Major 'Gentleman Jim' Almonds, who has died aged 91, was the oldest surviving member of the original complement of the SAS; he was subsequently commissioned in the field after winning the MM twice and twice escaping from a PoW camp.
In September 1942 Almonds, then a sergeant with "L" detachment SAS, took part in a pre-dawn raid on Benghazi, Libya. He had the job of driving a jeep packed with ammunition and limpet mines into the harbour, intending to scuttle a ship and deprive Rommel of the use of the port.
Dawn was breaking when the convoy of some 200 men and 40 Jeeps came to a halt in front of a pole barrier on the outskirts of the town. Almonds, who was in the leading Jeep, drove straight through it, but was then confronted by a heavy chain stretched across the road.
At that moment, the lights came up and fire poured out of both sides of the track ahead of them. Almonds's Jeep was hit in the petrol tank and burst into flames. He just managed to get clear, scramble through some barbed wire and roll into a ditch before it exploded.
He and a comrade lay low to avoid being caught in crossfire between the Italians and the retreating SAS. Then, as the light grew stronger, they found themselves in an area of sparse cover. Behind them was the army barracks; in front, a line of Italian soldiers with fixed bayonets searching the scrub.
The two fugitives decided to give themselves up. Almonds received a rigorous interrogation. When he refused to talk, he was made to kneel down in an open truck with both hands shackled to an ankle and was driven around the town and shown off to the populace.
Almonds was transferred to Italy and taken to Campo 51 at Altamura. In February 1943 he and three comrades were engaged in work outside the compound.
One day, just before dark, the four men overcame the officer supervising them and two guards. They gagged them, tied them up with parcel string, filled a sack with provisions, clambered over the perimeter wall and got clear. They followed the coast south, living off the land, aiming for the Gulf of Taranto. When one of them became very ill, however, they gave themselves up and were returned to camp.
Almonds was moved to Campo 65, Gravina, where he was kept in solitary confinement and allowed no exercise. His cell was windowless and tiny, and in order to keep his mind active, he designed a 32-ft ocean-going ketch in his head. Many years later, in Ghana, he built the boat of his imagination and sailed it back to England.
In July, after the Allied landings in the south, Almonds was sent to Campo 70, Monturano, near Ancona. In September, following the Italian Armistice, the camp commandant asked him to reconnoitre the Port of San Giórgio for German troops. When Almonds reported to him by telephone, he discovered that the Germans had taken over the camp and he disobeyed the commandant's order to return.
He trekked south, dodging patrols and sleeping in hay-lofts, and then joined up with an American flier who had been shot down. One night, walking along a dirt track, Almonds found that it had been mined by the retreating Germans.
He committed to memory the location, extent and density of the field so that he could warn the advancing Allies. When he reached the American lines in October, intelligence officers told him that the information had probably saved many lives. He was awarded a Bar to his MM.
John Edward Almonds, the son of a smallholder, was born on August 6 1914 at Stixwould, Lincolnshire. Boats fascinated him and, aged 10, he built his first craft, a punt made out of a bacon box with toffee tins as outriggers.
He left the village school at 14 and, in 1932, enlisted in the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards. In 1936 he joined the Bristol police force but, after the outbreak of the Second World War, he was called up in the rank of sergeant and posted to the Guards depot at Pirbright. He qualified as a weapons instructor but the prospect of training recruits did not appeal to him, and he joined the newly-formed No 8 Commando.
After intensive training in Scotland, Almonds went to Egypt as part of "Layforce" but the brigade was subsequently disbanded, and part of No 8 Commando joined the besieged garrison at Tobruk. He, Jock Lewes and three comrades went into no-man's land at moonrise to reconnoitre the enemy positions.
During the blistering heat of the day, they tested their skills and endurance at remaining hidden close to the Axis lines and pioneered the tactics that would form the basis of the training of special forces in the future.
In September 1941 they were recruited by David Stirling and joined "L" Detachment SAS at Kabrit. At Stirling's request, Almonds constructed jumping towers for parachute training.
"L" Detachment subsequently joined up with the Long Range Desert Group at Jalo Oasis, and in December they raided the aerodrome at Nofilia, Libya. Most of the enemy aircraft had been moved at the last moment but they destroyed those that remained.
They were then attacked by Messerschmitts and Stukas; Captain Lewes was killed and all but one of their trucks were destroyed. Almonds took command and, after a hazardous drive, got them back to base with only one casualty. He was awarded his first MM.
In 1942 Almonds took part in a series of raids, including attacks on the airfields at Sidi Barrani and Sidi Haneish; in the latter, 25 enemy aircraft were destroyed and 15 damaged.
After reaching the Allied lines in October 1943, Almonds returned to England. He was put in charge of security at Chequers but he hated this sedentary job and, in February 1944, he rejoined 1 SAS Regiment at Darvel, Scotland.
On the night of June 14 Almonds was parachuted into France in Operation "Gain" as squadron sergeant-major of "D" Squadron 1st SAS. He dislocated his knee on landing, but the following day he covered 12 miles of rough terrain to lay explosives on the railway line between Orléans and Montargis.
In July, Almonds was in the town of Montargis reconnoitring for an attack on a factory when his Jeep was stuck in slow moving traffic and he found himself in the middle of a large German convoy. He was in uniform, but he had taken the precaution of turning his red beret inside out and drove through two road blocks without being detected.
By the end of Operation Gain, 16 railway lines had been put out of action and two locomotives and 46 trucks destroyed. When the Americans linked up with them, they refused to believe that Almonds had acquired an American Jeep legitimately and he was marched off to General George Patton.
"If you're Brits you'll be OK. If not, you'll be shot," Patton told him.
Almonds was handed over to a British liaison officer and managed to persuade him of his bona fides. For his part in Operation Gain, Almonds was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star.
In September, Paddy Mayne took Almonds to see Montgomery in the Field Marshal's caravan. Mayne's strong recommendation that Almonds be granted a commission was approved after the briefest of interviews. Almonds finished the war in Norway as a captain.
After a spell on secondment with the British Military Mission to Ethiopia, Almonds served with the Eritrean Police Field Force and then returned to the SAS. He retired from the Army in 1961 as a major and went back to the house in Stixwould where he was born. His passion for making things never left him.
Jim Almonds died on August 20.
He married, in 1939, May Lock, who predeceased him; he is survived by their son, who followed him into the SAS, and twin daughters, both of whom served in the Army.
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