Paddy Mayne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Blair ('Paddy') Mayne DSO & 3 Bars (11 January 1915 - 14 December 1955) was a Northern Irish soldier.

Contents 1 Early life and sporting achievements 2 World War II 3 After the war 4 Reputation 5 Full list of decorations 6 See also 7 References

[edit] Early life and sporting achievements

Born in the County Down market town of Newtownards, the son of a grocer and one of seven children, Mayne attended Regent House Grammar School. It was there that his talent for rugby union became evident, and he played for the school 1st XV and also the local Ards RFC team from the youthful age of 16.

On leaving school he studied law at Queen's University of Belfast, and qualified as a solicitor. While at university he took up boxing, soon becoming Irish Universities Heavyweight Champion.

After gaining six caps for the Irish rugby team, Mayne was selected for the 1938 British Lions Tour of South Africa. He played in seventeen of the twenty provincial matches and in all three tests.^[1]

His legal and sporting careers were cut short by the outbreak of World War II.

[edit] World War II

Mayne initially served with The Queen's University Officer Training Corps (who observed that he would never make an officer), 5th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery SR, The Royal Ulster Rifles, The Cameronians and 11 (Scottish) Commando. He first saw action in June 1941 as a lieutenant with 11 Commando, successfully leading his men during the Litani River operation in Lebanon against the Vichy French Forces.

It was after this particularly brutal and confused action, in which 130 officers and men, around a third of the strike force, were wounded or killed, that Mayne reacted violently against what he believed was the ineptitude of his Commanding Officer, whom he considered inexperienced, arrogant and insincere. Mayne struck him, and was awaiting court-marshal and almost certain dismissal.

However, his leadership on the raid had attracted the attention of Captain David Stirling who recruited him as one of the founder members of the Special Air Service (SAS). From November 1941 through to the end of 1942, Mayne participated in many night raids deep behind enemy lines in the deserts of Egypt and Libya, where the SAS wrought havoc by destroying hundreds of German and Italian aircraft on the ground.

Following Stirling's capture in January 1943, 1st SAS Regiment was reorganised into two separate parts, the Special Raiding Squadron and the Special Boat Section (the forerunner of the Special Boat Service). As a major, Mayne was appointed to command the Special Raiding Squadron and he led the unit with distinction in Italy until the end of 1943. In January 1944 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed commanding officer of 1st SAS Regiment. He subsequently led the SAS with great distinction through the final campaigns of the war in France, Holland, Belgium, Germany and Norway, often campaigning alongside local resistance fighters including the French Maquis.

During the course of the war he became one of the British Army's most heavily decorated soldiers and received the Distinguished Service Order with three bars, one of only seven British servicemen to receive that award four times during World War II. Mayne pioneered the use of military Jeeps to conduct surprise hit-and-run raids, particularly on enemy airfields. By the end of the war it was claimed that he had personally destroyed 130 aircraft.^[2]

In recognition of his leadership and personal disregard for danger while in France, in which he trained and worked closely with the French Resistance, Mayne received the second bar to his DSO. Additionally, the post-war French Government awarded him the Legion d'honneur and the Croix de Guerre, the first foreigner to receive such a dual honour.

It has often been questioned why Mayne was not awarded a Victoria Cross, and even King George VI was to express surprise at the omission. The answer almost certainly lies in Mayne's abrasive attitude to some of his superiors, combined with the Army hierarchy's askance view of the unconventional attitudes and tactics of the special forces.

In the Spring of 1945 Mayne was recommended for a VC after single-handedly rescuing a squadron of his troops, trapped by heavy gunfire near the town of Oldenberg in north-west Germany. After the squadron became pinned down and sustained casualties, Mayne rescued the wounded, lifting them one by one into his Jeep before destroying the enemy gunners in a nearby farmhouse. However, although the VC recommendation was signed by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of the Allied 21st Army Group, Mayne instead received a fourth DSO.

Major General Sir Robert Laycock, Post War Chief of Combined Operations, wrote :

I feel I must drop you a line just to tell you how very deeply I appreciate the great honour of being able to address, as my friend, an officer who has succeeded in accomplishing the practically unprecedented task of collecting no less than four DSO's. (I am informed that there is another such superman in the Royal Air Force.)

You deserve all the more, and in my opinion, the appropriate authorities do not really know their job. If they did they would have given you a VC as well. Please do not dream of answering this letter, which brings with it my sincerest admiration and a deep sense of honour in having, at one time, been associated with you.

