SAS GREAT ESCAPES

During the Second World War the SAS brought an unorthodox approach to fighting the enemy using audacious bluff and nerve. They also became pioneers in the art of escape and evasion. Here are two stories of the enduring qualities of the ‘SAS great escapers’, from the early stages and latter chapters of the Second World War. Each embodies the spirit of never giving up and the desire to escape, evade and survive come what may. They epitomise the founding principles of the SAS regiment. While the weaponry, vehicles, insertion techniques and escape and evasion kit might have changed greatly, the basic tenets of the SAS remain the same today as they were in WWII – proving absolutely that who dares wins.

Italy, 1941

On 10 February 1941, 36 British raiders parachuted into the night skies above Fascist Italy to undertake a mission of breathtaking daring. They aimed to blow up the Aqueduct Pugliese, source of the fresh-water for the cities in the south of the country and the key ports used by the Italian armed forces.

Codenamed Operation Colossus, this was the first ever Allied airborne operation and it was carried out by 11 Special Air Service Brigade, the forerunner of David Stirling’s soon-to-be-legendary SAS. According to the raid’s commanding officer, Major ‘Tag’ Pritchard, his force would be “pioneers or guinea pigs, whichever way you prefer to look at it”.

Operation Colossus was an utterly audacious and daring undertaking, but not everything went to plan that night. One of the Whitley warplanes carrying the team of Royal Engineer sappers went missing, along with the bulk of the explosives. Plus, the mission briefings proved woefully wrong, mistakenly reporting the piers of the aqueduct to be constructed of brickwork instead of reinforced concrete – which would take far more explosive power to destroy.

Everything now relied upon the genius and nerve of the one remaining sapper in Pritchard’s team – Canadian Lieutenant George Robert Paterson. A