EXCLUSIVEWhy legendary SAS commander Paddy Mayne MUST get the Victoria Cross: Historian DAMIEN LEWIS urges MPs to correct 'clerical error' that denied WWII hero top award
From the vast deserts of North Africa to perilous missions behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France, legendary SAS commander Blair 'Paddy' Mayne's wartime journey was defined by relentless courage, calculated defiance, maverick thinking and military genius.
Revered by the men he took into battle, he led from the front, always.
United in the fight against Nazism, Mayne accepted all comers, regardless of background, as long as they would fight in the spirit of the SAS: to wage warfare as never before.
Striking deep behind the lines and in ways that would seem inconceivable to their adversaries, the SAS specialised in thinking and then doing the unthinkable.
Critical to the SAS's unique mindset was empowering all, regardless of rank, to put their wildest thoughts and ideas into action.
Only those freed up to believe that nothing was impossible could dream up missions that are scarcely believable when recounted.
In one, they highjacked a train and used it to steam deep into enemy territory in Italy to rescue hundreds from a concentration camp.
In another, the SAS made themselves the deliberate bait in a trap, to ensure British forces could break through a Nazi stronghold.
Lt-Col Mayne, a founding member of the SAS, was recommended for a VC for blasting through a Nazi ambush in Lower Saxony in April 1945
Legendary SAS commander Blair 'Paddy' Mayne's wartime journey was defined by relentless courage, calculated defiance, maverick thinking and military genius, writes DAMIEN LEWIS
Such dashes of offbeat – suicidal – brilliance were the hallmark of the wartime SAS, and Mayne was their doyenne.
Hardly surprising, then, that when Mayne learned that one of his senior commanders, Major Dick Bond, had been shot dead by a German sniper, and others were trapped in the heart of an enemy ambush, he dashed forwards to do all in his power to help.
The date was April 9, 1945, the location near Oldenburg, in western Germany.
The SAS were facing Hitler Youth, Volkssturm home guard, and remnants of Nazi armour and elite parachute troops.
In the bitter and bloody battle for the Fatherland, no quarter was given. Mayne knew that, yet he rushed into the heart of the fire regardless, as I describe in my book, SAS Daggers Drawn.
His actions that day – repeatedly driving into a blistering ambush in his open-top, lightly armoured jeep, with his gunner, Sergeant John Scott, laying down ferocious fire from the mounted machine guns – saved many from all but certain death or capture.
Those who witnessed the incredible actions were dumbfounded – they had never seen heroism like it, and some were veterans of five years of operations behind enemy lines.
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair 'Paddy' Mayne is pictured right in Norway in 1945. The SAS wreaked havoc against German and Italian positions
Robert Blair 'Paddy' Mayne was born in Newtownards, County Down, the second youngest of seven children
Lieutenant Colonel Blair 'Paddy' Mayne was portrayed by Jack O'Connell in BBC series SAS Rogue Heroes as an often drunk and ill-disciplined rebel
They wrote up Mayne – already the recipient of three Distinguished Service Orders (DSO) – for Britain's highest gallantry award, the Victoria Cross.
Their statements were echoed by senior Canadian commanders on the ground - Mayne's unit, 'Paddy Force', were acting as the spearhead for a Canadian tank unit - after which they were endorsed again by Brigadier Mike Calvert, the overall commander of the SAS.
But then, as the wheels of officialdom ground into motion, the process of getting Mayne awarded a Victoria Cross hit a brick wall.
At some stage the citation document had the Victoria Cross recommendation struck out by a handwritten scrawl, and replaced by the words '3rd Bar to DSO' – in other words, that Mayne should receive a 4th Distinguished Service Order instead.
When news broke, in the autumn of 1945, that the SAS were on the cusp of being disbanded, many claimed that Mayne had been denied the Victoria Cross because the British establishment would never grant Britain's highest valour medal to a maverick outfit like the SAS.
Others claimed Mayne's particular background and character may have been behind the decision.
Blessed with a soft Irish brogue, and an offbeat sense of humour, Mayne made snap judgements about people.
He was rarely wrong. But equally, he rarely managed to hide his dislike of those that he took against – including the 'chairborne' Colonel Blimps of high command.
Lieutenant Colonel Blair 'Paddy' Mayne in North Africa
The decision not to award a posthumous Victoria Cross (pictured) was criticised by former defence secretaries including Sir Ben Wallace and Grant Shapps
Damien Lewis has written more than a dozen books on the history of the SAS
This won him few friends in high places. The men of the SAS were branded 'raiders of the thug variety'.
Mayne found himself battling high command, as much as he did the enemy. They were 'pirates' and 'berserkers', the kind who waged 'ungentlemanly warfare unbefitting of British officers'.
But now, in a new trove of documents unearthed from the British and Canadian archives, it appears that an altogether different reason may lie behind the VC refusal – a simple missreading of the rules.
In those letters and documents, those overseeing the decision appear to claim that Mayne's actions were not 'quite up to VC standard', as it was not a 'single-handed act of heroism,' for Scott provided fire from the jeep.
But the VC rules don't stipulate that it should be a solo act of valour, only that it should be a 'signal' – outstanding – act.
Mayne's unarguably was the latter.
So, did Mayne's VC get refused due to either a simple clerical error or a misreading of the rules?
If so, tomorrow's debate in Parliament over this very issue, sponsored by Jim Shannon MP, is not asking for an overturning of the honours system or the rules.
Quite the reverse. It's asking that the rules should be strictly adhered to and that a simple error be corrected, albeit 80 years after the event.
In July 1945, a Major overseeing the process noted that Mayne's actions in Germany were 'magnificent', but because he didn't act alone it was 'doubtful' if a VC would be approved.
But he added that the action 'has the elements of a VC and this officer already has the DSO and 2 bars I suggest that it be recommended as a VC, permitting higher authority to deal with it as they see fit.'
A request to correct such a glaring error and to award Mayne the VC he so richly deserves seems to be a very simple one to grant.
Damien Lewis is the author of SAS Daggers Drawn: In For the Kill: The Third in the Blair 'Paddy' Mayne Trilogy.
