However, eyewitnesses to the shooting in Gibraltar stated in the Thames Television documentary Death On The Rock that they believed McCann and Farrell were shot with their hands up. After three months of training, they were informed that the squadron would not, after all, be needed in Korea, and instead were sent to serve in the Malayan Emergency. Jonquil entailed four seaborne beach parties from 2nd SAS with the Free French SAS Squadron as protection. But GHQ have cast doubt over the future of the regiment, while the creation of a new unit and a surprise arrival make things even more difficult for the men.

Near the end of the year the Special Raiding Squadron reverted to their former title 1st SAS and together with 2nd SAS were withdrawn from Italy and placed under command of the 1st Airborne Division. They were prevented from conducting operations until after the start of the invasion by 21st Army Group. These hit-and-run operations eventually proved Stirling's undoing; he was captured by the Germans in January 1943 having been dubbed "The Phantom Major" by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. In Germany, in 1989 the German security forces discovered a SAS unit operating there without the permission of the German government.

Woodhouse's first assignment was to go to Yemen to report on the state of the royalist forces when a cease-fire was declared.

Written by Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight, the six-part series followed Captain David Stirling, Lt Paddy Mayne and Lt Jock Lewes as they forged the elite unit in the deserts of North Africa during the darkest days of the war. Bob Tait, who had accompanied Stirling on the first raid, produced the winning entry: the flaming sword of Excalibur, the legendary weapon of King Arthur. Of the original 55 men, some 34 were killed, wounded or captured far from the target, after being blown off course or landing in the wrong area, during one of the biggest storms to hit the region.

His Boy's Own heroics captured the imagination of the British people, who needed a reminder of past glories.

Stirling explained his plan to Ritchie, immediately after which Ritchie persuaded Auchinleck to allow Stirling to form a new special operations unit. After a brief period of training, an initial attempt at attacking a German airfield by parachute landing on 16 November 1941 in support of Operation Crusader proved to be disastrous for the unit. Bill Stirling was therefore in the nerve centre of the Allied war effort in North Africa, well positioned to assess and analyse the campaign which, in the summer of 1941, was not going well. Some of the new series recruits also include Mark Rowley (The Last Kingdom, The North Water) and Jack Barton (Heartstopper, War of the Worlds), who will play SAS members Jock McDiarmid and John Tonkin respectively.

The answer probably lies in the fact that he was a powerful, influential and litigious man, who had friends in high places and - through his private security company that supplied mercenaries to the world's trouble spots - associates in dark ones. Stirling, who was hurt in the jump, believed that dissenters at Middle East HQ were “chuffed that the unit had apparently been annihilated”. Escaping only with the help of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) – who were designated to pick up the unit after the attack – Stirling agreed that approaching by land under the cover of night would be safer and more effective than parachuting. Like David, Keyes had all the worst traits of the upper-class: arrogance, entitlement and indolence. Though unorthodox, Stirling has been painted as a natural leader and willing to get his hands dirty – a man of unwavering, though modest, confidence and hare-brained derring-do.

Why SAS creator David Stirling was more Phoney Major than Phantom Major IN THE Daily Express of Monday March 16, 1959, the famous William Hickey column told readers the Queen had spent the weekend at a house party in Devon and among the guests was the "Phantom Major". Shake the sand out of your boots because SAS Rogue Heroes season 2 has begun filming, with Paddy Mayne's boys swapping the deserts of North Africa for the war in Europe!Gavin Mortimer described how after Paddy Mayne died in 1955, Stirling took the opportunity to boost his legend within the SAS.