THE GREATEST ESCAPES
‘At times he is semi-delirious’
A DARING mission to destroy a German fortress at Tobruk in Libya during the Second World War was immortalised in the film Raid On Rommel starring Richard Burton.
But the Allied Forces paid a heavy price for Operation Agreement in September 1942, which destroyed gun placements and bombproof oil storage tanks at the heavily-guarded base to deprive German general Erwin Rommel, known as the Desert Fox, of the vital supply and shipping port in North Africa.
Several hundred Allied soldiers were killed or captured but a group of SAS soldiers escaped on foot across the Sahara with no water or supplies, despite being relentlessly hunted by the enemy.
This escape is one of seven previously untold stories brought to life in a new book by author Damien Lewis.
SAS Great Escapes is out now to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the formation of the world’s most famous fighting force, created by Lieutenant-colonel David Stirling on July 1, 1941. It also includes an operation that saw the elite soldiers parachute behind enemy lines to “cause havoc” before D-day in June 1944.
A Canadian pilot whose
Lancaster bomber was shot down in north-east France a month later joined this raiding party after narrowly escaping capture and was made an honorary member of the SAS.
Damien, 55, says the dramatic escapes featured in his latest book are not better known because there were so many extraordinary feats of courage and bravery during the war. He says: “The Second World War was unique in that it was a battle for the freedom of humankind. It was the war in which the greatest number of lives were lost, it was good against evil.
“So you can imagine the level of determination and drive of individuals to escape.
“They were being held by a horrendous enemy and they knew they had to get back to wage the war in freedom’s cause, so there are so many incredible stories of escapes that you could write dozens of volumes.”
His previous works, including SAS Band Of Brothers and SAS Ghost Patrol, have told the story of one operation in each book.
But during the past decade of researching and writing about the exploits of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the war he kept coming across daring escapes which did not fit what he was writing at the time but still lodged in his memory.
He believes these stories of wartime escapes from Hitler’s Nazis are the perfect tonic to “a hell of a year” of the pandemic.
He says: “We have been through lockdowns and Covid and it has been really tough on everybody.
“So what do we need at the moment? We need stories of survival, we need positive, uplifting stories to showcase the human spirit and endurance.
“And there is nothing better than seven stories of great escapes from the Secondworldwar.”
Lieutenant Thomas Langton MC was one of 100 soldiers who posed as Germans to pass through enemy checkpoints for the raid on Tobruk, and then led their escape on foot.
Damien says: “From Tobruk they had hundreds of miles of Saharan desert to cross with no water, very little food, little weaponry and ammunition, and the
enemy hunting them all the way. It’s a Mission: Impossible. Somehow Langton manages to keep a diary of his escape, which his family generously allowed me to use extracts from.
“At times it’s obvious he’s semidelirious, he’s so blasted by the sun and dehydrated that he’s exhausted, and the writing reflects this. It’s this stream of consciousness – it makes sense but it’s not written in the normal way you would expect. They were siphoning
the water from abandoned military trucks to drink, they were eating the discarded rations of the Army across the desert plains.
“It was the most impossible of escape journeys but they made it and Langton managed to get back to Allied lines with every ablebodied man under his command.
“The only people that fell by the wayside were the injured or sick.
“He was awarded the Military Cross for that escape effort.”
The author adds: “I have actually crossed the Sahara twice myself – but I did it in a Land Rover piled high with water and jerry cans of fuel, provisions, and navigation aids.
“To do it on foot with no supplies and hunted the whole way beggars belief.”
Speaking from his home in Dorset, Damien says the story of Flight Officer Ronald Fiddick is just as remarkable.
“His story is the stand-out one because he is not in the SAS – in fact he’s not even British.
“Fiddick is a Canadian who has been brought up in British Columbia, which is a densely wooded, rural part of Canada, and his family are long-standing foragers and woodsmen of old, so that is the culture he is steeped in. He’s in a Lancaster bomber crewed by Canadians on a night flight to Stuttgart when it is shot down.”
After evading capture Fiddick was found by the French Resistance, the Maquis, and taken to a group of SAS soldiers who
had parachuted into the Vosges mountains nearby. The leader of this group was Captain Henry Druce, famed for wearing a silk top hat into battle.
Damien says: “Druce was leading a 12-man forward patrol, parachuting 500 miles behind enemy lines, to cause havoc before D-day and convince the Germans that the Allies had broken through.
“When Druce meets Fiddick he sees this fit, young, enthusiastic Canadian. But most importantly, this individual knows about woods inside out, as the Vosges mountains are very heavily forested.
“He says to him, I think you had better join us as an honorary member of the SAS.
“Fiddick goes on to take part in raids as a machine gunner at the back of Jeeps and distinguishes himself.”
He adds: “There is a stage where they get some priceless intelligence of the order of battle for an entire Panzer division which Druce, as a fluent French speaker, volunteers to take through enemy lines to General Patton, and Fiddick goes with him.
“They became close friends and Druce moved to Canada after the war, where they remained friends throughout their lives.”
The author’s next book will tell the story of a “more contemporary” SAS operation which he says is “the most incredible survival against all odds story you will ever read”.
This is due out in October and he is also working on another SAS Second World War story to come out next year.
He says: “What I really love is bringing a small band of brothers alive to deliver a compelling, blow-by-blow, boots on the ground and warts-and-all story.
“I think we are increasingly in need in this day and age of real heroes that people can believe in, which all these stories have.”
SAS Great Escapes, Damien Lewis (Quercus, £20) out now