Roy Farran DSO. MC 2bars. 2SAS.
In September 1943, Captain Roy Farran of the 2nd Special Air Service (SAS) led a composite squadron to the Italian port of Taranto. Their mission was to conduct reconnaissance and attack German convoys ahead of the Allied advance. Farran's 'D' Squadron, operating jeeps, ambushed several German convoys and engaged in street fighting. They also liberated 50 Allied prisoners of war in Bari. However, a subsequent report questioned the effectiveness of their operations, suggesting that sabotage missions would have been more appropriate.
On 3 October 1943, during the Allied landing at Termoli, Farran's detachment of 20 men from 'D' Squadron joined the 1st Special Raiding Squadron. They established a base for future raids behind enemy lines and successfully repelled several German counterattacks. Later, in late October, Farran commanded four SAS parties that destroyed 17 sections of railway between Ancona and Pescara and mined the main road between the two towns.
These actions earnt Farran a bar to his Military Cross.
Major Farran was a decorated British Army officer and SAS commander in WWII. After being captured and escaping from a POW hospital in Athens, he led an improvised escape to Egypt and earned a Bar to his Military Cross. He served as aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. Jock Campbell, fought in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and France with 1/2 SAS, and led daring deep-penetration jeep raids (Operation Wallace) that disrupted German communications—earning a Distinguished Service Order (awarded under the pseudonym “Patrick McGinty”). In Italy he organized and led partisan-collaborative operations (Operation Tombola/Battaglione Alleato) against German units, achieving notable local successes and later receiving the American Legion of Merit and the Croix de Guerre. After the war he continued military and policing service, including in Palestine.