Popski's Private Army (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

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They spent the next three days keeping the ford open, chasing away any Germans who came close; nights were spent at the Castle Ripalta whose chatelaine was a lovely English girl married into the Parlato family. When British armor arrived in the area, they led the tanks and armored vehicles across the ford and into Serracapriola. Halted by the German Line

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. Plaque 6 - information plaque]: POPSKI'S PRIVATE ARMY/ THE STORY OF NO. 1 DEMOLITION SQUADRON, PPA/ AND LT-COL VLADIMIR PENIAKOFF DSO MC/ PART ONE/We called it the ‘berm.’ There wasn’t really any other name for the slightly eerie and bizarre wall of sand that dominated our view to the west. This intimidating feature, standing over 100 m high, stretched as far as the eye could see north and south. According to our WWII era maps the berm hasn’t moved in over 70 years. Beyond lies hundreds of miles of a vast sand sea, the Grand Erg Orientale. As we wandered about our base camp, eyes were often drawn to the mysterious. BBC News story about the 2007 discovery in the desert of a bag lost by an LRDG despatch rider (incorrectly thought to be a PPA despatch rider) during the war. Peniakoff died on 15 May 1951 of a brain tumour at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. His body was buried in the graveyard of St. Leonard's Church, Wixoe, Suffolk. 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. In the 36 months of its existence, 20 of them spent on operations, PPA had been more of a brotherhood than a military unit, a brotherhood created and led by Popski. Though at its peak it numbered no more than about 120 men, its contribution to the war effort was impressive.

Willett. Popski. Willett interviewed many of Popski's surviving Jewish relatives after World War II. By this time PPA personnel had gained between them a DSO, a Distinguished Conduct Medal, 6 MCs, 10 MMs, and 14 Mentions in Despatches; King George VI had personally requested an account of the unit’s exploits. ASSIGNED TO MUNDANE GARRISON DUTIES AS AN ARABIC-SPEAKING JUNIOR/ OFFICER IN THE LIBYAN ARAB FORCE, POPSKI PLOTTED HIS ESCAPE AND FORMED THE/ LIBYAN ARAB FORCE COMMANDO - A SMALL GROUP OF SOLDIERS WHO OPERATED/ BEHIND THE AXIS LINES IN THE JEBEL AKHDAR AREA OF CYRENAICA./

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Desert Authorisation: You do not need to register to travel in the southern desert but it is advisable for first time visitors. The sand seas here are vast and breaking down or getting stranded could be serious. Reputable guide services can handle this for you. We used Ilyes Sasi at SaharanSky. 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. On April 21, Caneri led all PPA, with his headquarters organized as a fighting patrol, into the watery maze around Lake Comacchio where, with the partisans of the Garibaldi Brigade and units of the 27th Lancers, they fought Germans for seven days. McCallum and his gunner were killed when a Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon destroyed their jeep as McCallum was leading his patrol into a village on the lake. PPA vehicles are shown during a 48-hour rest and refit period on the campus of the University of Padua, Italy, in the spring of 1945. With careful navigation by our search and rescue expert, comparing notes with our historian, we arrived later in the day at the area we believed to be Qaret Ali. Throughout our drive south from the oasis the mysterious berm dominated the western skyline. We set up a base camp a short distance from the feature and began to organise for our search.

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. There are still around 15 of Popski's men alive, including Major John Campbell, the last patrol commander. John was awarded two MCs during his time in PPA. His Sgt, Bill O'Leary, a redoubtable former Para, won the MM. I'm glad to say, the latter's also alive and well. Other members of the unit were decorated too and a number were killed in action, so I think you could say they 'did their bit'! For the invasion of Italy, PPA was attached to the British 1st Airborne Division, and Popski had his men trained to take their jeeps and equipment in by gliders. But then the 1st Airborne Division was sent in by sea to the port of Taranto on the heel of the boot of Italy, and Popski and a patrol of five jeeps landed with the advance elements of the division on September 9, 1943.

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Since this was to be our first venture into Tunisia, we engaged a local expedition company, SaharanSky, to provide advice and support. Ilyes Sasi, our support team leader, spoke excellent English and became a key part of the adventure. We called on his team’s services a number of times and they never let us down. Morison, Samuel Eliot (1944). History of United States Naval Operations in World War II.: Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, January 1943-June 1944. Little, Brown. pp.235–236. ISBN 9780252070396 . Retrieved 24 February 2015. Shortly after this No. 1 Demolition Squadron was formed, the smallest independent unit of the British Army at 23 men all-ranks. [1] The original officers of the unit were three friends who had served together in the Libyan Arab Force: Popski, Robert Park Yunnie and Jean Caneri.