Major Mike Sadler: Founding member of SAS dies at 103
Major Mike Sadler, a founding member of Britain’s Special Air Service, has died in Girton aged 103. The World War II navigator died at Arlington Manor Care Home on Thursday (January 4).
His death was confirmed by John Allcock, the secretary of the Special Air Service Regimental Association, an organisation that represents the veterans of the elite unit to which Major Sadler belonged.
He was the last surviving founding member of the SAS and the last survivor of the Long Range Desert Group (LDRG), a reconnaissance unit based in the North African desert.
Major Sadler joined the SAS in 1941 and became a navigator who used the skies to find his way across the Libyan desert. In December of that year, he was part of the first successful SAS raid on Wadi Tamet where his team destroyed 24 aircraft and a fuel dump.
He fought with the SAS in Italy and France after his time in the desert. He was later parachuted into the Loire after the D-Day landings in 1944, where he participated in sabotage operations behind enemy lines.
On one occasion, Major Sadler guided a group of men who escaped a German unit through the desert on a five-day trek that covered 100 miles. The group did not have a map or any food but managed to link up with the army.
Abbott Joseph Liebling, American war correspondent, saw Major Sadler arriving from the desert, writing: “The eyes of this fellow were round and sky blue and his hair and whiskers were very fair. His beard began well under his chin, giving him the air of an emaciated and slightly dotty Paul Verlaine.”
He was awarded the Military Cross and later served in MI6 before retiring in 1984. In 2018, he also received recognition from France when he was awarded the Légion d’honneur.
Historian and broadcaster Dan Snow said: “Sad news about the death of another legend. Mike Sadler, last of the SAS Originals. He was so generous with his time and so descriptive with his recollections. A wonderful life.”
In 2022, his story was featured in an episode of the television programme SAS Rogue Heroes, a six-part series which told the story of how the unit formed during the war. He was played by Tom Glynn-Carney.
Via: Daily Mail
Major Mike Sadler was recruited by David Stirling, the founder of the British Army’s elite Special Air Service regiment, which was formed in 1941.
He initially took part in night-time raids against Axis airfields in Libya before being parachuted into Nazi-occupied France after the D-Day Normandy landings in 1944.
He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions in France, later served in MI6 and even had a piece of the Antarctic named after him.
In 2018, he was further recognised with France’s highest honour – the Legion d’honneur.
Historian Damien Lewis, who has penned several books on the wartime history of the SAS, paid tribute to the hero, telling MailOnline: ‘Mike Sadler was one of the originals and one of the bravest of the brave and we now no longer have any surviving members of 1 SAS from the war.
‘So this is the passing of a legend, the passing of a generation, the passing of an era. It is immensely tragic because our ability to capture these stories from first hand testimony is becoming so difficult. The lights are going out all over Britain.’
Major Sadler left school in 1937 to work on a farm in Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe.
After war broke out in 1939, Major Sadler joined the Rhodesian Army artillery unit.
By 1941 he had been made a sergeant but ended up being demoted when he refused a commanding officer’s order for his men to wear boots instead of sand shoes when sleeping.
He then met a member of the Long Range Desert Group, a reconnaissance unit based in the North African desert.
The soldier persuaded him to join and quickly took up the role of navigator. Soon, he was in charge of navigation for both the LRDG and SAS.
In December 1941, Major Sadler was part of the first successful SAS raid – on Wadi Tamet airfield – where a team of six men ruined 24 aircraft and a fuel dump.
This was led by Lieutenant Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne, a former Irish international rugby star who would become one of Britain’s most decorated soldiers.
Major Sadler fought with the SAS in Italy and France following his time in the desert war, before setting up the SAS intelligence unit.
On August 7, 1944, Major Sadler was dropped by parachute into the Loire as part of Operation Houndsworth.
The aim was to reach SAS squadrons behind the lines and help destroy fuel depots, encourage local resistance, and prevent Panzer divisions heading north.
By this time Hitler had given instructions for any captured parachutists to be executed.
Germans struck the two-jeep convoy with Major Sadler returning fire, allowing the other jeep to flee before escaping himself. He was later awarded the Military Cross for gallantry.
Those who formed L Detachment SAS named themselves ‘the Originals’, with Major Sadler being considered an honorary one.
He was given the role of lieutenant by Stirling but this was reportedly never told to the authorities so Major Sadler finished the war as a major.
On the night of July 26, 1942, Major Sadler, without headlights or a map, guided 18 jeeps filled with twin Vickers K machine guns along 70 miles of desert to within 200 feet of Sidi Haneish airfield.
The group then opened fire as they drove between planes, wrecking at least 37 aircraft. But one of the SAS jeep drivers was sadly shot through the head during the attack and buried in the sand.
‘I do remember the people who didn’t survive, and who didn’t have the chance to receive this great honour,’ Major Sadler said after he was given the Legion d’honneur.
He was awarded the Military Medal for the Tamit and Sidi Haneish attacks.
Major Sadler was also one of the officers to follow Stirling on the last SAS operation during the desert war in January 1943.
This involved trying to cross the Tunisian desert to meet the British-American 1st Army but they were ambushed by a German unit.
Stirling was captured and would spend the rest of the Second World War as a prisoner of war in Colditz.
Major Sadler managed to escape along with another SAS soldier and an Arabic-speaking Frenchman.
He guided the group on a five-day, 100-mile trek, without a map, or any food provisions, to link up with the 1st Army.
American war correspondent A J Liebling witnessed Mr Sadler as he arrived from the desert, and wrote: ‘The eyes of this fellow were round and sky blue and his hair and whiskers were very fair.
‘His beard began well under his chin, giving him the air of an emaciated and slightly dotty Paul Verlaine.’
When the SAS were disbanded at the end of the war, Major Sadler left the army and signed up with the Falkland Islands dependency’s Antarctic survey.
He was awarded the Polar Medal for his efforts.
The soldier then spent two years working at the American embassy in London before being recruited by MI6. He said little about his time with the Secret Intelligence Service, bar the fact that it allowed him to indulge his love of sailing.
He retired in 1984 and spent his later years at a retirement home near Cambridge.
After the war Major Sadler married Anne Hetherington, but the union was dissolved after two years.
In 1958, he married Pat Benson, who died in 2001. He is survived by their daughter Sally.
Major Sadler was portrayed by Tom Glynn-Carney in the BBC’s hit series SAS: Rogue Heroes, which aired in 2022.
Major Mike Sadler, Founding Member of SAS
(1921-2024)
