Special Air Service Historical Foundation

New Australian Regular Army Organisation Does Not Include Special Forces

July 1947:
The new Australian Defence Policy was announced declaring that the Australian Regular Army was to consist of three infantry battalions then serving in Japan and an armoured regiment. The Citizen Military Force (CMF), to be formed in 1948, was planned to expand to two infantry divisions and an armoured brigade, but no special forces were to be raised.

Special Forces had more success in Britain, where at the end of the war, Brigadier Mike Calvert, commander of the SAS Brigade wrote to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff suggesting an investigation into the results achieved by the SAS and other similar formations during the war.

The Directorate of Tactical Investigations at the War Office, headed by Major-General Sidney Rowell, an Australian officer on loan to the War Office, was directed to undertake the investigation. The War Office conclusions at the completion of the investigation were:

• There was unlikely ever again to be a war with static front lines, except perhaps for short periods.

• Small parties of well trained and thoroughly disciplined troops operating behind enemy lines achieve results out of all proportion to the numbers involved.

• Their operations are, and should be quite distinct from non-regular groups such as SOE, or Secret Service.

• The full potential for such units is not yet fully known but there is clearly scope for tremendous development.

• The role of SAS troops should never be confused with the normal role of the infantry. The SAS is more specialized.

Australian Commonwealth Military Forces badge

British SAS Re-established as a Territorial Unit

1947:
As a result of the War Office study, a territorial unit, 21 SAS was born but it took the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 to initiate moves to form a full-time SAS unit.

22 SAS a Regular Army Unit

1952:
22 SAS Regiment is formed in the United Kingdom as a regular army unit, serving in Malaya until 1959.

Australian Officers Become Aware of Success of British SAS in Malaya

1955:
Australian Army units begin arriving in Malaya and select Australian officers become aware of how successfully 22 SAS elements are operating in that environment.

Concurrently there is agitation for the raising of a SAS unit in Australia, especially from Stewart Harris, a journalist with the Brisbane Courier Mail who had served in 21 SAS for a year before migrating to Australia in 1951.

Harris had enthusiastically floated the idea of forming an Australian SAS unit with the Minister for the Army, Mr Josiah Francis and the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant-General Sir Sydney Rowell.

Although Harris gained support for the proposal from the Australian Governor General, Field Marshal Slim and others, it appeared that there was no real support for the idea in Australia, especially in senior Australian military circles at that time.

In 1954 however Captain John Slim, the Field Marshal's son, was posted to Australia to join the United Kingdom Services Liaison Staff in Melbourne. John Slim had served with SAS in Malaya, had discussed the possibility of forming a SAS unit in Australia with David Stirling and contacted Stewart Harris on arriving in Melbourne. Slim wrote a supporting paper, which he gave to Rowell and Francis and also spoke to the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies.

He also put his views to Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Wells, who became Chief of the General Staff in December 1954.

In March 1955 New Zealand announced that they would raise a SAS Squadron for rotational service with the British SAS in Malaya.

It is difficult to determine the effect of a post World War II change to the strategic environment, the conclusion of the Korean War, the defeat of France in Indo-China and the US Army forming the 10th Special Forces Group had on senior Australian Army thinking at the time. However it was decided that with the financial constraints of the day, if Australia was to raise true special forces they would have to be part of the CMF. Due to experience from World War II, the Australian Army was more inclined to form Commando, rather than SAS units and in January 1955 it was announced that two CMF Commando companies were to be raised, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne.

Military Board Details Reasons for Establishing SAS Squadron

1956:
Saw the release of the Strategic Basis document, which reflected the changing strategic environment and Australia's ability to prepare for and participate in Cold War activities and limited warfare. The document emphasized these contingencies should take priority over measures directed solely for preparedness for global war. As a consequence, Australia had to have adequate forces immediately available to deter or defeat any hostile action that might prejudice vital Australian interests in South East Asia.

A review of the Army's operational forces and staff studies during 1956 concluded that the minimum requirement would be a 'mobile, hard-hitting' regular brigade group in addition to the battalion group with the Strategic Reserve in Malaya and on 31 October 1956 the Military Board proposed to the Minister for the Army (Mr J. O. Cramer) that a new headquarters for the brigade be raised and that the brigade group would consist of two infantry battalions, one armoured regiment, one field artillery regiment, one field engineer squadron, one special air service squadron, and elements of signals, supply, transport, medical, ordnance and workshop units; with a strength of 252 officers and 4331 other ranks.

Many of the major units for the new brigade were already in existence, but the SAS squadron was a completely new unit and the Military Board proposal spelt out the reason for including it in the new brigade:

"This is a new unit to the Australian Army. The squadron consists of specially trained men capable of being parachuted behind or infiltrating enemy lines and of operating in small detachments for comparatively lengthy periods. They are trained in sabotage, the collection of intelligence, and similar commando-like roles.

Exercises in NATO armies have shown that these squadrons are suited for the difficult task of locating and advising to a commander, targets most suitable for engagement by either tactical atomic weapons, ground or air launched, such as guided missiles and cannon, or by rocket and bomb attack by the Tactical Air Force.

In Malaya, Special Air Service Units are proving of great value in operations calling for deep jungle penetration. Such troops can be dropped into areas virtually inaccessible to other ground forces. Here they establish liaison with local tribesmen, create confidence in remote villages, gain information of Communist activities and take rapid punitive action. In general they dominate the area in which they operate. It is clear how vital to the operations of our forces such units could be in event of war in South East Asia.

The nucleus for a Special Air Service squadron is available in the existing airborne platoon and in the number of other men who have been trained as parachutists."