November 15, 1915 - Lecropt, Perthshire, Scotland - Archibald David Stirling is born
July 24, 1937 - Ampleforth, North Yorkshire - Commissioned into the Scots Guards
June 23, 1940 - Burnham on Crouch, Essex - Volunteers for the new No.8 Commando under Lt.Col Robert Laycock =(START)
October 24, 1940 - Lamlach, Isle of Arran, West Scotland - 8 (Guards) Commando, moves to the Isle of Arran
January 31, 1941 - Isle of Arran - Firth of Clyde - 11 (Scottish) Commando departs from the Firth of Clyde aboard 3 infantry landing ships "Glengyle", "Glenroy" and "Glenearn", together with 7 Commando and 8 (guards) commando
February 11, 1941 - Freetown, Sierra Leone - The ships stop at Freetown
February 13, 1941 - Line of the Equator - Force Z crosses the Equator
February 19, 1941 - Cape Town, South Africa - The ships stop at Cape Town.
February 28, 1941 - Line of the Equator - Force Z crosses the Equator
March 7, 1941 - Geneifa, Egypt - Sailed into the Suez Canal
April 12, 1941 - Alexandria, Egypt - Layforce sets off for Alexandria
April 15, 1941 - Bombah, between Derna and Tobruk, Libya - Arrives off Bombah in a destroyer. The operation is called off because of the swell
May 26, 1941 - Souda Bay, Crete - Stirling lands from HMS Abdiel. Starts moving south to Sphakia
May 31, 1941 - Sphakia - The Commandos withraw to Sphakia (Stirling wounded?)
June 2(?), 1941 - Alexandria - The survivors reach Egypt
July 1, 1941 - Al Kibrit (Kabrit), N. of Suez - Training Camp at RAF Kabrit, north of Suez
July 17, 1941 - Tobruk Area - Raid on an italian position (Stirling wounded?)
July 30(?), 1941 - Alexandria - David Stirling is released from Alexandria Scottish Military Hospital
August 30(?), 1941 - Al Kibrit (Kabrit), N. of Suez - David Stirling establishes his new force, The "Special Air Service" (SAS), at the RAF Kabrit facilities, north of Suez. "Paddy" Mayne is Stirling's first choice
November 16, 1941 - Gazala | Tamini Airfields - Parachute drop in Lybia - Gazala + Tamini Airfields (mission fails as during the drop in poor weather, vital supplies and detonators were lost) - the group begins a 40 mile walk into the desert for a rendezvous with a motor patrol for the Long Range Desert Group
November 19, 1941 - 23 of the original 51 who parachuted arrive at the rendezvous point
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| Stirling (right), welcomes a patrol just arrived from mission |
December 8, 1941 - Jalo Oasis - Stirling and Mayne depart from Jalo with the LRDG to attack Tamet And Sirte airfields
December 14, 1941 - Sirte - Stirling drops off at Sirte, only to find the airfield being evacuated
December 21, 1941 - Jalo Oasis - Stirling and Mayne depart for a second raid to Tamet Airfield
December 27, 1941 - Bagush - Stirling raids Bagush airfield - unable to plant their bombs, they improvize with a motorized charge down the airstrip, blazing away at the aircraft with machine guns and grenades
January 3, 1942 - Jalo Oasis - LRDG picks up Stirling and Mayne on December 28th and takes them to base
January 17(?), 1942 - Jalo Oasis - Stirling and Mayne return to Kabrit to plan the next action and train new SAS volunteers
January 23, 1942 - Buerat, W. of Sirte, Libya - Buerat Raid - Although the harbor had been empty of shipping, the raid resulted in the destruction of 18 petrol bowsers and 4 food dumps
January 30(?), 1942 - Al Kibrit (Kabrit), N. of Suez - Promoted to Major
March 15, 1942 - Siwa (SAS Base) - Stirling and Mayne depart for Berka
March 21(?), 1942 - Benina Airfield - 5 aircraft destroyed + 30 new aircraft engines and 3 hangars full of machinery destroyed
April 5, 1942 - Hagfet Gelgaf - in the Jebel Akhdar, a heavily forested, fertile upland area in northeastern Libya
May 9, 1942 - Jebel Akhdar - Raid
July 1, 1942 - Fuka | Mersa Matruh Airfields - Raid
July 4, 1942 - Al Kibrit (Kabrit), N. of Suez - The SAS convoy moves off for the rendezvous north of the Quattara Depression
July 7, 1942 - Fuka Airfield - Raid to Fuka Airfield - The SAS bomb and shoot between 30 and 40 enemy aircraft
July 9, 1942 - El Daba Airfield (50 miles W of El Alamein) - 14 aircraft destroyed
