The Most Famous SAS Photo Explained

So, let me tell you the story of the return of the Scots patrol. The photograph was taken by Captain Geoffrey Keating of the number one British Army Film and Photographic Unit. Keating had already made his own unusual mark on the war. He was the only army photographer to accompany the British Expeditionary Force to France and after his return he became the head of the Army Film and Photographic Unit for the rest of the Second World War.

 His camera caught the SAS at a moment when its methods had matured. The first parachute raid Operation Squatter had been a disaster in 1941. But the regiment had learned quickly. By 1943, the SAS was moving by Jeep across the desert attacking airfields, supply lines, and enemy communications and disappearing before the enemy could respond.

 At the rear of the photo is Jock Henderson of the Scots Guards. Henderson came from Lanarkshire. The son of Hugh and Jane Henderson of Glasgow. He served with the second battalion Scots Guards before joining L Detachment SAS in 1942. Where he rose from corporal to lance sergeant. He later served with A Squadron 1 SAS and then with the special raiding squadron.

Henderson’s war ended in Italy. During Operation Devon at Termoli in 1943, he was killed in action. In this photograph, he appears as one of the hard desert men of the early SAS. But within the year, he would be dead on a very different battlefield. Far from the open desert where this image was taken. Next to him is Jock McDiarmid of the Black Watch.

 One of the most fearsome characters in the early SAS story. McDiarmid had joined the Black Watch before volunteering for the commandos. Serving with number 11 Scottish Commando alongside men such as Paddy Mayne and Bill Fraser. He went to North Africa with Layforce in 1941 and later joined the SAS in early 1942. As the unit expanded after its first successful raids.

He was not part of the tiny original Operation Squatter Group, but he was part of the early wartime SAS generation. And by the time this photograph was taken, he was already a tested raider. McDiarmid had a reputation for aggression and humor in equal measure. One story has him challenging an American soldier in a club by demonstrating a parachute landing fall from a balcony.

 Rolling onto the dance floor unharmed. The American tried to copy him and broke his leg. Stories like that helped create the mythology of the early SAS. But McDiarmid’s courage was real. In September 1943, during the assault on Bagnara in southern Italy, he was shot through the ankle while his subsection was under mortar and machine gun fire.

Instead of withdrawing, he covered his men, crawled back to rejoin them, and led them into the hills to outflank the enemy position. He refused medical treatment and continued until he collapsed from blood loss. For that, he was awarded the Military Medal. McDormid was also involved in the fighting at Termoli.

 Still affected by his wound, he was helping carry the wounded when an enemy soldier appeared in a building and prepared to fire on the stretcher party. SAS Bren guns forced the man back inside, and McDormid ran in after him. He emerged moments later with the blunt line that the man would fire his Beretta no more. In later life, he emigrated to Australia and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

 He became a cadet instructor at the Armadale School in New South Wales. He died in 2009, aged 90. Next to him was Dave Goldie of the Scots Guards. Goldie had attested as a Guardsman in February 1939 and joined the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards before the war expanded across North Africa. He was wounded in action in January 1942 with a gunshot wound to the calf, but returned to duty and joined L Detachment SAS Brigade in May 1942.

Later that year, he joined 1 SAS Regiment and rose to acting corporal, then paid acting corporal, and eventually corporal as a war substantive rank. Goldie’s service record shows the complicated movement of men through wartime special forces. He served with L Detachment, 1 SAS, and the Special Raiding Squadron, moving between Egypt, Syria, North Africa, and later the United Kingdom.

 Like many early SAS men, he did not have a neat career path. The regiment itself was constantly changing, expanding, reorganizing, and and being attached to other formations. Goldie’s record also shows the rougher side of military life. In 1945, he was court-martialed on charges including drunkenness and violence towards superior officers, found guilty and reduced from acting sergeant to guardsman.

