British Small Wars - SAS - A Postwar History

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British Small Wars - SAS - A Postwar History of SAS Operations.

The SAS - A postwar History At the end of World War II, the War Office saw no need for Special Forces and with all SAS units back in Britain by the end of May 1945, apart from a small war crimes unit, the SAS Brigade was officially disbanded in October 1945. In November 1946, the War Office came to the conclusion that there was room for an SAS-type unit within the Territorial Army. The SAS were grafted onto the Artists who had originally been formed in 1859 and this became 21 SAS(Artists) TA. When formed the unit wore the red beret of the airborne forces and did not regain the beige beret (taken away after the SAS returned to the UK after fighting in Italy in early 1944) until 1957.
In 1948 the Communist inspired revolt in Malaya broke out, and in 1950 recommendations were made that the Malayan Scouts (SAS) were formed. After a patchy start, Calvert's unit proved successful and, in December 1951, it was formally accepted as a unit of the SAS with the number 22. The unit was almost disbanded at the end of the Malayan Emergency, but a sudden requirement for troops in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman needed addressing and a second squadron of 22 SAS was sent there. 22 SAS became a permanent part of the British order-of-battle, albeit with a reduced strength of two squadrons, while the height of the Malayan Emergency had seen an operational strength of five squadrons.
Between November 1958 and January 1959 the SAS were in action in Oman, fighting the rebels on the Jebel Akhdar capturing the supposedly impregnable fortress in less than 10 weeks.
As the 1960s passed and Britain withdrew from its imperial commitments, 22 SAS was involved in campaigns in Borneo, Aden and the Radfan, whilst units of the Australian and New Zealand SAS took part in the Vietnam War. In all these campaigns the SAS were relatively successful and, importantly, added to the pool of skills and abilities at the command of the SAS as a whole.
22 SAS returned to Oman in 1970 as part of a counter-insurgency campaign, which lasted approximately five years, and at the end of this the Regiment was formally committed to operations in Northern Ireland where elements have remained ever since.
Throughout the 1970s, 22 SAS had been developing a specialist counter-terrorist capability in order to give the government a means of response to hijackings and kidnappings. 1972 saw the SAS involved in the mid-ocean drop to the luxury liner Queen Elizabeth II during a bomb threat. In 1977 the SAS provided two men to aid the German GSG9 in the assault on a hijacked Lufthansa 737 in Mogadishu, Somalia.
In May 1980, the SAS mounted what would become their most famous endeavour, Operation Nimrod, to end the siege of the Iranian Embassy in London successfully. In July 1981 the SAS helped to restore President Jawara of Gambia to power and in 1982 elements of three SAS squadrons deployed with the Falklands Task Force to operate against occupying Argentine forces.
In 1990 the SAS reverted to their war role again in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Three SAS squadrons were deployed, together with reservist reinforcements from 'R' Squadron. Following the war, the SAS took part in operations in the former Yugoslavia and most recently have been involved in the operations in Afghanistan alongside their US counterparts following the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC on 11th September 2001.
Other SAS roles include training and helping friendly nations and organizations with their own security problems. Examples of this included training Colombian anti-narcotics police and non-communist Cambodian guerrillas, hunting down ivory poachers in Kenya and providing instructors at NATO Special Forces schools.