In November 1941, L Detachment spearheaded Operation Squatter, the first combat mission to ever involve the SAS. The operation would begin with L Detachment parachuting behind German lines in Libya ahead of a British offensive targeting a network of coastal airfields. A severe storm rolled in just as the operation was getting underway, but Stirling decided to stick with the plan. The decision proved catastrophic. Of the 55 SAS commandos who jumped into Libya, only about 20 would return to friendly lines still in fighting shape. The rest were either killed, injured, captured, or went missing.
After Operation Squatter, Stirling went back to the drawing board to figure out a more effective way for his commandos to operate in North Africa. He proposed ditching the unit’s airborne capabilities and transforming it into more of an unorthodox ground assault element, one that would rely on heavily armed Land Rovers to whisk small teams across the desert to conduct hit-and-run sabotage missions against German military installations along the coast.
Stirling ultimately decided to go with his plan. He recruited the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) to provide transportation for his commandos. They would operate almost exclusively under the cover of darkness, moving swiftly with the goal of being on and off their target objectives before first light. Thus, over the next year, the SAS and LRDG criss-crossed Libya, carrying out a series of clandestine missions that succeeded in destroying as many as 400 enemy aircraft, hundreds of vehicles, and dozens of fuel supply dumps.
A member of the Long Range Desert Group in a heavily-armored Land Rover in 1943. Photo courtesy of the National Army Museum.
