City's tribute to SAS heroes
DROPPED off in the dead of night by a Royal Navy destroyer, the small team of commando canoeists paddled ashore and crept 200 yards to their target.
Ten minutes later a series of huge explosions left the railway bridge at Pescara on Italy's east coast in tatters.
Cyril Wheeler was one the SAS raiders whose skill and courage helped put a vital German army supply line out of action in 1943.
Yesterday the 92-year-old war hero was at the Royal Garrison Church in Portsmouth to hand over a roll of honour dedicated to members of the elite regiment who have since died.
The 45 names on the brass plaque were all members of a Territorial Army SAS unit which was based in the city from 1956 until the mid-1980s.
Speaking about the Pescara raid, Mr Wheeler said: 'We laid our charges and set them with a 10 minute fuse.
'As we were leaving, one of the squaddies fired two or three shots into the guardroom at one end of the bridge and all the soldiers came running out. I couldn't believe it.
'Soon afterwards our officer said, ''the charges haven't gone off – you'll have to go back''.
'We told him ''you've got to be joking'' and seconds later the bridge blew up.'
The part-time squadron operated from a drill hall, long since demolished, at Governor's Green in Old Portsmouth.
Mr Wheeler, from Southsea, enlisted in the Royal Engineers at the outbreak of the Second World War and was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940.
Posted to north Africa two years later, he caught malaria and ended up in hospital. Unable to rejoin his regiment, he was in a transit camp when a sergeant in the newly-formed SAS – with its now famed winged-sword badge, pictured – came round looking for volunteers.
After six weeks of commando training, the young soldier was in 2 SAS and taking part in 'cloak and dagger' missions behind enemy lines in Italy.
The roll of honour was organised by fellow veteran Major Frank Smith to mark the 50th anniversary of the Portsmouth squadron.
It was dedicated at a service in November by the Rev Leslie Burt, padre to the local branch of the Parachute Regiment Association.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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