July 11, 1942 - Fuka Airfield - 22 aircraft destroyed
July 15, 1942 - Al Kibrit (Kabrit), N. of Suez - Back at Kabrit for stores and new transports
July 19, 1942 - Fuka | Sidi Haneish area - Stirling and Mayne reach the rendezvous point
July 27, 1942 - Sidi Haneish Airfield - Raid with 18 jeeps and 68 vickers machineguns - 40 aircraft destroyed
August 3(?), 1942 - Kabrit | Cairo - Back in Cairo Area
September 7, 1942 - Kufra, SE Libya - Stirling arrives at the Forward Operating Base, before attacking Djebel
September 23, 1942 - Kabrit | Cairo - Stirling starts recruiting fresh troops from Britain and whip them through an intensive training course
January(?) 5(?), 1943 - Between "Paddy" and Tripoli - Stirling's "B Squadron" engages in raiding operations for a week
January 14, 1943 - Gabès Gap Area, Tunisia - Stirling is Captured by a german recce unit in a Wadi en Route to raid Sousse
April(?) 1(?), 1943 - Gavi, Italy - Stirling tries to escape from Gavi no less than 4 times
January 1(?), 1944 - Marisch Trubau - Stirling is taken to Marisch Trubau, 6 miles from Czechoslovakia
August 20, 1944 - Colditz Castle, Germany - Stirling is taken to Colditz Castle, near Leipzig
April 16, 1945 - Colditz Castle - The Americans enter in Colditz and liberate the POWs in the castle
October 1, 1945 - Chelmsford, Essex - Formal disbandment of the Special Air Service
January(?) 1(?), 1946 - Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia - Stirling moves to Southern Rhodesia
January(?) 1(?), 1949 - Salisbury - Stirling founds the Capricorn Africa Society
May 1(?), 1974 - Britain - David Stirling starts sounding out friends and comrades about a new organization he called GB75
April 1(?), 1975 - Britain - GB75 disintegrates and Stirling announces that he would pour his energies into an anti-communist lobby
June 1, 1984 - Hereford - Opening of the new Barracks (Stirling Lines). Stirling speaks to the visitors
November 4, 1990 - Westminster, London - Archibald David Stirling dies, aged 84 =(END)
March 15, 1942 - Siwa (SAS Base) - Stirling and Mayne depart for Berka
March 21(?), 1942 - Benina Airfield - 5 aircraft destroyed + 30 new aircraft engines and 3 hangars full of machinery destroyed
April 5, 1942 - Hagfet Gelgaf - in the Jebel Akhdar, a heavily forested, fertile upland area in northeastern Libya
May 9, 1942 - Jebel Akhdar - Raid
July 1, 1942 - Fuka | Mersa Matruh Airfields - Raid
July 4, 1942 - Al Kibrit (Kabrit), N. of Suez - The SAS convoy moves off for the rendezvous north of the Quattara Depression
July 7, 1942 - Fuka Airfield - Raid to Fuka Airfield - The SAS bomb and shoot between 30 and 40 enemy aircraft
July 9, 1942 - El Daba Airfield (50 miles W of El Alamein) - 14 aircraft destroyed
July 11, 1942 - Fuka Airfield - 22 aircraft destroyed
July 15, 1942 - Al Kibrit (Kabrit), N. of Suez - Back at Kabrit for stores and new transports
July 19, 1942 - Fuka | Sidi Haneish area - Stirling and Mayne reach the rendezvous point
July 27, 1942 - Sidi Haneish Airfield - Raid with 18 jeeps and 68 vickers machineguns - 40 aircraft destroyed
August 3(?), 1942 - Kabrit | Cairo - Back in Cairo Area
September 7, 1942 - Kufra, SE Libya - Stirling arrives at the Forward Operating Base, before attacking Djebel
September 23, 1942 - Kabrit | Cairo - Stirling starts recruiting fresh troops from Britain and whip them through an intensive training course
January(?) 5(?), 1943 - Between "Paddy" and Tripoli - Stirling's "B Squadron" engages in raiding operations for a week
January 14, 1943 - Gabès Gap Area, Tunisia - Stirling is Captured by a german recce unit in a Wadi en Route to raid Sousse
April(?) 1(?), 1943 - Gavi, Italy - Stirling tries to escape from Gavi no less than 4 times
January 1(?), 1944 - Marisch Trubau - Stirling is taken to Marisch Trubau, 6 miles from Czechoslovakia
August 20, 1944 - Colditz Castle, Germany - Stirling is taken to Colditz Castle, near Leipzig
April 16, 1945 - Colditz Castle - The Americans enter in Colditz and liberate the POWs in the castle
October 1, 1945 - Chelmsford, Essex - Formal disbandment of the Special Air Service
January(?) 1(?), 1946 - Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia - Stirling moves to Southern Rhodesia
