The S.A.S., or Special Air Service, are an elite group of British special forces formed by a man named Lt. David Sterling in 1941. He was laying in a hospital bed in Cairo, paralyzed from the waist down. He had been brought in to the hospital on June 15, 1941 due to spinal injures which, in letters to his mother, he claimed were "a contusion of the back as a result of enemy action." The truth of the matter was that he hadn't come in contact with any enemies at all. He had in fact jumped from a plane, only to rip his parachute open on the tail and plunge to the ground. Sterling was originally a member of the Scots Guards, which he joined in July of 1937, but in 1940 he volunteered for the newly created No. 8 Commando. During his commando training that day things had gone terribly wrong for him.
The nurses of this particular hospital were already quite familiar with him due to his habit of coming in to get shots of oxygen to try and cure him of his hangovers, which he had many of. Obviously his superiors weren't too fond of him, but at least his peers found him charming. His nickname at the time was "The Giant Sloth", as he was quite lazy, lacking basic military discipline, and not even able to march in a straight line. Over the course of several weeks the started regaining control of his legs, but during his recovery he had a lot of time to think.
Being an attempted member of the Commandos, he knew that the planned usage of them was to used them to raid the German bases that were in North Africa from the Mediterranean. The Royal Navy was very strong and if they wanted could raid any spot along the coast of North Africa, and the RAF operated from carriers and places in the sea like Malta. The Germans however knew that the they were threatened by attacks from the north and prepared defenses against that. Sterling however came up with the idea of attacking from the south, the Sahara desert. The Germans considered the desert to be impassable, being 45,000 square miles of water-less hell. Because of this presumption, they left the area unprotected and patrolled.
“This was one sea the Hun was not watching,” Stirling thought. He figured that if he made a teams of highly skilled and well trained men, then during the night they could infiltrate into the enemy lines. From here they could destroy airfields, supply garages, communication relays, railways, roads, and various other important utilities, before slipping away into the desert once more. His idea was to have a number of small units that would quickly slip into enemy bases, raid, and slip away just as fast. This way they could target several camps at once, instead of having one larger unit take one at a time by force.
Knowing that his idea probably wouldn't be taken seriously if he tried to work his way up the chain of command, he decided that he must go straight to the top and talk to Commander-in-Chief General Claude Auchinleck. Now on crutches, he snuck into the Middle East headquarters in Cairo but seeing the guards threw the crutches aside to enter. Once he was inside he immediately came in contact with an officer who he had issues with in the past, and quickly ducked into office of the chief of staff, General Neil Ritchie. Explaining his plan to Ritchie, Ritchie immediately went to Auchinleck and convinced him to let Stirling form a new Special Forces unit, who gave it the intentionally misleading name of "L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade," in order to strengthen the deception of a brigade of paratroopers stationed in North Africa. On that day in July 1941 the S.A.S. was born.
The group originally was comprised of six officers and 60 men of other ranks. Most of these men, like Sterling, weren't considered to be the most model soldiers. Their training was said to be harsh, so they would have to prove that they were tough and determined. While some men were very resolved to be part of the group, others couldn't take it, with some leaving via injury or even death. The group also had almost no gear at the beginning, only having a few raggedy tents and an old nearly broken down truck. Sterling's solution to this problem was to say "Alright men, go out and steal everything we need." So by the next morning they had one of the best equipped camps in the army, with tents, vehicles, and even a piano and ping-pong table, so the story goes.
On 16 November 1941 they went out to conduct their first mission, Operation Squatter, only five months after he had come up with the idea for the S.A.S. Their goal was to provide support to Operation Crusader, an operation designed to provide relief in the Siege of Tobruk. The siege was supposed to provide a chance for the Eighth Army to destroy the Axis armoured forces so they could move infantry in to engage. After several engagements who's outcomes were unclear, the 7th Armoured Division, or "Desert Rats," were defeated by the German Afrika Korps. Sterling knew that experimental units like his were often disbanded for not showing results fast enough, so he was eager to start missions right away.
Come to mission day, parachuting into 30 knot winds, in the desert, at night. Now you're not supposed to parachute when the wind is faster than 15 knots but Sterling decided that they couldn't wait, he needed to show that his unit could get things done. After throwing their gear out, they jumped behind it into the dark. It's very hard to see the ground beneath you during the night and the desert, so they hit the ground hard. Sterling was knocked unconscious, one man had a broken ankle, and another a broken back. He spent two hours rounding up his men, and trying to find of their gear, which was missing. There was no luck finding their supplies, so they were stuck with pistols, grenades and nothing else. They were useless for providing support like they were supposed to. Only 21 men made it back, with help of the Long Range Desert Group, or LRDG, who were assigned to bring them back after the mission.
Their first mission was a disaster, and Sterling wasn't sure if they would even get a chance at a second, but he already was planning and he knew one thing: don't parachute in. They recruited men from the disbanding Layforce Commando, and having a full group again were ready for another mission. Their second mission went much more smoothly, with help again from the LRDG. The LRDG transported them to an enemy airfield deep in enemy territory, where they would destroy the aircraft. This mission was lead by a man named Robert "Paddy" Mayne, who by the end of the war destroyed over 100 enemy aircraft on the ground. There wasn't anybody around when they arrived, but did notice some light and noise coming from a tent nearby. Sneaking up to it, they burst in with their machine guns to find a party going on. After a moment of awkward silence they opened fire on the party, killing nearly everyone at the camp, before destroying the planes. Paddy had thought this was a very successful mission, but when they got back Sterling didn't have the same opinion. Sterling reprimanded him for killing, because they weren't an assassin group, they were only there to destroy resources. All-and-all, they had proved themselves as a successful unit.