Striking from the shadows
This year the National Army Museum presents In The Shadows, taking visitors on a journey through the missions, equipment and heroic stories of Britain’s special forces
Take a look at some of the unique objects on display at the National Army Museum
World War II was a conflict that threw up opportunities for innovative and aggressive young soldiers. With rapid advances in transport, communication and weaponry, the warfare was technologically far removed from the static slaughter of the Western Front in World War I. No country exploited these advances as quickly and as effectively as Britain, which, with the encouragement of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, formed its first special forces units in 1940.
Not all the special forces units to emerge from World War II were trained to kill. Some were reconnaissance units and others gathered intelligence, but whatever their function they undertook their role with a professionalism that created the template for subsequent generations of special forces.
A new exhibition at the National Army Museum, entitled In The Shadows, explores the history of Britain’s special forces, from the present day back to World War II when Churchill ordered his chiefs of staff to raise units of specially trained soldiers that could “butcher and bolt”.
Here are just a few of the spectacular objects on display at the museum, as well as some of the soldiers and missions that were instrumental in the SAS’S nascent years and beyond. For more information on the National Army Museum, please visit www.nam.ac.uk