On June 12, Yunnie and a small advance party including two Royal Navy officers sailed in a Navy P-boat for the mouth of the River Tenna, 60 miles behind the front line. Here Yunnie met agents of “A” Force (M19), who were engaged in rescuing Allied airmen shot down in enemy territory; the agents brought the airmen to the coast and commandos took them out. Yunnie confirmed with the agents and the two Navy officers that an LCT (Landing Craft, Tank) would be able to get in with PPA’s jeeps, and he advised Popski of this by radio.

Events proceeded rapidly as the Germans and Italians were chased out of North Africa almost before PPA really got going. A joint LRDG-PPA patrol discovered the gap in the mountains that let Montgomery's armour outflank Rommel’s Mareth Line defences, and PPA was among the first elements of 8th Army, pushing West, to meet the British 1st Army and American 2nd Corps, pushing East, in Tunisia in early 1943. Many PPA raiding and reconnaissance operations were carried out around the time of the Kasserine Pass fighting, including taking the surrender of 600 Italians, alongside British and American forces. Italy had signed an armistice with the Allies two days before the landing, and although the landing was unopposed the military and political situation ashore was very confused. The Germans, considering the Italians traitors, were occupying more Italian territory, and information on German strength and activity in the Taranto area was urgently needed. While the 1st Airborne set up a defense perimeter around the port, Popski took his jeeps off to find answers and locate possible landing grounds for the Royal Air Force between Taranto and Brindisi. During the night, they crossed the main supply route between Spinazzola and Gravina and almost blundered into a German convoy on the road. They drove on into the hill country of the Murge. Here the patrol split up to watch the roads and report all movements to 1st Airborne headquarters. While this was going on, Popski pulled off a coup. The fighting men of Popski’s Private Army were experts in hit-and-run tactics. One of their camps is shown in Italy late in the war as preparations are made for the departure of a patrol. Peniakoff became the British-Russian liaison officer in Vienna before demobilisation, naturalisation and achieving fame as a British writer and broadcaster. In 1950 he wrote the book Private Army about his experiences; it sold very well, was reprinted several times that year, and has continued to be reprinted (also titled Popski's Private Army) well into the 21st century. The other telling factor that determined the path of a battle was that there was just one tarmac road along the coast and this had to be used to supply the forward troops of either army with fuel, ammunition and other supplies. It was when this ‘line of communication’ got over extended that either army’s advance came to a grinding halt and went into reverse and this happened to both armies several times before the final advance of the Eighth Army from El Alamein to Tunis. Montgomery made sure that he would have the equipment and sufficient supplies to sustain the distance before he launched the final battle.

Memorial details

In his absence, Jean Caneri took command of PPA and led it on operations until snow bogged down the jeeps. He then organized training for everyone in parachuting, skiing, and mountain climbing. When the Second World War broke out, the 42-year-old Peniakoff applied to serve in the Royal Air Force, and the Royal Navy, but was rejected. He was accepted by the British Army, and assigned to garrison duties as an Arabic-speaking junior officer in the Libyan Arab Force (LAF). Not satisfied, Popski left his post and formed the Libyan Arab Force Commando (LAFC), a small group of British and Libyan soldiers who operated behind the lines in the Jebel Akhdar area of Cyrenaica. [3] Popski's Private Army, officially No. 1 Demolition Squadron, PPA, was a unit of British Special Forces set up in Cairo in October 1942 by Major Vladimir Peniakoff. Popski's Private Army was one of several raiding units formed in the Western Desert during the Second World War. The squadron also served in Italy, and was disbanded in September 1945. By this time PPA personnel had gained between them a DSO, a Distinguished Conduct Medal, 6 MCs, 10 MMs, and 14 Mentions in Despatches; HM King George VI had personally requested an account of the unit’s exploits. Popski's activities during the World War I are mysterious. In the introduction to his memoir "Popski's Private Army", he writes that he "left [Cambridge] ....to enlist as a private in the French army", that "eleven days later I reported to my battery, a full fledged gunner." and that "I was invalided out of the army shortly after the 1918 armistice". However, his biographer, John Willett, was unable to find the slightest trace of his service in the French Army, and, having access to the family papers, found several pieces of correspondence to his family indicating that Popski was working in war industries in 1916 and 1917. Did he serve briefly in the French army, as Willett thinks is possible? Did he invent the whole thing? Or did he in fact serve on the Western Front and the records are lost and the correspondence misleading? We may never know.

