I found “Rogue Heroes”, a 2016 history of the founding and WWII of the British Special Air Service in HP Books.

Some absolutely extraordinary feats of endurance of guys on foot in the North African desert seeking to rejoin the British lines that we wouldn’t think possible today.

But this episode in France stood out; Les Ormes, France (Western Half of France about midway down) 23rd August 1944.

The SS were in the process of executing 20 civilians in reprisal when five SAS guys, part of a group who had been dropped behind enemy lines some time before, became aware of it.

This from a guy who was in it...

http://ww2f.com/threads/fire-fight-at-les-ormes.4106/

Amazing what suprise and boldness can do !

Good read. Thanks

Very good story.

Lucky are the brave!

Slow hand salute....

Thanks.

God bless them for their convictions. Right is Right, whether it is easy or not.

White Nationalists.

Thank God.

“Who Dares Wins” indeed.....

.....some of the time.

In the absence of sufficient intel, many missions (half?) ended in failure, if they were lucky the SAS guys on the scene could call it off as hopeless and slip away undetected, if they weren’t that lucky the cruel mathematics that applied was if a raiding party was lost, the small number of men and equipment involved made those losses affordable.

Even during the spectacularly successful raids, the injured and wounded often had to be left behind to face the mercies of the elements and/or the enemy. After October of ‘42 and Hitler’s infamous Commando Order, capture even in uniform behind German lines meant execution, often after hard interrogation and torture.

Brave, yes, but it sounds like their firearms sucked.



P

^ ^ ^

IIRC the backstory was the SAS guys were headed to that particular village to have a broken machine gun mount on a Jeep welded back together, dunno if that broken mount contributed to some of the jamming.

The book has it that the SAS in France were chronically short of guns and ammunition, they were supplied by airdrop and the local Resistance would often snag everything they could get.

Respect and Honor.

Men they were.......

Any idea which SS brigade or division members
the SAS encountered?

17th SS panzergrenadiers were positioned around
Châtellerault Aug. 44', a few miles south of Les Ormes.
Its suspected 17th SS were involved in the reprisal
killings at Maillé 18 miles north of Chatellerault.
.but it's still not certain which german troops left the
message on the corpses allegedly saying:
"A punishment for terrorists and their assistants"

Operation Bullbasket took place June-August 44'
between SAS/French resistance and the German
2nd SS Das Reich and 17th SS.