| On 16 November 1941, 60 former members of the Special Service Brigade, originally intended to attack Rhodes, took off in five aircraft to parachute into the Gazala-Tmimi area of Cyrenaica. Their objective was to attack airfields in the area, particularly those operating the new German Bf 109F fighters.
The raid was a fiasco due to adverse weather in the landing area, Many were killed on landing and they were dropped way off target, with no chance of reaching their objectives. The raid was abandoned and twenty-two survivors, including Capt. David Sterling and Lt. "Paddy" Mayne, made it out to the rendezvous point, where they were brought back by the LRDG.
Sterling and Mayne went on to be founders of the SAS, drawing correct conclusions from this fiasco about the conduct of such operations in the future.
I do wonder if the modern 22 SAS regiment is numbered in tribute to these 22 survivors.
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Angie
"History is lived forward but it is written in retrospect. We know the end before we consider the beginning and we can never wholly recapture what it was like to know the beginning only." C V Wedgewood
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