across the UK but can be deployed if needed. The counter-terrorism duty first rotated every 12 months, later every six, so that all members trained in it.

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• 7. Selection Gauntlet

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  The original SAS selection course was created by John Woodhouse in 1952. The United Kingdom Special Forces do not recruit directly from the public. Any current member of the UK Armed Forces can apply, but most candidates have historically come from the Royal Marines or the Parachute Regiment. Selection runs twice a year, in summer and winter.

  Typically only 10% of candidates get through. A group usually starts with about 200 people. Most drop out within the first few days, and fewer than 30 remain at the end.

  The first phase, called aptitude, lasts four weeks in the Brecon Beacons, with some training in Sennybridge. Candidates arrive for a Personal Fitness Test. It demands at least 50 sit-ups in two minutes, 60 press-ups in two minutes and a 1.5 mile run in 10 minutes and 30 seconds.

  Next comes an Annual Fitness Test, an 8 mile march in two hours carrying 25 lb of equipment. Candidates then march cross-country against the clock, covering more distance each day. The phase culminates in the "Endurance". Candidates march 40 miles with full equipment, and they climb up and down Pen y Fan, which stands 886 m (2,907 ft), within 20 hours. By the end, they must be able to run 4 miles in 30 minutes or less and swim 2 miles in 90 minutes or less.

  Officer candidates then spend a week planning UKSF operations while fatigued and stressed. Everyone moves on to the jungle phase in Belize, Brunei or Malaysia. There candidates learn navigation, patrol movement and jungle survival. Back in the UK, they train in battle plans and foreign weapons, then take part in combat survival exercises.

  Those exercises end with a week of escape and evasion. Candidates are formed into patrols with only a tin can of survival equipment. They are dressed in World War II-era uniforms and told to reach a destination by sunrise. The final test is resistance to interrogation, which lasts 36 hours. Those who complete every phase are transferred to an operational squadron.

  The reserve pathway for 21 SAS and 23 SAS includes comparable elements, except for jungle training. It is taken in blocks over a longer period to fit civilian careers.

  Between 2014 and 2022, more soldiers died in training and exercises than in combat against armed threats. The names of Regular SAS members who died on duty are inscribed on the regimental clock tower, now at Credenhill. Surviving members say those named "failed to beat the clock".

  In October 2018, recruitment policy changed to allow women to join the SAS for the first time. In August 2021, two women became the first to pass the pre-selection course.

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• 8. Allegations and Inquiry

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  In December 2022, the British government announced an Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan. It would examine extrajudicial killings that took place between 2010 and 2013. The announcement followed a detailed BBC Panorama investigation. It found that members of the SAS "repeatedly killed detainees and unarmed men in suspicious circumstances".

  Witnesses told Panorama that operatives justified killing unarmed people by leaving weapons at the scenes. They also said squadrons competed with each other to get the most kills. UK Special Forces officers were reportedly concerned about the number of reports of detainees killed after reaching for hidden weapons. Several raids allegedly ended with more people dead than weapons recovered.

  The BBC visited the sites of some raids. Ballistics experts told it that the bullet patterns looked more like execution-style killings than firefights. A formal internal review was opened at the time, but evidence was never passed to military police.

  The inquiry was launched in March 2023, chaired by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave. In September 2024, it was shown an internal Ministry of Defence document written in 2019. The document concluded that the Panorama allegations were "broadly accurate".

  In late 2025, a former senior officer told the inquiry that British forces in Afghanistan had executed suspects and unarmed civilians, including children. Nothing was done despite widespread knowledge. On the 1st of December 2025, the officer, known as N1466, described a raid in which operatives shot at a mosquito net until there was no movement. He said: "When the net was uncovered it was women and children. The incident was covered up and the individual who did the shooting was given some form of award to make it look legitimate."

  N1466 also confirmed that the evidence behind the war crimes allegations was not passed to military police.

  In May 2026, the inquiry published a summary of the account of a former chief of staff, known as N2252. He told the inquiry in 2024 why no referral was made. Every British military officer has a "legal obligation to alert military police if they become aware that someone under their command may have committed a war crime". He said an investigation was believed to risk disrupting operations and damaging morale. Some evidence had also come from a rival special forces regiment.

  A separate matter concerns Syria. In 2024 it was acknowledged that five SAS members were under investigation by the Defence Serious Crime Unit on suspicion of committing war crimes there. The Ministry of Defence has not disclosed the details.

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