SAS: Rogue Heroes – the Real-Life Paddy Mayne Controversy

A boxer, a Northern Ireland rugby star and reportedly an excellent shot, Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne went into the Second World War with many ideal qualities for a soldier, and also had a reputation as a rambunctious personality.

He proved to be a gift to the newly formed SAS, pioneering the use of military jeeps to conduct surprise hit-and-run raids to destroy enemy aircraft and petrol dumps, and leading several successful missions, some of which we’ll see in the course of SAS: Rogue Heroes. These earned him the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) with three bars (each of which are added to the original DSO), making him one of only seven British servicemen to receive this award four times during World War Two. 

Some say Mayne was personally responsible for destroying 100 aircraft, and he’s reputed to have destroyed more German planes during the Second World War than the RAF’s top ace.

After one particularly perilous mission in Germany in 1945, in which Mayne drove a jeep – all guns blazing – in full view of the enemy to rescue two wounded comrades, clearing a path for a Canadian division to advance as he did so, he was recommended for the Victoria Cross. His recommendation was supported by witness statements, including from Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, celebrating his ‘brilliant military leadership and cool calculating courage’.

And yet six months later his Victoria Cross was downgraded to his fourth DSO instead. It’s not known who took this decision, or why, but it remains a wartime controversy that is still ongoing. 

Some say it’s down to Mayne’s reputation as a troublemaker (especially after drinking). This is certainly how he’s introduced in SAS: Rogue Heroes, breaking out of prison in Cairo by dispensing with not one but three soldiers with a wince-inducing ferocity. Even SAS founder David Stirling (played by Connor Swindells in the drama) is said to have thought Mayne overstepped the mark at times, in particular when he reportedly gunned down up to 30 unarmed soldiers in the Libyan desert in 1941. Others argue that downgrading a VC was a standard practice, and Mayne was not alone in receiving this treatment.