Lofty Large
Encyclopedia
Donald "Lofty" Large was a British soldier
and author
.
Having joined the Army
as a boy, Large fought in the Korean War
and was wounded and taken prisoner
at the Battle of Imjin. He spent two years in a prisoner-of-war camp
, where his injuries went untreated and he lost more than a third of his body weight. After his release and rehabilitation, he joined the Special Air Service
(SAS) and went on to serve in various conflicts around the world, hunting communist guerrillas in Malaya
, suppressing rebellions in Oman and Aden
, and conducting deniable cross-border reconnaissance and raids during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.
An imposing figure – he was 6 in 6 in (1.98 m) tall – he was given the nickname "Lofty" after joining the Army.
After his retirement, Large wrote two books about his Army career, preceding such authors as Andy McNab
and Chris Ryan
. Andy McNab has since said that Large and his books were "instrumental in setting the template for future members of the [SAS] Regiment".
, the first child of Joseph Large and his wife Emily (née Pratley). His sister, Janet, was nine years his junior. In 1939, the family moved to a cottage 2 miles (3 km) outside the village of Guiting Power
in the Gloucestershire
Cotswolds
. As a child his father taught him how to shoot
game
; he later said of this experience, "little did I realise I would spend a lot of time, many years later [in the SAS], being trained in exactly that type of instinctive shooting".
Large would later dedicate his first book to "the best parents a man could ask for".
Growing up during the Second World War, and having watched British
and American soldiers
on field exercises in the Cotswold Hills, Large later said that he had always wanted to be a soldier. He also joined the Army Cadet Force
.
as a "band boy" at the age of 15. A lack of vacancies meant that he was unable to join his county regiment, the Gloucestershire Regiment, so he instead joined the Wiltshire Regiment
, with whom he served for five years in England, Germany and Hong Kong. During this time he was given the nickname "Lofty", having reached his adult height of 6 in 6 in (1.98 m). In 1951, he requested a transfer to the Glosters and then volunteered to fight in the Korean War
. After a combat training course in Japan, Large was deployed to the front line.
's position in the low hills above the Imjin River
. The Glosters, as part of the 29th Brigade, were defending routes through the valley that could potentially be used by the Chinese
in a southbound offensive towards Seoul
. On 22 April 1951, they engaged with Chinese troops in the Battle of Imjin.
By the morning of 24 April, B Company had fought off seven assaults before they were able to rejoin the remainder of their battalion
on what became known as Gloster Hill
. By this time the battalion was vastly outnumbered, low on ammunition and cut off from United Nations
lines. Large himself was shot in the left shoulder and, along with most of the remaining Glosters, was forced to surrender.
After a 10-day forced march north, and having received only basic medical attention, Large arrived at a prison camp
outside Chongsung, about 50 miles north east of Sinuiju
. He spent the next two years in the camp and celebrated his 21st birthday there. Throughout this time he had two bullets and at least 18 pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body. To help Large cope with the chronic pain
of his untreated injuries, an American POW
introduced him to marijuana, which grew wild in the area. Although he found it to be a very effective painkiller
, he was alarmed by its psychoactive effects and subsequently tried to limit his use of the drug. During his incarceration Large, like many of his fellow prisoners, also suffered from beri-beri and dysentery
.
In March 1953, a Chinese doctor operated on Large and removed a tracer round from his ribs as a preliminary to his being released as part of an exchange of wounded prisoners. Having weighed 217 pounds (98.4 kg) in March 1951, he had dropped to 136 pounds (61.7 kg) by the time of his release. He also still had very limited movement in his atrophied and wasted left arm and was later told that if he had been treated by a British doctor at the time of his injury he would most likely have had his arm amputated.
Large was one of a batch of 22 exchanged British POWs whose release and subsequent return to Britain became front-page news:The Guardian
newspaper reported that the group had been unaware of the death of King George VI (which had occurred over a year earlier), but were now looking forward to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
. Interviewed after his release, Large described the war as "useless" and said that he believed the communist's claims that the US had engaged in germ warfare
.
For its defence of Gloster Hill in the Battle of Imjin, the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation
. The citation is conferred on units of the armed forces of the United States and of allied nations, and was awarded for "exceptionally outstanding performance of duty and extraordinary heroism in action against the armed enemy ... Every yard of ground they surrendered was covered with enemy dead, until the last gallant soldier of the fighting battalion was over-powered by the final surge of the enemy masses."
