UK ‘Special Forces’

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

What is SERE? I suppose RAF aircrew have to do survival and other training in case they are brought down. I remember the two guys who got beaten and tortured by the Iraqis

John Nicol and John Peters.

Very unlucky to get shot down.

 

[manclad]

Back in the mid-70s I worked with a guy who had been a Para back in WW2.
The only stories I got from him was that he was part of the airborne forces at Arnhem, but didn't remember a thing about it as he had been hit by AA fire as he leapt out of the plane.
The only thing that kept him alive was the fact his parachute harness was so tight that it kept his guts from spilling out and kept him alive until medics could attend to him.
As the OP mentioned about the guy being feral.
Albert couldn't sleep in a nice warm bed as he was used to sleeping in ditches,fields and woods etc.
He would go to bed with his wife, pleasure her and then sleep on the floor for the rest of the night.
He reckoned it took him about 5 years to get back to normal.

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

John Nicol and John Peters.

Very unlucky to get shot down.

Those boys took an incredible beating.
There must've come a point when they wished they'd used their sidearms on themselves.

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

I spent 5 years living in Hereford and the only people you saw around the town wearing combat uniform were the wannabes. There was a local pub called "The Grapes" where genuine SAS soldiers used to drink in the upstairs bar. Never any bother and they never mingled with the normal downstairs regulars. If anyone claimed they were SAS they definitely were not.
ps. Was at Edgar street in 1972 when Hereford beat Newcastle.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

When in the Royal Navy did plenty of exercises with the Special Boat Service at Portland but never met any of them
When serving on HMS Devonshire in the 70s we were the first British Warship to go to the USSR (Odessa in the Ukraine) for donkey's years

I took the SBS out for their daily swim as standbye diver at Horsea on many an occasion in the seventies. I would have my dry suit on finning vigorously backwards and yet they still would overtake, akin to a scene reminiscent of a Mark Spitz extravaganza. Heads buried deepl in their steady crawl, mouths occasionally opening to take on air and nothing bar for the exposed neck of an enemy soldier would halt them in their track. In all honesty they didn't look special forces but then again neither did that bear grills celebrity that used to sleep in sheep on telly. Lean tallish specimens with a large lung to chest ratio and elongated femurs that were built for the habitation-al exploits of a water borne existance.

I think the lake was around a thousand metres and they would swim it many times a day there and back. I have no idea why I accompanied them as I would'nt have been of any assistance blowing at the 500 metre mark and was more built for swimming under the water than on the top. If I was born with a longer body I would have loved to join them if only for the prestige of serving in a special forces outfit. Neither was I good with a knife or unarmed combat as in training we had to box each other and I always kept getting twatted. I was however to my eternal credit good with an SLR rifle and a crack shot at the 200 yards. Also I talk too much so would have found it really difficult to be the grey man and blend into obscurity and would have ended up being captured.

 

[bigstanhibbert]

I am almost 60 now, but 15 years ago I worked unfortuantely for a Danish company in the UK, albeit with a danish guy called Peter.

Peter was quiet, unassuming and uncompromising. I was lucky enough to spend time with him driving to demonstations across the country and he now and again offer info when pushed. He loved the unarmed combat against SAS/SBS, but hated parachuting. When I asked why he said they usaully had to jump out of a plane up to 100 miles from their landing point.

 

[Scottyboi]

The only replies will be from Walter Mitty characters.
Excluding this of course;)

Knew a lad in the cheshire regiment who use to walk about with a para cap badge on a beret the wanker.

So many walter mittys in the army or have left. I know 2 actual paras one served in N.I during the troubles and his son has served all over the Gulf, nails the pair of them and both blues!

 

[Mike Cledford]

Survive,evade,resist and escape.

Sounds like a breakout from Parkhurst.
Previous experience?

 

[Scottyboi]

How highly trained are the SAS and SBS?

How elite are their levels of physical fitness, strength, adaptability and durability to extreme weather conditions, to extreme sleep deprivation, lack of food/water etc. And also psychological eliteness, intelligence, problem solving, learning capacity, tactical awareness, torture durability..?

They are the best special forces unit in the world their only equals are the Aussies SAS.

 

[Mike Cledford]

John Nicol and John Peters.

Very unlucky to get shot down.

Thank you. I should have known, given some of the nonsense l do remember.