Damien Lewis

So what happened instead was that two SAS were sent into Taranto in September 1943, the key Italian port, to act in exactly the same role as Paddy Mains.

One SAS enacted stormtroopers to lead the assault and bring the Allies ashore.

100 percent.

It's this is not a task for which all of that brilliant selection and training and lateral thinking is necessary.

You know, this is this is a stormtrooper task.

It's a pathfinder task.

It's not a typical special forces task at all.

Operation Speedwell was one of the few missions that Bill Sterling, you know, got greenlit.

And it was along the vision that he had for the whole of Italy.

I mean, Speedwell was supposed to be proof of concept.

It was supposed to be, you know, Bill Sterling's chance to prove that these kind of operations were.

Eight men were sent in under the command of a absolutely wonderful, brilliant...

A man who was loved by his men, adored by his men.

So Lieutenant Hugh Pinckney.

Fantastic individual.

Just give you one quick anecdote, because this is Hugh Pinckney through and through.

So they're training in North Africa and Algeria.

And a load of guards officers are recruited into the SS.

And pucker guards officers, they arrive.

And, you know, the sense of the dress code of the SS was pretty damn fluid.