After returning to the UK, Large was offered a discharge
on medical grounds, which he declined. He went on to serve briefly in the quartermaster's
stores, as an instructor, and in the regimental police. Throughout this time he worked on regaining his fitness and rehabilitating his arm.
(the British Army's special forces
regiment) and successfully completed the selection course; however, almost immediately afterwards he crashed his motorbike. Having injured his ankle in the crash, he had to repeat selection – this time with one boot two sizes larger than the other in order to accommodate the bandages and swelling. He went on to serve with 22 SAS in Malaya
, Oman
, Borneo
and Aden
.
Large's first operation with the SAS was in Malaya, hunting the Malayan Races Liberation Army
(MRLA) guerrillas engaged in the Malayan Emergency
uprising. By the time of Large's involvement there was little communist activity and, despite months of jungle patrols and encounters with leeches, scorpions, civet cats
and tigers, he never had any contact with MRLA guerrillas.
While suppressing a rebellion in Oman in 1958, Large infamously lost his temper with a recalcitrant donkey. Recalling the incident in a 2003 interview, he said:
Several weeks later, in January 1959, Large was part of the "A" and "D" Squadron assault on the Jebel Akhdar
. This entailed a 2500 metres (8,202.1 ft) overnight ascent of the south side of the jebel
, with each soldier carrying 120 lbs of kit. Having completed the ascent the SAS were able to surprise and defeat the rebels, who had previously held the plateau as a virtually impregnable stronghold.
During the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in Borneo, Large took part in Operation Claret
. As the leader of a four-man SAS patrol, he spent up to two weeks at a time hidden in the jungle on deniable incursions into Indonesia
, performing reconnaissance
or ambushing Indonesian forces.
While hidden on the banks of the Sungei Koemba River during one of these incursions, Large and his patrol had the opportunity to assassinate Colonel Leonardus Moerdani, the commander of the Indonesian special forces
in the area (and later Commander-in-Chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces and subsequently Indonesia's Minister of Defence and Security), who was passing by on a river boat. However, at the last moment Large spotted a woman on the boat. He later described the incident:
For his service in Borneo, he was mentioned in despatches.
Parachuting
was an important part of SAS training and operations, but it was not an experience that Large enjoyed. His considerable bulk meant that he descended far too quickly to have any chance of a comfortable landing, added to which he suffered from a fear of heights
. Despite this, he eventually qualified as a parachute instructor, although the footnote on his course report read, "not suited to parachuting – either in size or inclination."
In his memoirs Large recalls that the last shots he fired on active duty were warning shots. Fired at long range at the ground a few feet in front of a local woman, they were intended to dissuade her from heading into "certain danger". Despite firing increasingly close to the woman's feet, she continued forward, moving out of sight, only to reappear moments later leading the previously unseen bull which she had been intent on retrieving – "What a player! God help any poor son-in-law she might have."
Large spent the final years of his 27-year Army career as an instructor with 23 SAS Regiment (one of the SAS's two reserve regiments), eventually leaving the Army in 1973 as a squadron sergeant major and warrant officer class 2.
Andy McNab
, who joined the SAS 11 years after Large's departure, has written about Large's enduring impact on the Regiment:
. She wrote to him five times a week during his captivity in Chongsung, although only about 90 of these letters were actually delivered to Large. They eventually married in 1955 and afterwards lived in an Army rental property on the top floor of a farmhouse in Longford, on the outskirts of Gloucester
. In 1960 they moved with the Regiment to Hereford
, where they later had two children, Andy and Donna.
. Having earned a heavy goods vehicle
driving licence and a qualified testing officer's certificate during his time in the Army, he spent the last 14 years of his working life as a driving instructor.
He wrote two books about his time in the Army: One Man's SAS and One Man's War in Korea, and was one of the first non-commissioned officer
s (NCOs) to write about the SAS, preceding such soldiers-turned-authors as Andy McNab and Chris Ryan
. A third book, Soldier Against the Odds: From Korean War to SAS, consisted of revised versions of his first two books together with some additional material. Andy McNab has said that "[Large's first two books] were recommended reading for Regiment candidates. He was instrumental in setting the template for future members of the Regiment."
In his seventies, Large, along with Pete Scholey, returned to the Borneo jungle as part of a 2003 Channel 4
documentary about the history of the SAS, taking the camera crew to the exact spot on the bank of the Sungei Koemba River where his patrol had successfully ambushed an Indonesian Army river boat in 1965.
Having been ill with leukaemia for three years, he died aged 76 at St Michael's Hospice
, Hereford. His funeral was held on 1 November 2006 at St Martin's Church (which has a long association with the SAS).
