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Service Regiment (Artists Rifles) - The 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, Which

The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army founded in 1941. It undertakes roles such as covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, and hostage rescue. The SAS consists of regular and reserve units and traces its origins back to World War 2, where it carried out dangerous operations behind enemy lines. In recent decades, the 22nd SAS Regiment has been involved in numerous military operations worldwide, including the Iranian embassy siege, Gulf War, Afghanistan War, Iraq War, and operations against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS.

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139 views4 pages

Service Regiment (Artists Rifles) - The 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, Which

The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army founded in 1941. It undertakes roles such as covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, and hostage rescue. The SAS consists of regular and reserve units and traces its origins back to World War 2, where it carried out dangerous operations behind enemy lines. In recent decades, the 22nd SAS Regiment has been involved in numerous military operations worldwide, including the Iranian embassy siege, Gulf War, Afghanistan War, Iraq War, and operations against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS.

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Gaurav Saxena
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© © All Rights Reserved
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The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army.

The
SAS was founded in 1941 as a regiment, and later reconstituted as a corps in
1950.[5] The unit undertakes a number of roles
including covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, direct action and hostage
rescue. Much of the information and actions regarding the SAS is
highly classified, and is not commented on by the British government or
the Ministry of Defence due to the sensitivity of their operations.[10][11][12]

The corps currently consists of the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, the
regular component under operational command of United Kingdom Special
Forces, as well as the 21st (Artists) Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve) and
the 23rd Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve), which are reserve units under
operational command of the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance
Brigade.[13]

The Special Air Service traces its origins to 1941 and the Second World War. It
was reformed as part of the Territorial Army in 1947, named the 21st Special Air
Service Regiment (Artists Rifles). The 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, which
is part of the regular army, gained fame and recognition worldwide after its
televised rescue of all but one of the hostages held during the 1980 Iranian
Embassy siege

In January 1943, Colonel Stirling was captured in Tunisia and Paddy


Mayne replaced him as commander.[20] In April 1943, the 1st SAS was
reorganised into the Special Raiding Squadron under Mayne's command and
the Special Boat Squadron was placed under the command of George
Jellicoe.[21] The Special Raiding Squadron fought in Sicily and Italy along with
the 2nd SAS, which had been formed in North Africa in 1943 in part by the
renaming of the Small Scale Raiding Force.[22][23] The Special Boat Squadron
fought in the Aegean Islands and Dodecanese until the end of the war.[24] In 1944
the SAS Brigade was formed from the British 1st and 2nd SAS, the French 3rd
and 4th SAS and the Belgian 5th SAS.[25] It was tasked with parachute operations
behind the German lines in France[2] and carried out operations supporting the
Allied advance through France,
(Operations Houndsworth, Bullbasket, Loyton and Wallace-Hardy) Belgium,
the Netherlands (Operation Pegasus), and eventually into Germany (Operation
Archway).[25][26] As a result of Hitler's issuing of the Commando Order on 18
October 1942, the members of the unit faced the additional danger that they would
be summarily executed if ever captured by the Germans. In July 1944,
following Operation Bulbasket, 34 captured SAS commandos were summarily
executed by the Germans. In October 1944, in the aftermath of Operation
Loyton another 31 captured SAS commandos were summarily executed by the
German

22 SAS Regiment

Since serving in Malaya, men from the regular army 22 SAS Regiment have taken
part in reconnaissance patrols and large scale raiding missions in the Jebel
Akhdar War in Oman and conducted covert reconnaissance and surveillance
patrols and some larger scale raiding missions in Borneo.[34][35] They returned to
Oman in operations against Communist-backed rebels in the Dhofar
Rebellion including the Battle of Mirbat.[36] They have also taken part in
operations in the Aden Emergency,[37] Northern Ireland,[38] and Gambia.[35] Their
Special projects team assisted the West German counterterrorism group GSG
9 at Mogadishu.[35] The SAS counter terrorist wing famously took part in a
hostage rescue operation during the Iranian Embassy Siege in London.[39] During
the Falklands War B squadron were prepared for Operation Mikado before it was
subsequently cancelled while D and G squadrons were deployed and participated
in the raid on Pebble Island.[40] Operation Flavius was a controversial operation
in Gibraltar against the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA).[35] 22 SAS
also directed NATO aircraft onto Serb positions and hunted war criminals
in Bosnia.[41][42] They were also involved in the Kosovo
War helping KLA guerillas behind Serbian lines. According to Albanian sources
one SAS sergeant was killed by Serbian special forces.[43]

The Gulf War, in which A, B and D squadrons deployed, was the largest SAS
mobilisation since the Second World War, also notable for the failure of
the Bravo Two Zero mission.[44] In Sierra Leone it took part in Operation Barras,
a hostage rescue operation, to extract members of the Royal Irish
Regiment.[35] Following the September 11 attacks on the United States by al-
Qaeda in 2001, 2 squadrons of 22 SAS, reinforced by members of both the
territorial SAS units deployed to Afghanistan as part of the Coalition invasion at
the start of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), to dismantle and destroy al-
Qaeda and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing
the Taliban from power in the War on Terror. The Regiment carried
out Operation Trent – the largest operation in its history, which included its first
wartime HALO parachute jump. Following the invasion, the Regiment continued
to operate in Afghanistan against the Taliban and other insurgents until 2006,
where its deployment Iraq became its focus of operations until 2009, when the
SAS redeployed to Afghanistan.[45][46]

The regiment took part in the Iraq War, notably carrying out operations in Iraq
before the 2003 invasion. Following the invasion, it formed part of Task Force
Black/Knight to combat the postinvasion insurgency; in late 2005/early 2006, the
SAS were integrated into JSOC and focused its counterinsurgency efforts on
combating al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Sunni insurgency alongside Delta Force. The
counter-insurgency was successful, and the UKSF mission in Iraq ended in May
2009.[45][46][47] Overall, more than 3,500 terrorists were "taken off the streets" of
Baghdad by 22 SAS.[48]

Various British newspapers have speculated on SAS involvement in Operation


Ellamy and the 2011 Libyan civil war. The Daily Telegraph reports that "defence
sources have confirmed that the SAS has been in Libya for several weeks, and
played a key role in coordinating the fall of Tripoli." [49] While The
Guardian reports "They have been acting as forward air controllers—directing
pilots to targets—and communicating with NATO operational commanders.
They have also been advising rebels on tactics."[50]

Members of the Special Air Service were deployed to Northern Iraq in late
August 2014, and according to former MI6 chief Richard Barrett, would also
be sent to Syria, tasked with trying to track down the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) terrorist group that the press labelled the Beatles.[51][52][53][54]

In recent years SAS officers have risen to the highest ranks in the British Army.
General Peter de la Billière was the commander in chief of the British forces in
the 1990 Gulf War.[55] General Michael Rose became commander of the United
Nations Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994.[56] In 1997 General Charles
Guthrie became Chief of the Defence Staff the head of the British armed
forces.[57] Lieutenant-General Cedric Delves was appointed commander of the
Field Army and deputy commander in chief NATO Regional Headquarters Allied
Forces North in 2002–2003

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