WORLD WAR II HERO HONORED: Last surviving original SAS hero is awarded France's highest honor for bravery 74 years after he parachuted into the Loire to sabotage Nazi fuel depots and fend off Hitler's Panzers.
Mike Sadler, 98, was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur yesterday, 74 years after he parachuted into Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War.
He was given the award at a private event in London with representatives of the French embassy and former members of the SAS included on the guest list.
The French defence attaché, Colonel Antoine de Loustal, who presented the red-ribboned medal to one of Britain’s last wartime heroes, said: ‘We shall not forget. We will never forget.’
In 1941, Mr Sadler joined the Long Range Desert Group, a reconnaissance unit based in the North African desert.
He was then brought into the arising Special Air Service - introduced by Lieutenant David Stirling to launch night-time raids against Axis airfields in Libya.
Mr Sadler quickly became the unit’s top navigator as he was able to guide raiding groups across almost bare expanses of desert.
Now almost blind, Mr Sadler said: ‘I’m afraid I can’t give a speech because I can’t read any notes as I can no longer see,’ reported the Times.
Mr Sadler fought with the SAS in Italy and France following his time in the desert war, before setting up the SAS intelligence unit.
In August 7, 1944, Mr Sadler was dropped by parachute into the Loire as part of Operation Houndsworth.
The aim was to reach SAS squadrons behind the lines and help destroy fuel depots, encourage local resistance, and prevent Panzer divisions heading north.
By this time Hitler had given instructions for any captured parachutists to be executed.
Germans struck the two-jeep convoy with Mr Sadler returning fire, allowing the other jeep to flee before escaping himself. He was later awarded the Military Cross for gallantry.
Those who formed L Detachment SAS named themselves ‘the Originals’, with Mr Sadler being considered an honorary one.
He was given the role of lieutenant by Stirling but this was reportedly never told to the authorities so Mr Sadler finished the war as a major.
In December 1941, Mr Sadler was part of the first successful SAS raid - on Wadi Tamet airfield - where a team of six men ruined 24 aircraft and a fuel dump.
This was led by Lieutenant Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne, a former Irish international rugby star who would become one of Britain’s most decorated soldiers.
On the night of July 26, 1942, Mr Sadler, without headlights or a map, guided 18 jeeps filled with twin Vickers K machine guns along 70 miles of desert to within 200 feet of Sidi Haneish airfield.
The group then opened fire as they drove between planes, wrecking at least 37 aircraft. But one of the SAS jeep drivers was sadly shot through the head during the attack and buried in the sand.
‘I do remember the people who didn’t survive, and who didn’t have the chance to receive this great honour,’ Mr Sadler said.
He was awarded the Military Medal for the Tamit and Sidi Haneish attacks.
Mr Sadler was also one of the officers to follow Stirling on the last SAS operation during the desert war in January 1943.
This involved trying to cross the Tunisian desert to meet the British-American 1st Army but they were ambushed by a German unit.
Stirling was captured and would spend the rest of the Second World War as a prisoner of war in Colditz.
Mr Sadler managed to escape along with another SAS soldier and an Arabic-speaking Frenchman.
He guided the group on a five-day, 100-mile trek, without a map, or any food provisions, to link up with the 1st Army.
American war correspondent A J Liebling witnessed Mr Sadler as he arrived from the desert, and wrote: ‘The eyes of this fellow were round and sky blue and his hair and whiskers were very fair.
'His beard began well under his chin, giving him the air of an emaciated and slightly dotty Paul Verlaine.’
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