THE SAS FRAUD?

Heralded as the founder of the Special Air Service, a new study alleges that David Stirling might not have been the military genius of legend. Historian Gavin Mortimer unravels the truth behind Britain's famed special forces officer

- Gavin Mortimer

On 5 May 1958 The Phantom Major was published. Written by the American author and former war correspondent Virginia Cowles, the book was an authorised biography of David Stirling, founder of the SAS and, according to Cowles, “a well-established legend”.

The book was timely. Britain’s confidence was low, what with the ongoing breakup of the empire and humiliation at the Suez Canal in Egypt 18 months earlier. The nation needed a hero, a reminder of past glories. David Stirling fitted the bill.

The reviews of The Phantom Major were ecstatic. The Daily Express made the bold claim that Stirling “shortened the war for us”, and the Birmingham Post hailed him a genius. Across the water in Northern Ireland, the Belfast Telegraph praised the breathless prose of Cowles in describing Stirling’s “incredibly audacious sabotage”. Nevertheless, the paper respectfully pointed out that many of the SAS exploits in North Africa in 1941 and 1942 had been inspired by “the late R. Blair Mayne”.

The mention of that name would have pricked Stirling’s conscience. Robert Blair Mayne, ‘Paddy’ to his comrades, had finished the war with a DSO and three bars, and a reputation as a brilliant guerrilla fighter. Agile, innovative and extraordinarily brave, the former international rugby star was everything Stirling wanted to be but was not. He spent the years immediately after the war bitter and resentful, but when Mayne was killed in a car crash in December 1955 Stirling spotted an opportunity. The story of how the SAS came to be formed would now be told, and Stirling, not Mayne, would be the dashing hero, the fearless guerrilla, the Phantom Major.