 It is a reminder that some of the men who performed with extraordinary courage in war were not easy men to manage in barracks. The driver of the second Jeep has often been confused with John Taylor. However, the identification given on the back of the photograph is Malcolm McKinnon of the Scots Guards. I have unfortunately been able to find absolutely nothing out about Malcolm McKinnon, but if you have any information or any sources, please let me know in the comments below.

 William Kennedy Shaw is the next man in the photograph. He was not simply a soldier, but an explorer, botanist, archaeologist, and desert navigator. Born in 1901, he had spent the 1920s and 30s exploring the Western Desert with men such as Ralph Bagnold. He traveled by camel and truck through places like Gilf Kebir, Wadi Halfa, and the Sand Sea, building the kind of knowledge that would later prove invaluable in war.

When Bagnold formed the Long Range Desert Group, Kennedy Shaw was recruited from the British administration in Palestine to become its intelligence and chief navigation officer. Kennedy Shaw’s skills helped make long-range desert warfare possible. The LRDG knew how to cross country that most armies considered impassable.

 They navigated where there were no roads, no landmarks, and no margin for error. The SAS relied heavily on that expertise, especially in its early vehicle-based raids. Kennedy Shaw later transferred to the Intelligence Corps and then to the SAS in 1944, serving as GSO2 intelligence at SAS Brigade headquarters in Northwest Europe.

 After the war, he wrote one of the first books on the Long Range Desert Group. In this photograph, he represents the link between exploration and special operations. The men who knew the desert before the war then turned that knowledge into a weapon. And a little anecdote about Kennedy Shaw, he was reportedly the man who gave Vladimir Peniakoff, the man who created Popski’s Private Army, the nickname of Popski.

 Edward Ed McDonald was another hard early raider. Originally a Cameron Highlander, he volunteered for the Commandos and served with number 11 Scottish Commando before going to the Middle East with Layforce. He took part in Operation Exporter in Syria in 1941, and later volunteered for L Detachment. On the nominal roll, he appears as a lance sergeant.

 And he was part of Operation Squatter in November 1941, serving in Paddy Mayne’s aircraft group. That first SAS raid was a disaster, with men scattered by wind and rain, but McDonald survived and continued with the regiment. McDonald was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his part on the raid at Tamet on the night of the 12th to 13th of December 1941.

He was one of the small raiding party with Lieutenant Paddy Mayne that destroyed the 24 aircraft, bomb stores, and petrol stores. Later in the desert campaign, McDonald was commissioned into the West Yorkshire Regiment and went on to serve with other units in Northwest Europe. What makes this photograph powerful is that it freezes these men before many of their later stories had played out.

 They are not anonymous faces once the names are restored to them. Each one of them carries a separate piece of the regiment’s early history. The timing matters as much as the identities. The photograph was taken on the 18th of January, 1943. Within days, David Stirling would be captured by the Germans. His capture marked the end of the first chapter of the SAS.

 The regiment would not die with him, but it would change. Paddy Mayne, Bill Stirling, and so many others would carry the story forward into Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. And the best part for me about the photo is there’s no parade ground polish here. The men are bearded, sunburned, and practical. Their uniforms are adapted to the desert.

 Their vehicles are overloaded and heavily armed. The story of the photograph is therefore the story of the early SAS itself. It’s about commandos, guardsmen, Highlanders, desert explorers, and irregular soldiers brought together by war. It’s about men who could be brave, reckless, funny, violent, disciplined in battle, and undisciplined in peace.

Some survived and built new lives, and unfortunately, some did not leave the war alive. I hope you enjoyed this video going through the most iconic photo from SAS history. This is a bit of a different video, so let me know if you enjoyed it, and if you want to see other videos going through famous SAS or other photos from history.

And again, if you have any more information about any of these men, then please leave it in the comments below or a link to the sources where people can read more. I think documenting the history of these men is so important, and unfortunately, so little of their stories is easily accessible.

 But anyways, thank you for watching. If If enjoyed, please leave a like, subscribe, and turn that bell notification on, and share this video with your friends, cuz sometimes history doesn’t need a rewrite, it just needs to be told properly.