January(?) 1(?), 1949 - Salisbury - Stirling founds the Capricorn Africa Society
May 1(?), 1974 - Britain - David Stirling starts sounding out friends and comrades about a new organization he called GB75
April 1(?), 1975 - Britain - GB75 disintegrates and Stirling announces that he would pour his energies into an anti-communist lobby
June 1, 1984 - Hereford - Opening of the new Barracks (Stirling Lines). Stirling speaks to the visitors
November 4, 1990 - Westminster, London - Archibald David Stirling dies, aged 84 =(END)
Hello there,
ReplyDeleteI am doing some research on the birth of the SAS and I stumbled across your blog. It is very well laid out. I am curious about the timeline between April 12th, 1941 and July 17th, 1941. You state that Stirling lands in Crete and participates in the Allied withdraw from the island. While part of 8 Commando was there, I have not been able to find any mention of Stirling's participation in this operation. From what I can tell, he was stationed in Mersa Matruh at that time. I believe he participated in three failed raids, the one at Bomba, and two others near Gazala. Two were called off due to bad weather, one was aborted when they were spotted and attacked by aircraft. You also mention Stirling participating in the raid on Italian positions in Tobruk, but again, I can find no mention of this in text. Any help you can provide with informational sources would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Hi! Thank you for you email, I wish it had your name on it so I could reply to you properly. This way I'm not sure if you're going to read this.
DeleteWell, I've been expecting questions about this timeline. As a special operations officer, even if the first "modern" on, Stirling's timeline is extremely hard to create. Of the 800+ biographies I've read since I've started this blog, Stirling's biographies are extremely poor, written almost like a romance, without any journalistic information, no dates, no places. As soon as the war ends, his life is a mystery.
As happens to many timelines in this blog, sometimes I add information that I get from unexpected sources or while working on other personalities. I have a few other timelines about special operations soldiers that I wanted to publish, but as I'm sure you'll understand, they are not complete enough. But again, thank you for your feedback, and the idea at the start of this blog was to make it a collaborative project, so if you want to improve it, please send me the information and I'll put your name on the thankslist. All the best!
My name is Evan. Nice to "e-meet" you, L.M.C..
DeleteI have run into similar problems when tracking down dates and locations. As best I can tell, while a small detachment from 8 Commando did participate in the withdraw from Crete, Stirling was not there and he was not wounded in combat, except for a bad cut to his eye he received during a training exercise much later. As to the raid in Tobruk, I believe that only 75 members of 8 Commando were sent. I know that Jock Lewes and several other future SAS members were there, but not Stirling, as far as I can tell. It seems he participated only in the failed raid at Bomba. Have you come across information that conflicts this in your research?
(on=one, on my last reply)
DeleteHi Evan, sorry for the delay. I wrote this timeline after researching it in December 2016. At the time I didn't mention the bibliography like I do now, but all information I wrote I took it from somewhere. I've been so immersed in researching the 100 Years War for a few timelines that I'm having a bit of difficulty to talk to you about these details in Stirling's life. If you're sure that something is wrong in his timeline here, I would be very happy if you could suggest alterations (email: timelinesandsoundtracks.blogspot.com).
Did you see Paddy Mayne's timeline here? I also wanted to research other SAS/SBS operators, Anders Lassen and McAleese are on my toplist, but I still have to buy some books about Lassen. Do you have any information about McAleese? I basically have 5 or 6 dates in his life. Thank you again!