Gavin Mortimer (@PhoneyMajor) / X

Gavin Mortimer

5,224 posts

Gavin Mortimer

@PhoneyMajor

Writer and historian with a specialty in wartime special forces. Media enquiries: [email protected]

London and Burgundy

instagram.com/realrogueheroe…

Joined March 2022

Pinned
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Nov 21, 2025
1/2 Delighted to announce I'm partnering with Osprey to write: The Real Rogue Heroes: the wartime SAS in their own words. Drawing on my 25 years of research & scores of veteran interviews, Real Rogue Heroes will go beyond the cliches & caricatures to inside the minds of the men.
6.4K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Aug 20, 2023
1/6 On this day in 1944 Sergeant Gerald Davis of 2SAS was given a choice by the Gestapo: Either he talked or he died He was left alone for 10 minutes to make his decision. Davis lies in Moussey cemetery, eastern France. The inscription on his headstone reads: ‘Loyal Unto Death’.
934K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Apr 19, 2024
1/3 Anders Lassen, VC, MC & two bars was not a man who wasted words. After one SBS raid against a German-occupied Aegean island he submitted his operational report. ‘Landed. Killed Germans. F**ked Off.’ On this day, April 19, in 1944 Lassen & an SBS unit set out for Santorini.
267K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Nov 18, 2023
1/4 This is William Ewart Fairbairn One of the most lethal men of WW2 - despite being in his 50s. He was a close combat instructor at Bill Stirling’s Special Training Centre at Lochailort. Among his specialities were the ‘Bone Crusher’, the ‘Japanese Strangle’ & the ‘Grapevine’.
391K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Dec 3, 2023
1/7 At dawn on December 3 1941 L/Cpl Mike ‘Lofty' Carr (pic) was alone behind enemy lines in Libya. The previous night he’d got separated from his LRDG patrol. Then he saw a Senussi camp. What happened next was a lesson in humanity that Lofty kept with him for all his 101 years.
247K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Oct 15, 2024
1/4 Remembering on this day Sgt Ralph Hay and seven other men of 2SAS, murdered by the Germans in eastern France. A memorial (pic) stands on the site of the crime engraved with the words 'We were good men'. They were the final words of one of the 8, Edwin Weaver, the last to die.
92K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Jan 3, 2025
1/5 Bob Francis (pic) joined 1SAS in 1944 aged 19 & operated in France & Germany. He told me two wonderful anecdotes about Paddy Mayne, which shed much light on the complex character of the great Irishman. The first was when the SAS were training in Darvel, Scotland, spring 1944.
142K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Apr 5, 2024
1/6 Remembering on this day Sgt George Miller & the 'Alimnia Patrol' of the Special Boat Squadron. On April 5 1944 they embarked on a reconnaissance of the island of Alimnia, 5 miles west of Rhodes. The Germans caught, tortured & then executed them. They have no known grave.
189K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Dec 14, 2024
1/3 Paddy Mayne lost his life on this day in 1955. The Belfast Telegraph responded: "It may seem a strange fate that Col. Blair Mayne should have survived so many hazards as a soldier, and at 40 lose his life in a motor accident. But he lived hard in peace, as well as in war...
79K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Jan 12, 2025
1/4 This is Jimmy Hughes, an officer in 2SAS. He should have been executed by the Nazis in accordance with Hitler's Commando Order. He eluded death thanks to a German parachute officer, who helped him escape. Hughes got back to the UK & revealed details of Hitler's infamous Order
52K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
May 18, 2025
1/4 May 18 2010. Remembering on this day Jeff Du Vivier, MM, No11 Commando & SAS, one of the 'Originals'. Jeff lost touch with the SAS post-war. I found him in the phone book when I was researching Stirling's Men & sent a letter to his home in Ayr. Jeff replied on Jan 19 2003.
58K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Jun 6, 2024
¼ June 6 1944. Operation Titanic. The 6 men of 1SAS parachuted into Normandy just after midnight. They came down close to Remilly-sur-Lozon. The 2 officers, Fred Fowles (l) and Norman Poole (r) were separated from their men. The four set off their explosives & then found a hedge.
145K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Jun 3, 2024
1/5 June 3. Spare a thought on this day for six brave men who 80 years ago were transported to Hassells Hall in Bedfordshire, aka ‘Hush-Hush house’. This was their last stop before parachuting into Occupied France. They were all volunteers from 1SAS. One was Lt Norman Poole, pic.
74K
Gavin Mortimer
@PhoneyMajor
Oct 16, 2024
1/3 16 Oct 1944. This is Donald Lewis, 2SAS. He was murdered by the Germans on this day. He was 18. Killed with him was Selwyn Brown, aged 36, a member of 2SAS since its inception in 1943. A French Maquisard – name unknown - also died. In all, 29 SAS were murdered on Op Loyton.
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