S.A.S.

Special Air Service
Special Air Service insignia.
Active	1 July 1941– 8 October 1945 1 January 1947– present
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Special Forces
Role	Special operations Counter Terrorism
Size	Corps of three units (overall 500 active soldiers) 21 S.A.S 22 S.A.S 23 S.A.S [1]
Part of	United Kingdom Special Forces
Garrison/HQ	Regimental headquarters: Hereford 21 S.A.S: London 22 S.A.S: Credenhill 23 S.A.S: Birmingham
Nickname(s)	The Regiment[2]
Motto(s)	Who Dares Wins
Colors	Pompadour blue
March	Quick: Marche des Parachutistes Belges Slow: Lili Marlene
Engagements	Second World War Malayan Emergency Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation Dhofar Rebellion Aden Emergency Northern Irish Troubles Falklands War Gulf War NATO intervention in Bosnia Operation Barras War In Afghanistan Iraq War Operation Ellamy
Commanders
Colonel-Commandant	General Charles Guthrie[3]
Notable commanders	Colonel David Stirling Lieutenant-Colonel Paddy Mayne Brigadier Mike Calvert Major-General Anthony Deane-Drummond General Peter de la Billière General Michael Rose Lieutenant-General Cedric Delves

The S.A.S. or Special Air Service, is a Special Operations Organisation of the British Army. It was founded in 1941 to attack behind the German line of defence in North Africa, in World War II. They are one of the best schooled units in the world, that makes them very valuable. There are about 500 active SAS soldiers.^[4]

The SAS is a secret organisation. Its members often do not tell anyone except close family that they are in it. The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) rarely speaks of the SAS and mission details are never released until much later.

The badge of the organisation was originally designed as a flaming sword of Damocles but ended up as a winged dagger. It shows the motto: Who Dares Wins.

Current SAS roles include:

• Gathering intelligence behind enemy lines.
• Destroying targets far behind enemy lines.
• Protecting The Royal Family, and important government members.
• Training special forces of other nations.
• Performing counter-terrorism operations.

The SAS is thought of all over the world as one of the best, if not the best Special Operations organisations. This is mainly because of the intense training they are put through. The hardest part of this is intense interrogation (questioning while under torture) which the trainees must go through.

The SAS is respected worldwide and used to train many other Special Forces Units. Several special operations units are modeled after the SAS. For example, the U.S. Army's Delta Force was founded due in large part to Charles Beckwith, a U.S. Army special operations officer, serving as an exchange officer with the SAS. He felt the U.S. Army was vulnerable in not having a unit comparable to the SAS.

One fact is that the SAS are not often talked about, therefore the other countries tend to mention that they are never really talked about. At the same time they get announced as one of the best because they are so secret that the last mission heard about was performed in Iraq, which states how secretive they are.

1. ↑ On 31 July 1947, the 21st Battalion, SAS Regiment, (Artists Rifles) (Territorial Army) was formed. This was followed on 16 July 1952, when the 22 SAS Regiment was formed and the 23 Special Air Service Regiment (Territorial Army) was formed in February 1958.
2. ↑ Ryan, p.216
3. ↑ Moreton, Cole (11 November 2007). "Lord Guthrie: 'Tony's General' turns defence into an attack". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 28 August 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
4. ↑ Ryan, Chris 2009. Fight to Win. Century. ISBN 978-1-84605-666-6