In November 1941, 70 per cent of supplies being sent to Axis forces in North Africa were lost to Allied air and naval attacks. By 1942, German and Italian forces in North Africa faced a serious supply shortage with Allied forces sinking merchant ships in the Mediterranean Sea. Axis supplies were being transported down the Italian Peninsula, mainly by rail, to southern ports for shipment to North Africa. The Royal Navy was deploying growing numbers of ships and submarines to the area to intercept Axis supply convoys forcing the Luftwaffe to carry some of the burden of supplying the Afrika Korps and Italian troops by air. The terrain in North Africa often made land transport impractical, forcing aircraft to fly between remote desert airstrips to deliver supplies, parts, troops and food.
In July 1941, Major David Stirling formed the Special Air Service for bold operations behind Axis lines. Initially dubbed 'L' Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade, the unit consisted of men drawn from conventional British units and given ad hoc parachute training. The unit was based in Jalo Oasis and gained a reputation for daring raids on German bases, infiltrating them and destroying parked aircraft with explosives. Stirling became known among the Germans as the "Phantom Major".
Prelude
Stirling had been concocting a plan for some time to strike at the Sidi Haneish Airfield, an airfield complex located west of Cairo, which the Germans called Haggag el Qasaba. The raid would involve using an unfamiliar tactic to the SAS; storming the base in vehicles, rather than discreetly penetrating. Stirling briefed his men on the raid and enlisted the Long Range Desert Group to provide vehicles and transport. He thought that the firepower and speed of the jeeps would be enough to overcome the German defences. The raiders would drive through the desert from a hideout in Bir el Quseir to the airfield and then overrun it in eighteen jeeps in two columns, with Stirling at the lead. Each jeep had four Vickers Kmachine guns, a rapid-firing weapon, originally designed for Royal Air Force aircraft. On the night of 25/26 July, the men held a dress rehearsal.
Raid
The raid commenced on the night of 26/27 July, with the eighteen jeeps, each carrying 3 or 4 British or French commandos, navigating the desert without headlights and trying to keep formation. The weather was ideal with a full moon and no clouds. As the raiders approached the airfield, the lights lining the runway switched on, causing a degree of panic among the commandos who feared they had been detected but the lights had been turned on for a Luftwaffe bomber to land. Stirling fired a green flare and ordered the jeeps forward onto the airfield in 'V' formation. The SAS stormed the airfield, using their K guns, loaded with tracer ammunition, to fire on the parked German aircraft which included Junkers Ju 87 Stukadive bombers, Ju 52 cargo aircraft and Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. German troops replied with machine-guns and anti-aircraft weapons, disabling one jeep. Lance Bombardier John Robson, a 21-year-old SAS soldier, was manning a machine-gun when he was shot and killed, making him the only Allied casualty of the assault. The raiders used most of their ammunition and manoeuvred to escape after a last sweep for undamaged aircraft. Paddy Mayne leapt from a jeep to place a bomb in the engine of a parked bomber before withdrawing. The raiders had destroyed or damaged around forty Luftwaffe aircraft, though the SAS claimed twenty-five as it was customary to under-report Axis losses.
Escape
The raiders escaped into the desert, less one jeep and one man killed and split into groups of 3–5 jeeps, seeking to evade detection by German aircraft since only two and a half hours of darkness remained; in daylight, they would become vulnerable to air attack. The SAS hid during the day, camouflaging their vehicles and all but one group reached Bir el Quseir. The group of jeeps operated by the French SAS were slowed by punctures and breakdowns, exposing them in the desert. They were spotted by four Stuka dive-bombers which made nine attacks, fatally wounding paratrooper André Zirnheld. After the Stukas ran out of ammunition, the commandos boarded the last operational jeep and reached safety.
Aftermath
The raid was a great success, several of the destroyed German aircraft being Junkers 52 transport aircraft, which exacerbated Axis supply difficulties. Stirling was captured by the Germans in January 1943 and spent the rest of the war in and out of Axis prisoner of war camps; Stirling was replaced by Mayne as commander of the SAS.
