The Phantom Major: The Story of David Stirling and the SAS Regiment

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The problems were knowing where you were, and knowing where you could find resources, such as the places where you could find water on a long journey in unknown territory over very bad conditions. Gavin says David Stirling tried to portray himself in later life as a kind of “devil may care buccaneer – a gambler”. One can feel a degree of sympathy for Stirling because he was an ideas man and he was someone who found himself in a situation ie commanding officer of the SAS, who clearly wasn’t cut out for this role. Mortimer also reveals the critical influence that David Stirling’s older brother, Bill, had on the formation of the unit. An early recruit to SOE, it was Bill Stirling who first understood the importance of excellent fieldcraft and training for irregular forces. He set up a training school in Scotland where he taught fledgling Commandos – many of whom would go on to be members of the nascent SAS, including David Stirling and Mayne – how to survive and fight behind enemy lines. Contrary to David’s tall tale of breaking into GHQ, it was Bill who ensured the memo proposing the formation of the SAS, which he had composed with David, landed on the right desks. ‘A disruptive influence’ Through James, who lived in Oxford at the time, he got to know another original SAS member Johnny Cooper.

The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, direct action, and covert reconnaissance Business was chiefly with the Gulf States. He was linked, along with Denys Rowley, to a failed attempt to overthrow the Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 1970 or 1971. Stirling was the founder of “ private military company” KAS International, also known as KAS Enterprises. [23] Stirling was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and the SAS was expanded into a regiment. According to Gavin Mortimer, it was a move by top brass to keep better control of Stirling and his operations. “He might have been the Phantom Major to the British tabloids but to his soldiers, Stirling was a liability who had repeatedly gambled with their lives in his pursuit of glory,” wrote Mortimer. Gavin describes Paddy Mayne as the “physical force” of the SAS in World War Two and Bill Stirling as the “intellectual force”.The Special Air Service (SAS) is famous around the world. Its highly trained men are renowned for their skills in covert surveillance, close-combat fighting, and hostage rescue. It was a ludicrous idea. Stirling simply strapped the parachute on, tied the ripcord to the leg of a chair in a completely inappropriate plane, then jumped out of the door. The parachute snagged on the plane’s tail fin and he plummeted to earth, very nearly killing himself.

It was not something people were enjoying at the time very often – well, it was exciting to be shooting off at things, yes, I suppose it was. During the course of his research, however, he read a book he regards as the best memoir of the SAS ever written, Born of the Desert by Malcolm James, who was the SAS wartime medical officer. In 15 months Stirling's forces put hundreds of enemy vehicles out of action and destroyed more than 250 aircraft on the ground, plus dozens of supply dumps, railways and telecommunications networks. Another fabrication, he says, was the claim he spent a year and a half in Paris in the 1930s being taught by the famous French painter Andre Lhote. Overall, I loved the desert, I thought it was perfect. I was very sorry to leave at the end of the desert war.It’s a controversial question posed by best-selling writer, historian and TV consultant Gavin Mortimer in his new book ‘David Stirling The Phoney Major: The Life, Times and Truth about the Founder of the SAS’. He was a first-class man, highly intelligent, highly motivated, and in many ways the founder of the SAS. But was the Perthshire-born officer really a military genius, or was he in fact a shameless self-publicist who manipulated people, and the truth, for his own ends? Analysis of character

After his capture, Stirling’s war was over, despite a number of abortive escape attempts, which eventually led him to Colditz. The SAS thrived under Mayne for the rest of the war. Following Mayne’s untimely death in a car crash in 1955, Stirling once again used his powers of self-promotion to create his own myth, appropriating many of Mayne’s qualities and successes along the way. Well, he doesn’t come cheap, but what are you getting for all those points? First off, a Veteran Major is nothing to sniff at in the leadership department, and given how small SAS armies tend to be, there’s a good chance he can activate most of yours in one go with his You Men Snap To!He’s also a powerful force in his own right, with three mates (one of whom is also a Medic), providing a capable little fireteam. As his Mad, Quite Madspecial rule makes him very very difficult to Pin out of usefulness, he can be used very aggressively without too much fear of being bogged down. The Phantom Majoris a fun little rule that can remove models from enemy infantry units beforethe game begins – while one Inexperienced chap isn’t likely to change the outcome of a game, having an expensive Veteran with plenty of kit not take part can be very inconvenient indeed for your opponent, particularly if you can roll well and get a few of them off on guard duty! SAS: Rogue Heroes Jellicoe, George (2004). "Mayne, Robert Blair (1915–1955)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. How can I put it politely, but when I delved into David Stirling’s life outside the war and what had been written about him in his two biographies, there’s a lot that he embellished,” says Gavin.Stirling may be accompanied by up to 3 men (Veterans armed with anti-tank grenades and submachine guns, pistols or rifles/carbines as depicted on the model) for +19pts each David Stirling was an embittered man when the war ended. For the next decade he had little to do with the SAS and relocated to southern Africa. Then in December 1955 Paddy Mayne was killed in a car crash. Stirling saw a chance to rewrite history. The hair-raising adventures of David Stirling, the madman behind the SAS". The Daily Telegraph. 31 October 2022 . Retrieved 14 November 2022.