George Sydney Herbert Biffin

He joined the Dorset Regiment and initially was billeted in a house in Frome, Somerset. Very little equipment was available and it arrived one truckload at a time, bits of uniform, or rifles, etc.

He joined the Auxiliary Units Scout Section in 1940. He arrived with another soldier who left shortly afterwards. 

He returned to the 5th Battalion the Dorset Regiment in 1943 as the Scout Sections were being reduced in size. From there he was called to London for the 1 SAS recruitment event. He recalled that he decided to join mainly because all his comrades were joining.  

After training in Scotland and Dorset, he was dropped into France as part of Operation Bulbasket. He was dropped off course and landed in a garden near the station in Airvault. With German troops hunting him, he attempted to escape over a bridge but was captured. He was initially tortured, before spending time in jail, uncertain of his fate. Whilst being transferred to a prison camp, his lorry was hit by cannon fire from an allied aircraft and he was severely wounded and admitted to hospital for 5 weeks. In July 1944 he is reported in British Army Casualty Lists as being a prisoner of war in German hands in an unknown location. He was later reported to no longer being a POW. He appears to have spent some time in Mühlhausen. He was freed from captivity right at the end of the war by American troops. 

Although thought to have died at the time of publication of “Operation Bulbasket” by Paul McCue in 1996, he was very much alive. Later editions of the book correct this point and George rejoined the SAS Association and visited France with former comrades.