David Stirling; Founded Elite British Military Unit

David Stirling, who founded Britain’s elite Special Air Service in World War II, a unit that relied on stealth and skill to kill Germans and, years later, to free hostages, has died, his biographer reported.

Stirling was 74 when he died Sunday night in the London Clinic after what Alan Hoe, a former SAS major and Stirling’s biographer, described only as a long illness.

The SAS, whose motto is “Who Dares Wins,” has maintained its reputation for swift, clandestine and effective action. One of its more recent exploits was its assault on the Iranian Embassy in London on May 5, 1980, to end a siege by gunmen holding hostages.

Born Archibald David Stirling, the son of a Scottish brigadier general, he joined the Scots Guards at the outbreak of World War II. Six months later he transferred to No. 3 commando group of the Brigade of Guards and went with them to the Middle East.

He persuaded military authorities that “an army within an army” was needed to make swift, secret raids against the enemy. They gave him six officers and 60 enlisted men to try out his theories in the Western Desert.

Stirling became known as the “Phantom Major” among the German troops of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps after destroying 250 enemy aircraft and scores of fuel and ammunition dumps in attacks on the enemy rear.

His tactics of operating so far behind German lines that his men could virtually walk into their targets--and then “retreating” even farther into enemy territory against all expectations--helped gain him legendary status.

In 1943, Stirling was taken prisoner in Tunisia. He escaped, was recaptured and was transferred to Colditz Castle prison camp, where he remained for the rest of the war.

Stirling was discharged from the army as a colonel and retained close links with the regiment. He also became head of a series of private armies and security organizations, many in Africa.