In April, Bob Yunnie obtained a compassionate home posting upon the death of his only son, and a recently recruited young lieutenant from the 27th Lancers named McCallum took his place as patrol leader. Patrol leaders were now McCallum, Captain John Campbell, and Lieutenant Steve Wallbridge. Several operations used DUKWs or small landing craft called RCLs (manned by 7 Royal Engineers who inevitably became known as “Popski’s Private Navy”) to sail up the Adriatic and get behind the German front line, chaperoned by the Royal Navy’s Coastal Forces. This text is adapted from the "PPA Story" on two plaques at the PPA Memorial in the Allied Special Forces Grove at the National Memorial Arboretum.You can call us on a normal working day on 01562 863464 to upgrade to a special before 1.00pm next day delivery if required. The Eighth Army’s various battles against Rommel’s Afrika Corps were fought up and down a coastal strip of fairly flat terrain and the main reason for this was that the land to the south was soft sand and practically impassable for tanks and heavy vehicles. I think the only unit that safely negotiated this inhospitable land was the ‘Long Range Desert Group’ that was equipped with American Bantam Jeeps which had four wheel drive and low reduction gears. This famous unit, the forerunner of the SAS (Special Air Service), penetrated deep behind enemy lines creating mayhem by blowing up fuel and ammunition dumps and destroying aircraft on the ground. This reminds me that there was another unit lead by a man called Popski who was either a Pole or a White Russian. I saw some of his men once and a right lot of cut throats they looked. His unit was known as ‘Popski’s Private Army’ and they too operated behind the German line both in North Africa and later in Western Europe. At the same time, the interception and decoding of enemy messages has been of paramount importance.

That meeting led to a friendship that lasted for the rest of Vic’s life, he died last Monday aged 101, three days short of his 102nd birthday. Together, we co-wrote his three-volume memoir: Rifleman: A Front-Line Life, King’s Cross Kid and Soldier, Spy plus an eBook, Dresden: A Survivor’s Story. The summer of 1943 was spent in Algeria and Tunisia recruiting and training new volunteers from the LRDG, SAS, Commandos and Royal Armoured Corps for the fight in Italy, bringing the unit’s size up to about 35 all ranks, with two fighting patrols and a small HQ. For a short while PPA experimented with using 1st Airborne Division’s gliders to deliver them and their jeeps behind the Axis lines in Sicily, but their part in that operation was cancelled at the last minute. One day, while they were hiding in a grove of trees awaiting dark, two shabbily dressed men approached. They were obviously not Italian peasants, and when Popski stopped them he found they were Russian soldiers captured at Smolensk and sent to work in the Todt Organization, Germany’s labor establishment, in northern Italy. From there they had escaped and made their way south. Popski enrolled them in PPA, and they served with distinction for the rest of the war. This memorial is not currently listed. Find out how to nominate this memorial for inclusion on the National Heritage List for England Two days later, Campbell’s patrol charged a battery of 88mm guns and captured it together with 300 troops. Two other patrols sailed across the Gulf of Venice and helped clear the Germans out of Iesolo. In 10 days, while killing and wounding many Germans, they had taken 1,335 prisoners and captured 16 field guns and many other weapons. It was a good haul, and it was PPA’s last battle.

Object Details

Popski moved his base to Besceglie at the foot of the Matese mountains and put the men to hard training while he worked on a plan to operate behind the German lines. The operation was to be named Astrolabe. Events proceeded rapidly; the Germans and Italians were expelled from Egypt and Libya shortly after PPA became active. A joint LRDG-PPA patrol discovered the gap in the mountains that let Bernard Montgomery launch an outflanking move around Erwin Rommel's defense at the Mareth Line. The PPA was also among the first elements of Eighth Army (moving west) to link up with the British First Army and American II Corps (advancing east) in Tunisia in early 1943. Many PPA raiding and reconnaissance operations were carried out around the time of the Battle of Kasserine Pass, including taking the surrender of 600 Italians. Willett, John, "Popski" MacGibbon and Kee 1954. Out of print but usually available at a price. This book is written as a companion to "Private Army" and does not treat Popski's military career in detail. Rankin, Nicholas (7 October 2011). Ian Fleming's Commandos: The Story of the Legendary 30 Assault Unit. Oxford University Press. p.162. ISBN 978-0199361113.