The SAS raid on Sidi Haneish, a feat you can see in an excellent short film

World War II marked a quantum leap forward for special operations military forces.

Orlik, the Pole who destroyed ten German tanks using a tiny tankette
The epic combat of armored vehicles that started the Battle of Arracourt in 1944

By far the most famous of these units is the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS), founded in July 1941 under the official name L Detachment. Its baptism of fire took place in November of the same year in North Africa with Operation Squatter, a mission that was a complete disaster. Its fortunes changed on the night of 26/27 July 1942 with a spectacular attack on the German airfield at Sidi Haneish in north-west Egypt.

SAS founder Major David Stirling (a legendary daring man nicknamed "Major Ghost" by the Germans) led this operation, which used 18 modified Jeeps, armed with four Vickers K machine guns each. Each vehicle was manned by three or four SAS personnel, both British and French. The attacking force traveled 80 kilometers across the desert in the dead of night from Bir el Quseir to Sidi Haneish, reaching their target undetected and attacking it with tracer ammunition, creating a complete confusion of light and noise. This SAS force destroyed 37 German aircraft while suffering only one casualty, 21-year-old British Private John Robson.

The attack lasted 15 minutes, causing heavy casualties among the German soldiers defending Sidi Haneish. Following the attack, the SAS force split into several groups, moving at night to evade the Germans and regrouping at Bir el-Quseir. Along the way, German Stuka attack aircraft located several Jeeps containing French SAS members, killing one of them, André Zirnheld, and destroying two vehicles. The SAS raid on Sidi Haneish was a feat of special operations that still serves as a benchmark for modern units conducting this type of mission.

Today, the SAS remains one of the finest special operations forces in the world, and is used as a benchmark by other units of its kind for organization and training. Its motto is "Who dares wins", which perfectly sums up the SAS's style of operation. A few days ago, the Yarnhub channel published one of its excellent short films recreating this raid:

You can see some screenshots from this excellent short film here, with which Yarnhub has once again surpassed itself in quality. A must-see channel if you like military history.