The British ww2 commandos

MightyMacbeth said:
are the members of the SAS picked?
No they apply and undergo selection.

[SIZE=+2]Selection[/SIZE]
One of the first things people think about when they hear "SAS"(besides soldiers in black kit storming a building)is Selection. Selection is designed to break people. Only about 10 out of 125 will make it. For any soldier Selection is the ultimate test of endurance and mental strain. Selection is broken down into 3 phases.
The first part is the Special Forces Briefing Course. This is a joint three day class to show potential SAS and SBS recruits what is expected of them. Class room lectures and physical training take place. You MUST pass this course to be allowed onto Selection. They are shown films and are given the chance to get some insight into Selection. For certain reasons this is not considered(by SpecWar Net)to be one of the THREE MAIN phases of Selection. This should be combined with the first part.
The First three weeks of Selection is held mostly in the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains in Wales. Soldiers are expected to increase their weight in their bergens (rucks) and distances will also become greater. If a soldier fails a test more then twice is RTUed(Returned To Unit). The soldier is allowed to repeat the course again if he is willing. One of the most notorious parts is the "Fan Dance". This is a march over the Brecons. It should take about 4 hours to complete. Another part and probably the most famous, is the Long Drag. It is held on the last day of the three weeks. It is about 40 miles over the Brecons. The soldier willl now be carrying a 55 pound bergen (if it is under weight a DS will make sure you get the proper weight). Remember this doesn't include water and food! The passing times range from 20 to 24 hours to complete this course. Although TA members get a little slack (about 30 min.). If the weather is good try to get in under 20 hours.
It is important to remember that your bergen weight includes water or food. Bergen weights will vary through out the course. It will range from 30 pounds to 70 pounds, with an average of about 50 to 55 pounds. Blisters are common, and they should be taken care of quickly. By this point maybe about 40 men are left.
Jungle Phase is the next hurdle. SAS and SBS soldiers will be integrated into patrols. You will learn to travel, live, and fight in the jungle. The jungle will have different affects on people. Some will enjoy it, others will hate it. Disease is also another thing to worry about. Everything has to be taken care of (cuts, blisters, and eating equipment)to prevent sickness which may get you kicked off the course. "It is good advice to get yourself into the jungle before you attend Selection", says Barry Davies (18 year veteran of the SAS) in his new book Joining the SAS. In the jungle you will learn to fight and use demolitions. Also the art of making a camp is also taught. Rain is almost non-stop, so equipment must be looked after.
By the end of the Jungle Phase, only about 20 men will be left. It is time to move on to Escape and Evasion and TQ( or Tactical Questioning). E&E is taught my members of the SAS and SBS. The soldiers learn how to catch food and live off the land. Former POWs (or Prisoners Of War)also talk to the classes. They tell them about their situations and how they made it. Escaping is also taught. The Course ends with a final exercise. The men are paired up with other students (no SAS or SBS personel are put together)from other branches and units, such as pilots from the RAF and RN and other units. The men are given only old WWII jackets and some ripped pants, and boots that are barely being held together. They are then turned loose in a large wooded area. The men must check in with various check points. The soldiers are on the run usually for about 3 days. A "hunter force" is always in pursuit. These forces are usually from other Army units, such as the Paras, Gurkhas, or Green Jackets. They are tasked with hunting down the recruits. By the end ALL the recruits are captured. Now they face TQ. TQ is usually considered an easy part Selection. They must stick to the "Big 4" and say nothing else except, "I'm sorry I can't answer that question sir/mam." Women are sometimes brought in, and the men are forced to strip. The women then makes jokes about the man's body parts. It is not usually seen as hard by the SAS although, usually one or two men fail. After completion the remaining class will go it's separate ways. Royal Marines are given the chance to say whether they want to go onto the SBS and even more training and Selection or whether they would like to stay on with the SAS. For the SAS men, this is a great moment, when they receive the beret and famous "Winged Dagger" beret badge. Training is far from over though. For the SBS men they will go on to Poole where they will learn the trade of their unit. But that is another story.
 
hmm.. anyway, about the pacific, where there sas teams or commandos?

