Major 200156 John Tonkin, 1st SAS Regiment
John Tonkin was commissioned into the Royal Engineers and was given the service number 200156. He was sent to Egypt (then under British Rule as part of the British Empire) and posted to the British 8th Army. It was there that Tonkin met David Stirling, then an officer in the Scots Guards, who had the nucleus of the idea which led to the formation of the SAS. The SAS was formed on 1st July 1941 by David Stirling as L Detachment, SAS Brigade, with an initial strength of 6 officers and 60 men. Their initial operation saw a large number of "originals" being either killed or captured, with only 21 surviving to link up with the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG). The survivors and the LRDG went to the LRDG's forward base in the south of Libya. The following raid met with greater success, leading to the destruction of some thirty German aircraft. This would see the first use of the "Lewis" Bomb - named after "Jock" Lewis, one of David Stirling's closest friends, and in practice the second-in-command of the SAS. It was with the introduction of the Willy's Jeep to the British & Empire Forces in Egypt that would bring the greatest asset to the SAS. The SAS "took delivery" of some of these and heavily modified them - they would generally be equipped with a single Vickers "K" Machine gun in front of the driver, a .50 Browning Machine Gun in front of the passenger seat, and twin Vickers "K" in the rear; others were fitted with twin Vickers "K" machine guns in place of the .50 Browning Machine Gun. The destructive power was enhanced still further with the introduction of "Buckingham" ammunition for the .50 Brownings, which would act as a High Explosive Incendiary munition, causing massive damage to anything it hit.
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The SAS went through a reorganisation following the capture of David Stirling in Tunisia in 1942. The 1st SAS Regiment (the original regiment) was renamed the Special Raiding Squadron (SRS) with command being handed to Blair "Paddy" Mayne, with D Squadron being made an independent unit as the Special Boat Service. The 2nd SAS Regiment, which was formed by David Stirling's brother, Bill, retained its name.
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With victory in North Africa, the SAS spearheaded the invasion of Sicily, and then fought up through Italy. Tonkin, by now a Captain, led a forward unit in the assault on the Adriatic port of Termoli. Separated and surrounded by German paratroopers, he was captured and taken to the German divisional headquarters where, to his intense surprise, Tonkin found himself sitting down to a fine dinner (reportedly of at least three courses) with a German general, who plied him with brandy and cigars. While he was being escorted back to his cell after dinner, a German Infantry Officer, who "spoke very good English" warned him that he’d shortly be handed over to the Nazi security service. “I regret to say, that from now on, the German army cannot guarantee your life. We have received orders that we must, from now on, hand you, and your comrades, over to a group of people who are not very nice men.” Hitler had issued the infamous “Commando Order” that all captured SAS or Commandos be shot without trial. Tonkin realised he must escape, or face almost certainly end up being murdered by the Gestapo Anti-Partisan Forces. The next night, he was ordered into the back of a truck, which would take him to the "group of not very nice men" - the Gestapo Anti-Partisan Forces. Somewhere in the hills, the lorry parked for one of many occasions on that trip as his guards 'answered the call of nature', Tonkin took his chance. He unclipped the canvas at the front, scrambled out and over the driver’s cabin, jumping clear of the lorry and sprinted into the darkness. For the next two weeks, he continued to avoid all attempts to recapture him as he walked south until, by pure chance, he stumbled into an advancing British patrol, was escorted back across friendly lines, and was able to return to the SAS.
In January 1944, the SRS and 2nd SAS were brought to the UK in preparation for Operation Overlord. The SRS reverted to its original name of 1st SAS. The original Free French Squadron was complimented by two further battalions, and were designated 3rd and 4th SAS regiments. A company-sized Belgian contingent was named 5th SAS. This brought the strength of the SAS Brigade to 2,500 personnel. When "Paddy" Mayne was initially prevented from going on operations in the following weeks from D-Day, Tonkin was the in-theatre commander of all SAS operations.
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On D-Day in 1944, Tonkin parachuted into Nazi-occupied western France to lead Operation Bulbasket, a mission to delay the Panzers heading north to try to repel the Normandy invasion. For weeks, Tonkin and his men hid out in the French forests, mounting sabotage operations, ambushing German convoys, liaising with the French Resistance, and slowing the reinforcements heading north. Two weeks after D-Day, they were attacked by a large force of Germans: only Tonkin and seven of his men escaped. The remaining 31 men were eventually captured, tortured and executed without trial, in addition to a signaller and an American Pilot, who had been shot down and attached himself to the SAS.
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On 15th April 1945, John Tonkin was among one of the first British soldiers to come across the infamous Bergen Belsen concentration camp, and would become the first British soldier to enter the camp. Bergen Belsen is the place where Anne Frank died of Typhus on 1st August 1944. The SAS troop was confronted by what he called “30,000 walking skeletons”. The bodies of prisoners lay scattered around the compound and piled into mass graves. The stench of death hung in the air. But the SS guards, either unconcerned or unaware that the SAS was now inside the camp, continued Nazi business as usual. Tonkin later recalled, “They were, just for fun, taking pot shots at the prisoners and nobody was paying any attention. I have never been so angry in my life.” It would have been understandable if Tonkin, in his fury, had unleashed the SAS to massacre every SS guard in Belsen. But he did not. Instead of exacting bloody revenge, Tonkin chose another path. “I got hold of all these SS officers. We lined them up and I said: ‘Unless that shooting stops immediately, you are all going to die very horribly.’ They went out immediately and the shooting stopped.” Tonkin saved the lives of many inmates that day; but he also spared their SS tormentors from summary reprisal. It was a rare moment of clemency in the midst of a brutal war, but also symbolic of the wartime SAS itself: highly trained, unconventional, ruthless when necessary, but also highly intelligent, adaptable to circumstance, capable of sensitivity and humanity as well as extreme violence. When Tonkin led the liberation of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, he was only 25 years old.
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By the end of the Second World War in Europe on 8 May 1945, the SAS had suffered 330 casualties, but had killed or wounded 7,733 and captured 23,000 of their enemies.
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Although the SAS was formally disbanded in October 1945, a War Crimes Team (mostly drawn from members of 2 SAS) was left in-situ, tasked with hunting down Nazi War Criminals, responsible for carrying out war crimes against the SAS and the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Among the crimes investigated was the then unknown fate of the 33 missing personnel from Operation Bulbasket - and after a lengthy and extensive investigation, no fewer than ten death sentences were handed down on those responsible for the illegal execution of the missing SAS personnel; all having taken place in secret locations with the SAS men stripped of their clothing and identities, shot in the back of the head, then buried in shallow graves that they had been forced to dig prior to their execution.
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The SAS was reformed in 1947, as the territorial Army unit 21st SAS Regiment (Artist Rifles). 22nd SAS Regiment was formally added to the army list in 1952, with 23rd SAS Regiment joining the list seven years later. All three regiments of the SAS are still in existence today, with Australian and New Zealand Special Air Service Regiments also being in existence, forming on 27 July 1957 and on 7 July 1955 respectively.
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Notable WW2 members of the SAS:
- "Colonel" David Stirling
- Bill Stirling
- Blair "Paddy" Mayne DSO
- "Jock" Lewes
- Brian Franks
- Reg Seekings
- Johnny Cooper
- Anders Lassen VC (originally from Denmark)
- Right Reverend "Fraser" MacClusky
- Bob Bennett
- Johnny Wiseman MC
- Roy Farron
- Mike Sadler
- John Tonkin DSO
- "Gentleman" Jim Almonds MM
