World War II · Series · 2022–2025
SAS: Rogue Heroes
From a Cairo hospital bed, David Stirling dreams up a tiny unit of misfits to strike deep behind Rommel's lines; with Paddy Mayne and Jock Lewes he turns it into the Special Air Service, which later fights its way through Sicily and Italy.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 7 places.
Stop 1: Cairo, Egypt
Injured in a parachute jump, Stirling talks his way past the generals and wins approval for a small raiding force.
Stop 2: Kabrit camp, Suez Canal
Lewes and Mayne train a band of recruits from the stockade and the ranks, stealing tents and supplies to build their camp.
Stop 3: Agedabia airfield, Libya
Key location
After the failed first drop, the SAS ride in with the Long Range Desert Group and wreck rows of parked aircraft at night.
Stop 4: Benghazi harbour, Libya
Stirling drives into the Axis-held port in disguise with Churchill's son Randolph to plant explosives on shipping.
Stop 5: Capo Murro di Porco, near Syracuse
Now under Mayne, the renamed squadron lands in Sicily past drowning glider troops and storms a coastal battery.
Stop 6: Augusta, Sicily
The squadron seizes the port and gets tangled up with the local mafia, a double-dealing priest and German dive bombers.
Stop 7: Termoli, Adriatic coast
Landed from the sea, the SAS take the town and then dig in against a panzer counterattack that falls on soldiers and civilians alike.
What really happened
L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade, was formed in July 1941 at Kabrit on the Suez Canal. Its first parachute operation, during Operation Crusader in November 1941, was a disaster in which only about a third of the men returned; the survivors then used Long Range Desert Group trucks to raid Axis airfields, destroying dozens of aircraft at Tamet and Agedabia in December 1941. Jock Lewes was killed at the end of that month, and Stirling was captured in Tunisia in January 1943.
Reorganised under Paddy Mayne as the Special Raiding Squadron, the unit took the coastal battery at Capo Murro di Porco on 10 July 1943, captured Augusta two days later and in October held Termoli against the 16th Panzer Division. The series is based on Ben Macintyre's 2016 book; Eve Mansour is fictional and many scenes are embellished, as the show itself warns.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- SAS: Rogue Heroes
- Created by
- Steven Knight
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English, French, German, Italian
- Seasons
- 2 seasons
- Released
- 2022–2025
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Mediterranean & Africa
- Themes
- Combat
- True story