Yes, the Australian commandos. The were known as the Z Troop in order to keep it a secret from the Japanese that they were commandos, but they eventually just refered to them as the Australian Commandos. They fought in Papua New Guinea, The Solomon Islands, Singapore, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia.
 
Hope this clarify's a bit better, The LRDG where indeed the first and most sucessful of the British special fores being raised in 1941 by Major R. Bagnold an officer of the Royal Engineers and an experienced desert explorer. The mission of the LRDG was to carry out Strategic recconnaisance,however they did take part in raids later in 1941.The SAS where the Brain child of David Stirling who had been serving with the Middle east commando. The SAS's first mission was a disaster as the wind and weather conditions where terrible and so it was aborted with the survivors R.Ving with the LRDG to be extracted.This is where Stirling then realised he needed to be vehicle borne in the desert to enable his unit to carry out the dazzling sucessful raid's it later became associated with. The SBS also sarted off from the Commandos as the SSRF which used folbots and klepper canoes to carry out Recce and Ship raids being particularly effective in the Agean raiding the islands there. Popski's Private Army P.P.A where also a recce force set up to give the 8th Army Recce Intel and where fairly sucessful though not as so as the LRDG. They also served in Italy as well as the SAS after the Western desert campaign ended. The unit which carried out the essential beach Recces for North Africa,Sicily,Normandy and Burma where known as C.O.P.P's Combined Operation Pilotage Parties these where the lest known of all the special forces not being de-classifide from secret unit 1975, and yet their contribution to Overlord was vital,one swimmer canoest who could not find his canoe after Reccying the Normandy beach calmly took off his floatation aid so that he would drown and not be captured by the Germans. In short the difference between the the Paras and Commandos was method of delivery Paras by air and Commandos by Sea, both Units Fighting as Elite Infantry once the mission was sucessful. One thing to be sure we have only scraped the surface of British Special Operations in WW2,however out of its hesitant start has appeared the devestating, Surgically precise and World renown forces which carry out Special operations in the British Armed Forces today.
 
Peniakoff, Vladimir ("Popski", 1897 - 1951)
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Vladimir Peniakoff was born in Belgium as son of Russian immigrants, but moved to Egypt in the 1920s where he became a successful businessman and spent his ample free time exploring the Western Desert. When war broke out, he tried to join the British Army as a volunteer but was initially rejected since he was a Belgian citizen and his country was still neutral. After the German invasion of Belgium, he was finally accepted and offered a post as a staff officer - but he had set his mind to working in the desert. After struggling with the Army authorities for a while, he was finally allowed to join LRDG late in 1941 and form a more or less independent subsection called "No.1 Demolition Squadron", which was intended to assist LRDG on sabotage missions. Since this concept did not work out too well (LRDG's success was mainly attributed to stealth, and it was thought that blowing things up in a grand manner might give the enemy too many clues about the whereabouts of Patrols), Popski was authorized to form an independent strike force in March 1942, using Jeeps armed with Browning .30cal and .50cal machine guns. The unit's name, "Popski's Private Army", started out as a joke ("Popski", by the way, was the nickname given to Peniakoff by LRDG's radio operators who obviously had some trouble spelling and pronouncing his name), but since nobody could come up with a better name, it stuck. The unit subsequently operated in the Fezzan area, where Popski's main duty was to keep the Senussi tribes in line and keep them from foolishly starting a revolt (which would no doubt have caused a bloody Italian reprisal and would have filled LRDG's operational area with lots of Italian troops). His unit later worked its way up through Tunisia and served as an intelligence-gathering and surveillance unit behind German lines in Italy.
Popski published his memoirs from the war under the title "Popski's Private Army", a book full of wonderful and hilarious anecdotes. One memorable story tells how Popski and his Jeep patrol got stuck somewhere in Southern Italy on a mission to find out the troop strenghts of several German camps. Not wanting to return to base without the required information, Popski discovered that the phone lines in the area were still working, and (being able to speak German) called up all the German camps and simply asked them for their details.
 
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