Well guys I have kept quiet long enough and my tongue can't take any more biting
This whole thread has drifted way off course.
As someone who knew several of the "Originals" personally, ie Reg Seekings/Pat Riley/Jimmie Storrie, these were men who served directly under Lt Jock Lewes and David Stirling. I am also a close family friend of the Lewes family so what I am going to deliver below is all fact, which I have documented in the past.
The facts I am about to impart hopefully will all rectify some of what has been injected into this thread, which is pure guess work. It will cover most of what has been said to.
I am going to discount the No 5 rifle because that is absolute fiction, and best restored to its former glory.
The unit and its "real" leader Jock Lewes, who was a very talented individual and very underestimated in many badly written SAS books, was way ahead of his time.
A letter which is about to be presented to The National Army Museum on the 17/3/2018 is a hand written letter from David Stirling to Jocks father after his death on the 31/12/1941 where he was killed by a Messerschmit 110 round after a raid, states categorically "Jock can call himself more the founder of the SAS than I".
Stirling harassed the top brass, whilst Jock got on with the day to day ops/training and trianing.
At NO time did L Detachment as it became to be known, (to make the Germans think there was a bigger Special Forces Brigade) use any made up "covert" weapons such as the Welrod etc. These came in later in WW2 and used by SOE, who did become latterly part of the Special Force Group.
I can confirm that Jock Lewes who was an inventor, but an excellent planner and soldier, did have several inventions he had to tackle quickly and off the cuff.
The LEWES bomb was designed to stick to the aircraft they had to attack on remote airfields, to slow down or stop the onslaught, not only on mainland Libya, but also Malta and the shipping lanes at the time, providing essential supplies.
It was made up of Plastic explosive 808, Iron Filings, Thermite and diesel oil, to keep the explosive burning so to transform it into an incendiary devise as well. The time pencil fuse completed its function. Once stuck to an aircraft it didn't come off. The previous devices were embedded in bean tins and the like and wholly inadequate, as they often slid off the airframe.
With this setup, they could simply drive up or attack on foot and stick these on to each aircraft at the right spot to render the airframe useless for any future use "they were buggers to get off in a hurry if discovered".
Now onto the Parachutes and the story revolving around them and the next design from Jock Lewes.
I had the great privilege to know as a close friend, as he lived next door to my son who was also in 2 PARA at the time in Colchester, one, Lt John Wood, Parachute Regiment (retired) WW2.
He ordered and was waiting for 66 parachutes that were being sent out to India ( from 1 PTS RAF Ringwood, now Manchester Airport), as John was tasked with training the Indians in Parachuting and his task was to setup the first Parachute Battalions out there.
The aircraft trasporting these parachutes, stopped to refuel at Cairo airfield in Egypt. The plane went faulty and the parachutes were laying on the tarmac waiting a new plane.
Whilst there Jock was with others of L Detachment, "acquiring" stores and saw these chutes and thought what a great way to train his men, to deliver attacks from above!!
He simply stole the lot. They ended up back at JALO Oasis where they based themselves. The training then began using Albemarle Aircraft and any others the RAF would allow them to use to achieve this. Firstly they had to complete ground training, and this was done by jumping off the backs of Ford
Canadian
1 ton trucks going between 30 and 40 miles per hour. In this way they could achieve the right postions as they hit the deck, in forward and reverse rolls and side left and right landings. There were casualties, but these were tough young men at the highest fitness, and only the wimps got injured said Reg Seekings once when I asked him "We soon got rid of them"
Anyway, the first jumps from varied aircraft, were where the chute on a static line would hopefully pull the chute from its bag, after the D ring was attached to a wire strung inside the aircraft. Don't forget these were early days of Military parachuting.
The first two "volunteers" died as their D rings split and opened on the G force exerted on them, and their chutes failed to open. There was no reserve, so Jock deemed it a useless loss of life of two fine men.
Jock made up a new D Ring, and before anybody else tried it, he made sure it was he, (not David Stirling that many books say it was him that did this) that tried the new rings out himself and jumped to safety. Pat Riley told me this story and rewrote history, because he says, he knows it was Jock, because I was number two, and had it failed there was no way I was jumping
Yes there is much writtne about Jocks first parachuting operation, but don't forget, with hindsight now, it was high winds and sand storms and noone knew a chute would not operate successfully in any winds higher than 14 mph. Out of 66 men that jumped on the operation 33 were lost/killed or captured. A sad night for Jock and all he had achieved.
This made him even more determined, and brought in the Selection of SF troops as we know it today, and many of the things he developed like the 30 mile tab/Eating and drinking drills/Navigation by stars/Training all off enemies weapons and lots more some still used today in selection and onward within the Special Air Service.
Sorry if I have gone off on one here, but it needed saying and hopefully you will realise, these fine fine men, only used what was issued, they never modified anything. Yes they cobbled together two LMGs or made brackets to hold them up, but NEVER converted anything other than what they were issued with.
The Willys Jeeps and Chevvy trucks never came into the SAS Brigade until the 21/9/1942. nearly a year after the units formation. They were ALWAYS ferried and picked up by the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG).
Hope this clears up some of the myths expelled, and I didn't want to really say any of the above, as I have written enough about it so many times. I was about to go out to Libya with the Lewes family, two weeks after the Benghazi Military Cemetery was descimated after Ghaddafis downfall, to recover Jocks body and have him buried there with full Military honours. Jimmie Storrie buried him hurriedly in the desert when he was killed in 1941, and it was only right and proper one of our national Heroes should be honoured in this way.
We were disuaded to do this by the FCO as it was to dangerous to accomplish, and still is, but we will get there one day!!
WHO DARES WINS
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Originally Posted by mrclark303
