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. AFTER RETURNING TO CAIRO IN THE MIDDLE OF 1942 ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT HIS/ LAFC HAD BEEN DISBANDED WHILE HE WAS AWAY, POPSKI WAS INVITED TO JOIN/ AN LRDG RAID IN THE AREA HE HAD JUST LEFT. HE LEARNED MUCH ABOUT THEIR/ WAYS, LOST A FINGER ON HIS LEFT HAND TO AN ITALIAN BULLET, AND WON AN MC./ It was a small unit of 22 Senussi Arabs, a British sergeant, and an Arab officer—an independent command—and it had no transport. For that and his supplies, he had to rely on the LRDG. For five months he operated behind the Axis lines in the Jebel Akhdar, the lushly forested and mountainous area between Benghazi and Derna in Libya, keeping a road watch and reporting Axis traffic along the coast, rescuing shot-down airmen, and ambushing when he could.

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. The next day we conducted a carefully planned but somewhat less well executed search of the area. Despite Andrew’s carefully planned search programme, the silty nature of the sand made it impossible to stay in regular lines. At first we were flummoxed as nothing made sense. So Andrew and I drove partway up the berm in Shimi to get a better perspective. From here we could see the lay of the land and immediately spotted some terrain that seemed to match the wartime accounts. Re-joining the others, we realigned our search bearing and set off again. I was the first to spot something unusual. Sitting half in the sand was an old embossed tobacco tin, made in Scotland, and certainly from the wartime period. Shortly after, Andy and Roger in Tembo reported over the radio that they had discovered some vehicle parts near a dry well. Rushing over, we found an assortment of old vehicle pieces including one piece that had a large calibre bullet hole, similar to what would have been fired by German fighter aircraft. Further searching turned up what appeared to be an old gun oil can and what may have been a bonnet section that had been hammered flat.

In Austria, PPA was disbanded and its members returned to their former units. Popski stayed in Austria, working as the liaison officer between the British and the Russians for that sector until 1946, when he was demobilized. He settled in England and married his second wife Pamela. Popski died in London in May 1951 of a brain tumor—famous from his writing, radio broadcasts, and best-selling book about PPA. Popski was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and became the British-Russian liaison officer in Vienna before demobilisation, naturalisation and achieving fame as a British writer and broadcaster. During WW2, Peniakoff sustained two injuries to his left hand: the first, during the desert campaign, resulted in the loss of a finger, while the second, towards the end of the war in Italy, necessitated amputation of the entire hand. [7] The six armed jeeps of a patrol had tremendous firepower. Each jeep was armed with a .50-caliber and .30-caliber machine gun and each patrol carried two .303 Bren guns, a bazooka, and a 2-inch mortar. A smoke generator was fixed to the rear of each jeep. A broadside from six jeeps in line was devastating. Personal weapons included Thompson submachine guns, rifles, pistols, and grenades.

Plaque 4, left-hand column]: POPSKI'S PRIVATE ARMY/ NO. 1 DEMOLITION SQUADRON/ 28TH GARIBALDI BRIGADE/ TO THE ETERNAL MEMORY OF/ ARRIGO BOLDRINI (BULOW) - GOLD MEDAL FOR MILITARY VALOUR/ AND THE PARTISANS OF 28TH GARIBALDI BRIGADE/ UNDER HIS COMMAND IN PORTER FORCE, BRITISH EIGHTH ARMY,/ DURING THE 1944 CAMPAIGN FOR THE LIBERATION OF/ THE CITY OF RAVENNA/ AND/ WITH ETERNAL GRATITUDE/ TO THE 604 HEROES WHO FELL IN THE ACHIEVEMENT OF VICTORY./ [Right-hand column is the Italian translation.] The work of MI6 was a closely guarded secret - its role and very existence was not officially recognized until the Intelligence Services Act of 1994 and the authorised history of the service ends in 1949. 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] We offer next working day delivery, if placed before 1.00pm on our normal working days. Please call for costs. The task of the 1st Airborne at Taranto was to ease pressure on the American Fifth Army at Salerno, but before leaving Taranto the lightly armed airborne troops, without air, armor, or artillery support, needed to know enemy positions and strength.Popski may have been born a Belgian, but he died and Englishmen, having become a British citizen in 1945. He loved this country, and his resolve and determination, his sense of duty and his courage certainly inspire me. Plaque 2, front face]: THIS MEMORIAL WAS UNVEILED BY/ SIR ROBERT CRAWFORD CBE/ ON/ SUNDAY 30 MARCH 2008/ IN THE PRESENCE OF/ VETERANS, RELATIVES AND FRIENDS/ WHOSE GENEROUS DONATIONS MADE IT POSSIBLE/ 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. They were deployed in many roles, often clandestine, and for several months even operated as regular front line troops, holding a sector of the Allied front line, badly depleted after the withdrawal of forces for the D-Day landings in Normandy, nipping around in their jeeps to fool the Germans into believing that they were opposed by much larger units.

Friends of PPA online part of the PPA Memorial, Official Register of PPA Personnel, PPA Roll of Honour, PPA Awards, PPA War Establishments and other information. Soon afterward, Popski was asked to send a patrol to destroy a bridge over the River Capa d’Acqua in front of a position held by a Guards brigade on the Garigliano Front. Popski sent part of Bob Yunnie’s patrol. Near the river the patrol ran into an uncharted minefield. One man was killed and two seriously wounded by the mines, and the patrol came under heavy German mortar fire in which another man was wounded. Yunnie managed to get the patrol out, but the bridge was not blown. In Egypt he married Josephe Louise Colette "Josette" Ceysens, an Egypt-born Belgian, on 10 November 1928. They had two daughters, Olga and Anne, born in 1930 and 1932. After receiving his commission he divorced Josephe in March 1941 and sent the family to South Africa. [2] On 2 April 1948 he married Pamela Firth in Chelsea. [8] Death [ edit ] From there, Popski took his men to Tebessa, Algeria, where he persuaded the American II Corps to issue them rations and clothing. While they were at Tebessa, publicity was given to their journey through the dangerous gap between the German and American armies, and Popski seized the opportunity to get PPA transferred from the British Eighth Army to the British First Army. 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.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./ Anyway, I'm hoping that you may be able to take a look and tell me what you think about its being an original or copy. The fact it was just mixed in with other badges and the wasn't singled out gives me some hope it's a could be a diamond in the ruff, but wouldn't be surprised if it is a copy. The destroyed historical centre of Dresden, after the allied forces bombing of 13/14 February 1945. Photograph: HANDOUT/AFP via Getty Images Popski’s Private Army finished the war with a flourish: sailing some of their jeeps on RCLs to St. Mark's Square in Venice where they drove round and round just for the hell of it, the only wheeled vehicles ever to have been there. The unit was disbanded four months later on 14 September 1945, after hunting for Himmler, disarming Italian partisans and discouraging Josip Broz Tito’s partisans from encroaching on Austrian and Italian territory.