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RAIDING SUPPORT REGIMENT
The Author - Simon Dawkins is the grandson of the late Sgt. Robert Parkes RA who served in the RSR from Spring 1944 and saw action in Greece, the Adriatic Islands and Athens.
In the summer of 1943 Raiding Forces was given the responsibility of harassing Nazi forces in the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, and so preventing them from being used to reinforce North West Europe when the cross-channel invasion took place.
To achieve this and to subdue enemy garrisons it was realised that they would need more firepower than just Brens and Stens.
During the conference on October 1943 it was decided that a new unit would be formed. Its role was threefold: to support raiding forces, to bring heavy weapons to the aid of resistance groups
in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia, and to carry out irregular warfare such as blowing up bridges, roads, fuel and ammo dumps.
This new unit was named The Raiding Support Regiment which didn't exactly stretch the conferer's imagination. To take part in commando raids, RSR men and weapons had to be able to land from the sea, and to infiltrate to support Balkan resistance groups in their mountain strongholds, meant they had to be capable of landing from the sky.
A call for parachute volunteers for "duties of a hazardous nature" was issued throughout the Middle East and as a result over 3,000 officers and men from 60 different regiments quickly volunteered. The Regiment was born at a camp at Azzib, Palestine (the same location as the 1943 base of the RSR's sister unit the Special Raiding Squadron, who were originally L Detachment SAS Brigade).
Volunteers to the RSR were put through a tough physical training programme and also 24 hour mountain marches under heavy loads. They were then trained as parachutists and organised into a headquarters and five batteries.
- A - Battery - 12 x Vickers and Spandau medium machine guns.
- B - Battery - 18 x 3" mortars.
- C - Battery - 18 x Browning .50 heavy machine guns.
- D - Battery - 4 x Italian 47mm anti-tank guns.
- E - Battery - 8 x mountain pack (75mm US Howitzers).
In February 1944 C Battery was sent to support 2 Commando in the defence of Vis and once the island was secured C Battery and a troop from E Battery supported raids from Vis against the Yugoslav mainland.
In the spring of 1944 the regiment moved it's base to Bari, Italy and from here the RSR helped support raids into enemy held territory. These operations were carried out by the remaining troop of E Battery and by one troop from each of B and D Batteries.
One of the largest of these raids was one carried out on the Albanian mainland in support of the resistance in that area. In all 180 men from the RSR with 4 x 75mm guns, 4 x anti-tank guns, 6 x medium machine guns and 6 x mortars supported the Commandos and the great benefit of this raid was that the Nazis had to transfer many soldiers from Greece to replace those that were lost to this raid.
All of these raids were launhced from the sea. Whilst these raids were taking place other RSR elements were gradually infiltrating into Greece so that they could carry out their main job of harassing the Nazis with the resistance and sometimes on their own.
The major part of these operations started in September 1944 and by the end of November 1944 the 185 men of the RSR had destroyed 17 bridges, blown up 6 roads, wrecked hundreds of metres of railway line on 18 different occasions, shot up and derailed 5 trains, blew up 5 petrol and ammo dumps, knocked out 150 vehicles and 60 horsedrawn carts, destroyed a dam and a mine and killed 300 enemy. RSR casualties: 4 killed, 4 wounded and 6 taken prisoner.
Similar operations were also carried out in Yugoslavia.
After the Nazis had left Greece the RSR's so called friends (the Greek Communist Andartes-ELAS) attempted to take over Greece using weapons the allies had supplied them to use against the Nazis.
The ensuing civil war lasted 5 to 6 weeks where the RSR (using only Brens, Stens and medium machine guns) helped the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade defeat ELAS. The fighting was especially nasty and consisted mainly of street fighting and clearance of buildings in the Greek capital of Athens.
The RSR sustained more casualties from their "friends" than from their recently departed enemy:
5 killed and 13 wounded.
After the Greek operations the RSR and SBS supported the Yugoslav Partisans during the raids against the Northern Adriatic Islands and they both took part in the Commandos diversionary battles at Lake Commachio, Italy which allowed the 8th Army to break out through the
Argenta Gap.
Three months after the war in Europe had finished the RSR was disbanded, but during its short life it certainly lived up to its motto "Quit you Like Men".
The RSR's unique cap badge was designed by a Captain D C Rose RA after the Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Sir Thomas Devitt announced a competition to design it and was open to all ranks.
It features a winged mailed fist (armed help from the air) grasping a bare hand (coming to the aid of local forces) raised from a castle turret (beleagued in their mountain stronghold).
The unit also wore the SAS blue parachute wings and beige beret and it is worth noting that its brigade HQ Raiding Forces was previously part of 1 SAS as was its sister units the Special Raiding Squadron, Special Boat Service and the Greek Sacred Regiment.
Its other sister unit (Long Range Desert Group) was attached to 1 SAS. The HQ Squadron Personnel (Raiding Forces) wore the winged dagger cap badge which was the main Raiding Forces insignia.
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