coastrider: SAS Rogue Heroes - new series on BBC iplayer...

BBC have done it again with another great new series. From the director of Peaky Blinders a action packed rocking soundtrack history of probably the most famous group of military men in British military history.

Famous because they went against traditional military procedure and those who previously did not fit in with Military discipline found a place together to serve with the already Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and along side then as part of a new unit called the Special Air Service took a new direction in military tactics that was at first at loggerheads against the powers to be at first, until they saw what they were capable of.

Winston Churchill said in now famous words `time to unleash the dogs of war',

And what a devastation they unleashed Axis Airfields tearing through Axis airfields causing death and destroying aircraft and supplies.

The SAS turned the tide of the Desert campaign and ultimately a big part in the eventual WW2 victory.

There was also another enemy they had to deal with - The desert....

With 2 wheel drive Chevvy trucks of the LRDG another vehicle became their tool of choice, the Willys Jeep. with 4 wheel drive armed with twin aircraft Vickers and 50mm machine guns and aircraft bulllet proof glass they could speed though airfields and cause mayhem, death and destruction...

This was where the Willys Jeep became famous though later campaigns of 1944 seem to put this war in the shade slightly...

Airfix model...

Started by Scotsman David Stirling The unit became the feared unit of Axis forces and is no doubt still the best special forces squadron today.

Reality TV shows with celebrities going through supposedly SAS selection are really an insult to men who served and continue to serve in the Special Air Service.

My late dad was friends with an ex member, Peter was the first warden at John Muir Country Park outside Dunbar here in East Lothian in the late 1970`s, and passed away a few years ago...

We visited the David Sterling Memorial a few years ago...