One of the most amazing stories of the Second World War concerns the action of a special and almost unknown commando group, the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF), which was part of the SOE, the sabotage service in the occupied the Germans Europe.
A very limited number of men joined the SSRF. The group was organized at the behest of Winston Churchill and was tasked with "striking terror behind enemy lines".
The commandos who joined the team were the pick of the pick. They were trained to withstand anything and be able to remain in action, even without sleep for days. Their goals were to hit selected targets, silently.
Therefore, instead of firearms, they were mainly equipped with bows, crossbows and melee weapons. To cover the group's special role, it was renamed 62nd Commando, to make it appear to be another, common, commando unit. Their commander, from October 1941, was Lord Mountbatten.
55 men joined the unit, coming from Britain but also from all over occupied Europe. The first operation was carried out on Spanish soil, on the island of Fernando Po, which is located in the Gulf of Guinea, in West Africa.
Italian and German ships had secretly anchored there. The mission of the 11 commandos who carried out the operation was to seize these ships and take them to an allied port. The operation was completely successful, without any loss for the commandos.
On August 14, 1942 a group of 11 commandos sneaked into France and destroyed German radar and anti-aircraft positions. In another operation they attacked and neutralized the German garrison on a small island in the English Channel.
On the contrary, an operation that would have prepared the landing in Dieppe, failed and resulted in the killing or capture of all 10 commandos who participated. The next operation, which was carried out on another Channel island, was also completely successful.
Nevertheless, in early 1943 the unit was disbanded and its personnel sent to serve in other commando units. Some men were sent to the Middle East forming the famous 2nd SAS.
One of the greatest heroes of the unit was the Dane Anders Lassen. Lassen, also known as "Robin of the Woods" because of his skill with the bow, joined the unit as a private in 1940. But soon, because of his courage, he was promoted to non-commissioned officer and then to officer, reaching 1945, at the rank of major.
He took part in almost all SSRF operations and later as a member of the 2nd SAS. He fought alongside the Greek commandos of the Holy Company, in Crete and the Aegean islands. Lassen fell, literally fighting heroically, in northern Italy on April 9, 1945, just days before the war ended. He was only 25 years old.