SPECIAL AIR SERVICE

Special Air Service

The Special Air Service (SAS) is the principal special forces organisation of the British Army. Formed in 1941 to conduct raids behind German lines in North Africa, with the Long Range Desert Group, it today serves as a model for similar units fielded by many other countries.

The SAS is a small and secretive organisation, but attracts a disproportionate amount of media coverage. It forms part of the United Kingdom Special Forces, alongside the Special Boat Service (SBS) and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR).

The SAS is widely regarded as one of the finest and best trained special forces units in the world.

Active:	July 1947-
Type:	Special Forces
Country:	United Kingdom
Branch:	Army
Role:	Counter Revolutionary Warfare/Counter Terrorism (one regiment) Close Target Reconnaissance (two regiments)
Garrison/HQ:	Hereford (22nd Regiment) London (21st Regiment) Wolverhampton (23rd Regiment)
Colonel in Chief:	Colonel of the Regiment: General The Rt Hon Charles Ronald Llewellyn (Guthrie), Baron Guthrie, GCB, LVO, OBE, ADC
Nickname:	The Regiment
Motto:	Who Dares Wins
March:	Quick: Marche du Regiment Parachutiste Belge After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the SAS were involved in operations in Afghanistan. Operation Trent employed half the Regiment in a successful attack on an $85,000,000 opium storage plant in Helmand province, which doubled as an Al-Qaeda local command centre. Roman Abramovich's luxury yacht Ecstasea (launched in 2004) is rumoured to have an ex-SAS crew. On 30 January 2005, an RAF Hercules crashed near Baghdad, killing ten British servicemen. The plane had just dropped off fifty members of G Squadron north of Baghdad for an operation to combat the increased insurgency. On 22 July 2005, the SAS were reported by The Sunday Times to have aided in intelligence gathering and surveillance for the Metropolitan Police which resulted in the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, although the use of SAS forces was later denied by Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Following on from the 21 July attacks in London, on 29 July 2005 the SAS assisted in an operation to capture some of the terrorists who are believed to have carried out the attempted attacks. The SAS were seen arriving in unmarked vehicles and wore balaclavas throughout the operation to conceal their identities. The SAS helped with storming the flats in West London and are believed to have fired several shots in the process. On 19 September 2005, two supposed SAS members were arrested in the city of Basra in Iraq. Iraqi police claimed the two were arrested trying to plant bombs dressed in civilian clothing and had shot at police officers. The arrests sparked clashes in which British armoured personnel carriers came under attack from petrol bombs. Later, official Iraqi sources said that British tanks knocked down a wall storming the city's jail and rescuing the soldiers. The British Ministry of Defence initially said that the men's release was negotiated and the tanks were merely trying to collect them. They later, however, claimed that the police had illegally handed the men over to Shi'a militia and it was from these that they had to be rescued. Slow: Lili Marlene

Special Air Service troops pictured in the North African desert during World War 2. The favourite jeep-mounted weapon of the SAS was the Vickers K machine gun, often mounted in pairs. The Vickers K was designed as an air-to-air weapon fitted to British aircraft. Firing a mixture of .303 armour-piercing, tracer and incendiary rounds, the Vickers K was ideal for shooting up parked enemy planes, something the SAS did to great effect during the War.