An Early Day Motion put before the House of Commons in June 2005 and supported by more than 100 MPs also stated that:

This House recognises the grave injustice meted out to Lt Col Paddy Mayne, of 1st SAS, who won the Victoria Cross at Oldenburg in North West Germany on 9th April 1945; notes that this was subsequently downgraded, some six months later, to a third bar DSO, that the citation had been clearly altered and that David Stirling, founder of the SAS has confirmed that there was considerable prejudice towards Mayne and that King George VI enquired why the Victoria Cross had `so strangely eluded him'; further notes that on 14th December it will be 50 years since Col Mayne's untimely death, in a car accident, and this will be followed on 29th January 2006 by the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Royal Warrant to institute the Victoria Cross; and therefore calls upon the Government to mark these anniversaries by instructing the appropriate authorities to act without delay to reinstate the Victoria Cross given for exceptional personal courage and leadership of the highest order and to acknowledge that Mayne's actions on that day saved the lives of many men and greatly helped the allied advance on Berlin. ^[3]

[edit] After the war

After a period with the British Antarctic Survey in the Falkland Islands, cut short by a crippling back complaint that had begun during his army days, Mayne returned to Newtownards to work first as a solicitor and then as Secretary to the Law Society of Northern Ireland. (Some have also said that Mayne could not adapt to being second in command of the BAS survey party.) Suffering severe back pain, which even prevented him from watching his beloved rugby as a spectator, and ill at ease with the mundanity of post-war life among provincial lawyers, Mayne became reserved and isolated, rarely talking about his wartime service. On 13 December 1955, aged 40, he had been drinking and playing poker in a pub not far from his home in Newtonards. He later left, and went on to a friend's house where he drank some more. He drove homewards in his MG sports car at 4am. The car collided with a lorry parked with no lights in the middle of the road just a short distance from his home. Some accounts say that Mayne was not killed outright but lay groaning for a time in the car's wreckage, which potential helpers were allegedly reluctant to approach for fear of a violent, drunken clash with the irascible war hero. At his funeral, which is believed to have been the largest ever seen in Northern Ireland, the town of Newtonards came to a standstill and his death was mourned across the Province.

[edit] Reputation

There are differing accounts of Mayne's personality and appearance. He is variously described as having been anything between six feet and six feet four inches tall, and sources describe him as especially reckless and uncontrollable when drunk. During the 1938 Lions tour it is said that Mayne relaxed by "wrecking hotels and fighting dockers".^[4] He was allegedly under arrest for knocking out his Commanding Officer when David Stirling came to recruit him for the SAS. It is this incident, as well as resentment and suspicion by some senior officers in the British Army of the SAS's unorthodox behaviour and unconventional tactics, which are cited as the reasons why he never received a Victoria Cross.

Many urban legends of his post-war years exist in Belfast and Newtownards. These mostly tell of incidents in which, after drinking for several hours, Mayne would challenge every man in the bar to a fight, which he would invariably win. Other accounts describe him as a courageous leader of his men and a ferocious opponent. Mayne is also described as growing increasingly withdrawn as the war progressed, preferring books to the company of friends. This tendency was said to have become more marked after the death of his father. Mayne was refused leave to attend the funeral and embarked on a drinking binge in central Cairo, smashing up a number of restaurants. There has also been biographical speculation about Mayne's sexuality - he never married - and the possibility that his occasional violent outbursts, displays of insubordination and heavy drinking may have arisen from repressed homosexuality.

Mayne was inclined to remonstrate with colleagues in the armed services who showed little or no understanding of the complex politics of Northern Ireland.^[5] To those who served with him, Mayne was both ruthless and inspirational. In the History Channel documentary "SAS Warrior" produced in 2004, one former SAS colleague is quoted as saying: "Our job was about killing, resting, killing and resting. The war did something to you, you became almost a sadist; and Paddy was the best professional killer I have ever seen."

A lifesize bronze statue of Blair Mayne stands in Conway Square, Newtownards, and the western bypass of the town is also named in his honour.

In 2003 a temporary British Army base in Kuwait, occupied by the first battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, was named after him - Camp Blair Mayne. It was there that Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins, 1RIR's commanding officer, gave his celebrated address to his troops on the eve of the Gulf War.

A film of Blair Mayne's life has long been mooted, with recent speculation linking Liam Neeson to the role. Eddie Irvine has become executive producer for the film. Three books have been written about Mayne, the first being Colonel Paddy by Patrick Marrinan (1960). Rogue Warrior of the SAS: the Blair Mayne legend was written by Ray Bradford and Martin Dillon (1989, updated 2003) features a foreword by David Stirling. Paddy Mayne by Hamish Ross (2004) has sought to debunk the numerous myths and legends concerning Mayne's character and exploits, preferring a more circumspect account based on tangible evidence. Another book, SAS: The History of the Special Raiding Squadron: Paddy's Men by Stewart McClean was published in early 2006.

[edit] Full list of decorations

DSO (24 February 1942, Middle East)

1st bar (21 October 1943, Sicily)

2nd bar (29 March 1944, Normandy)

3rd bar (9 April 1945, Germany)

Africa Star, 8th Army bar, Italy Star, France & Germany Star, 1939-45 War Medal, Defence Medal, War Medal & Oak Leaf, Légion D' Honneur, Croix De Guerre & Palm.^[6]

[edit] See also

• List of SAS operations
• SAS Troops

[edit] References