The SAS and LRDG Roll of Honour 1941 – 1947
An 800-page commemorative roll compiled over thirteen years to honour every SAS fatality of the Second World War and their comrades in the LRDG.
- Author
- Allied Special Forces Association
- Publisher
- Allied Special Forces Association
- Price
- Contact publisher
- Published
- 2016
The SAS and LRDG Roll of Honour 1941 – 1947
This extraordinary historical record took thirteen years to compile. Produced by a former member of the Regiment, it commemorates every SAS fatality of the Second World War and chronicles the intertwined wartime careers of the Special Air Service and the Long Range Desert Group. The boxed set spans 800 pages of operational reports, service records, medal citations, diaries, letters and correspondence, completed for the Regiment’s 75th anniversary in August 2015.
Rare photographs include a portrait of the original detachment after its first operation at Kabrit in North Africa, when the fledgling SAS parachuted into the Libyan desert to destroy enemy aircraft. Gale-force winds and heavy rain scattered the men and their equipment; survivors trekked for up to 36 hours to reach pre-arranged rendezvous points where the LRDG recovered them. Only a handful returned from that mission, yet the SAS quickly adapted, using the LRDG to insert and extract patrols before adopting their own heavily armed jeeps—a hallmark tactic to this day.
By the end of the North African campaign the Regiment had destroyed more enemy aircraft on the ground than the RAF. The roll of honour documents operations in Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Germany, records the 374 SAS men killed during the war—including those murdered under Hitler’s Commando Order—and notes that SAS patrols were first into Bergen-Belsen. A final section recounts the post-war manhunt led by CSM Bill Barkworth, when former members returned covertly to track down the perpetrators of their comrades’ deaths.
The work is issued as a numbered, limited edition with a certificate fixed to Volume 1. Volumes are organised geographically: North Africa, the Middle East and New Zealand; Central and Eastern Mediterranean; and North-West Europe. The author prefers to remain anonymous; UK orders cost £68.50 including postage. For purchase information contact Paul@cedargroup.uk.com.
Also requested: details of Scott Goodall’s The Freedom Trail (UK £15 + £3.50 P&P; USA £9). Enquiries to marie@inchmere.co.uk.