A long-range hero
A wireless operator from the old parish of Merthyr near Carmarthen was one of the remarkable men who helped the formation of the Special Air Service (SAS) in 1941. Ron Lewis tells his remarkable story.
Thomas Myrddin Evans of Henfwlch was a signalman in the Long Range Desert Group, which supported audacious and heroic attacks featured in the award-winning BBC television series SAS Rogue Heroes.
Myrddin was part of a small, elite unit of volunteers in the North Africa Campaign, which carried out deep-penetration, covert reconnaissance patrols and intelligence missions behind German and Italian lines.
In November 1941 they were given the task of collecting Captain David Stirling and thirty parachutists who raided airfields west of Tobruk. Twenty-one survivors later became the nucleus of the SAS. Because Myrddin and the Group were experts in navigation they were assigned to guide special forces and secret agents across the Western Desert.
The Long Range Desert Group, or LRDG, known initially as the No 1 Long Range Patrol unit, was founded in 1940 by General Archibald Wavell, Commander of Middle East Command in Alexandria. The idea came from Major Ralph Bagnold, who wanted men who were “energetic, innovative, self-reliant, physically and mentally tough and able to live and fight in seclusion in the Libyan desert”. Radio operators like Myrddin were from the Royal Corps of Signals, skilled in communications and able to maintain and repair their equipment without any outside help.
In December 1941 the LRDG twice ferried the SAS on raids on Axis airfields, destroying 151 aircraft and thirty vehicles. During the second raid, at Sirte, the SAS devised a new method of attacking parked aircraft. Instead of quietly infiltrating the airfield, they drove at speed between rows of aircraft, attacking the planes with machine guns and hand grenades. This helped to disrupt the advance towards Egypt of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, known as the Desert Fox. The raid at Sirte is featured in Series 1, Episode 3 of the Bafta Award winning TV drama series starring Jack O’Connell, Alfie Allen and Dominic West.
Myrddin became a prisoner of war, aged 32, in December 1942. He was killed when an Italian troop ship was torpedoed in January the following year and his sacrifice features on the war memorial in the church of St Martin and St Enfail in Merthyr. He is survived by great-nephews and great-nieces from the local farming community.