Lewis - SAS Ghost Patrol: the Ultra-Secret Unit That Posed as Nazi Stormtroopers

SAS Ghost Patrol

Damien Lewis

For all who took part in the raid on Tobruk and never returned.

Copy of the secret map issued to the Tobruk Raiders

This book is entitled SAS Ghost Patrol . I have chosen that title because many of those serving with the Special Interrogation Group (SIG)the unit that lies at the heart of this storyalso appear to have served with the SAS. These include Maurice Tiefenbrunner, who by his own account joined the SAS in July 1941, Lieutenant David Russell, the SIGs second in command, and Captain Herbert Cecil Buck, the founder of the SIG.

The SIG was deeply enmeshed within SAS desert operations, and at the time of the missions related in this book the unit was formally under SAS (then called L Detachment) command. Prior to that, the SIG appears to have been utilized on many occasions to enable SAS patrols to cross into German territory undetected. Indeed, this appears to have been the units prime function.

The SIG was chiefly a brainchild of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and the close relations between the SAS and SOE have been well documented. Once the SIG was disbanded, the handful of survivors returned to the SAS and many soldiered with them to the wars end. Of course, with a unit of the SIGs natureutterly deniable and top secretnothing is ever absolutely certain, if for no other reason than that many of the official papers concerning the SIG have been destroyed.

There are sadly few if any survivors from the World War Two operations depicted in these pages. Throughout the period of the research for, and the writing of, this book I have endeavoured to contact as many as possible, plus surviving family members of those who have passed away. If there are further witnesses to the stories told here who are inclined to come forward, please do get in touch with me, as I will endeavour to include further recollections of the operations portrayed in this book in future editions.

The time spent by Allied servicemen and women as special forces volunteers was often traumatic and wreathed in layers of secrecy, and many chose to take their stories to their graves. Memories tend to differ and apparently none more so than those concerning operations behind enemy lines. The written accounts that do exist also tend to differ in their detail and timescale, and locations and chronologies are often contradictory. That said, I have done my best to provide a proper sense of place, timescale and narrative to the story depicted in these pages.

Where various accounts of a mission appear to be particularly confused, the methodology I have used to reconstruct where, when and how events took place is the most likely scenario. If two or more testimonies or sources point to a particular time or place or sequence of events, I have opted to use that account as most likely. Where necessary I have re-created small sections of dialogue to aid the storys flow.

In earlier press reports and publications about the SIG pseudonyms have been used to protect their identities. With the passage of time the real names of those involved have emerged, and I have used those real names here. The one exception is the German POW and SIG trainer Bruckner, whose real name was very possibly Brockmann. As Bruckner is the official cover name that he was given by British intelligence during his time with the SIG, that is the name I have used in this book.

The above notwithstanding, any mistakes herein are entirely of my own making, and I would be happy to correct any in future editions. Likewise, while I have endeavoured to locate the copyright holders of the photos, sketches and other images and material used in this book, this has not always been straightforward or easy. Again, I would be happy to correct any mistakes in future editions.

It is not only the highwayman tactics that appeal to us, but the fact that the men were able to make the journey at all over such hazardous country. Free and easy it may be to these gallant men, but there is a quality of daredevil romance in the exploits of this group which thrills the imagination in these days when warfare has become only grim and horrible.

From a 14 March 1941 news cutting, source unknown

A good few years ago I crossed the Sahara desertonce from north to south, and once in the other direction. I did so with the benefit of a relatively modern vehicle and navigational technology, decent maps, andmostlygenerous food and water supplies. I was travelling with a few good friends, we had decent guidebooks and were often accompanied by local guides. We journeyed through Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Tunisia, Libya and one or two other African countries. We did so at a time of relative peace, when the desert wasnt convulsed by war and those operating in it hunted from pillar to post, watched from the skies by avenging warplanes. Even so, it was still a challenging and at times even fearful undertaking.

Perhaps that is why for many years Ive been fascinated by the story of the autumn 1942 attack on Barce aerodrome in Axis-held Libya by Allied special forces. The Barce raid was a spectacular mission almost without parallel and it is generally recognized as one of the most successful beat-up raids ever carried out. The attackers had to navigate some 1,900 miles of the worlds most inhospitable and hostile terrain in order to carry out their mission, penetrating deep into the dune seas and burning wastes of the Sahara. The Barce raid, code-named Operation Caravan, remains one of the longestif not the longestmissions in the history of special forces, an epic of against-all-odds desert survival.

As I began to study the raid in more detail, I asked my superlative researcher, Simon Fowler, to have a peek in the files held in the UK National Archives, searching for the war diary and any other official documents relating to Operation Caravan. Thankfully, a reasonable body of records has survived. It was in the process of perusing those files that a quite extraordinary and hidden narrative began to emergea layer of secret history underpinning the Barce raid itself.

Operation Caravan was part of a larger spread of special forces missions, all of which were executed on the night of 13 September 1942 with varying degrees of success. They involved a variety of elite units operating across much of Axis-held North Africa. The most important mission of allindeed, the absolute raison dtre for that nights audacious series of attackswas the raid on Tobruk. And to carry off that breathtaking mission a very special unit had been formed, one steeped in utmost secrecy.

Barely a platoon in size, this unit bore various names during the war, but it was most commonly known as the Special Interrogation Group, or SIG. The SIGs role is touched upon in some of the files held at the National Archives. The papers reveal how the unitpart Special Operations Executive, part SASwas founded to perpetrate one of the greatest deceptions and subterfuges of the entire war.