MEMORIES OF THE ‘PHANTOM MAJOR’
On the night of 26 July 1942 an incongruous column of heavily armed jeeps bumped across the Libyan desert. There were 18 vehicles in all, commanded by Major David Stirling, the 26-year-old Scot who the previous July had convinced Middle East Command in Cairo to allow him to raise a 66-strong unit called L Detachment of the Special Air Service Brigade.
Initially formed as a parachute unit,
