The Secret Origins of the SAS

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1974, a pioneer of the SAS and master of military deception, Dudley Clarke, passed away. His death went almost entirely unnoticed by the British public, despite the fact that he carried out some of the most dramatic deception campaigns of World War Two. He waged a covert war of trickery and misdirection across Europe, which ended up getting him arrested by Spanish authorities while dressed as a woman. He also helped to found one of the world's preeminent special forces; the Special Air Service, or the SAS. His contribution is often overlooked, but without it, the SAS may well have never existed.

So who was Dudley Clarke? What were some of the most audacious acts of subterfuge he carried out? And why is he not better known? Dan is joined by former SAS Troop Commander and author of Speed, Aggression, Surprise: The Secret Origins of the SAS, Tom Petch, to answer these questions and more.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You might want to step back from your speaker or remove your headphones.
0:04.0	Yes! I can't, I just can't believe it.
0:08.0	Mark's found out his 11.4 million pounds on Lotto.
0:12.0	This is just, I don't, you know what, I've got tears in my eyes.
0:20.0	Yep, that's 11.4 million.
0:23.0	Lotto, will you be the next millionaire?
0:26.0	The National Lottery.
0:27.0	Rules and procedures apply, players must be 18 or over.
0:30.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history hit.
0:37.0	In 1974, an obscure brigadier died, the passing of Dudley Clark was largely unnoticed by the British press and public,
0:49.6	but they should have paid attention. Dudley Clark was responsible for some of the most dramatic
0:55.6	deception campaigns in the history of warfare, among other things, the birth of the SAS, the Special Air Service, the elite British unit that
1:06.3	still forms the core of Britain's Special Forces' SF capabilities.
1:10.3	Clark had the most extraordinary wartime career.
1:14.0	It's a story that he wished to write up in a book called The Secret War,
1:18.0	but he was not allowed to publish it.
1:20.0	It was
1:25.0	so valuable to the new competitors, the new enemy, the Soviets,
1:26.0	that its publication was suppressed.
1:29.0	And he's been the subject of a book written
1:32.0	by Tom Petch, a former soldier, who spent eight years in the subject of a book written by Tom Petch, a former soldier who spent eight years in the British Army,
1:34.8	who's both a tank commander, and he was a troop commander in the SAS.
	...

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