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Having joined the Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
as a boy, Large fought in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and was wounded and taken prisoner
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
at the Battle of Imjin. He spent two years in a prisoner-of-war camp
Prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of combatants captured by their enemy in time of war, and is similar to an internment camp which is used for civilian populations. A prisoner of war is generally a soldier, sailor, or airman who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or...
, where his injuries went untreated and he lost more than a third of his body weight. After his release and rehabilitation, he joined the Special Air Service
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
(SAS) and went on to serve in various conflicts around the world, hunting communist guerrillas in Malaya
Malayan Emergency
The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army , the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960....
, suppressing rebellions in Oman and Aden
Aden Emergency
The Aden Emergency was an insurgency against the British crown forces in the British controlled territories of South Arabia which now form part of the Yemen. Partly inspired by Nasser's pan Arab nationalism, it began on 10 December 1963 with the throwing of a grenade at a gathering of British...
, and conducting deniable cross-border reconnaissance and raids during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.
An imposing figure – he was 6 in 6 in (1.98 m) tall – he was given the nickname "Lofty" after joining the Army.
After his retirement, Large wrote two books about his Army career, preceding such authors as Andy McNab
Andy McNab
Sergeant ‘Andy McNab’ DCM MM is the pseudonym of an English novelist and former SAS operative and soldier.McNab came into public prominence in 1993, when he published his account of the failed Special Air Service patrol, Bravo Two Zero for which he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in...
and Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan
Sergeant ‘Chris Ryan’ MM is the pseudonym of a former British Special Forces operative and soldier turned novelist...
. Andy McNab has since said that Large and his books were "instrumental in setting the template for future members of the [SAS] Regiment".
Early life
Large was born in OxfordshireOxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, the first child of Joseph Large and his wife Emily (née Pratley). His sister, Janet, was nine years his junior. In 1939, the family moved to a cottage 2 miles (3 km) outside the village of Guiting Power
Guiting Power
Guiting Power is a small Gloucestershire village in the Cotswolds, England.-Location:It is situated on the slopes above a small valley . There was a late Anglo-Saxon settlement on this site, when it was called Gyting Broc...
in the Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
Cotswolds
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
. As a child his father taught him how to shoot
Hunting and shooting in the United Kingdom
Hunting and shooting have been practised for many centuries in the United Kingdom and, in some areas, are a major part of British rural culture...
game
Game (food)
Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
; he later said of this experience, "little did I realise I would spend a lot of time, many years later [in the SAS], being trained in exactly that type of instinctive shooting".
Large would later dedicate his first book to "the best parents a man could ask for".
Growing up during the Second World War, and having watched British
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and American soldiers
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
on field exercises in the Cotswold Hills, Large later said that he had always wanted to be a soldier. He also joined the Army Cadet Force
Army Cadet Force
The Army Cadet Force is a British youth organisation that offers progressive training in a multitude of the subjects from military training to adventurous training and first aid, at the same time as promoting achievement, discipline, and good citizenship, to boys and girls aged 12 to 18 and 9...
.
Army career
Large joined the British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
as a "band boy" at the age of 15. A lack of vacancies meant that he was unable to join his county regiment, the Gloucestershire Regiment, so he instead joined the Wiltshire Regiment
Wiltshire Regiment
The Wiltshire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 62nd Regiment of Foot and the 99th Duke of Edinburgh's Regiment of Foot....
, with whom he served for five years in England, Germany and Hong Kong. During this time he was given the nickname "Lofty", having reached his adult height of 6 in 6 in (1.98 m). In 1951, he requested a transfer to the Glosters and then volunteered to fight in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. After a combat training course in Japan, Large was deployed to the front line.
Korean War
In March 1951, along with half a dozen other newly badged Glosters, Large was sent to B CompanyCompany (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...
's position in the low hills above the Imjin River
Imjin River
The Imjin River is a river of North and South Korea. It flows from North to South, crossing the Demilitarized Zone and joining the Han River downstream of Seoul, very near the Yellow Sea.- History :...
. The Glosters, as part of the 29th Brigade, were defending routes through the valley that could potentially be used by the Chinese
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...
in a southbound offensive towards Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
. On 22 April 1951, they engaged with Chinese troops in the Battle of Imjin.
By the morning of 24 April, B Company had fought off seven assaults before they were able to rejoin the remainder of their battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
on what became known as Gloster Hill
Gloster Hill
The Gloucester Valley Battle Monument is a memorial in South Korea that commemorates the actions of the Gloucestershire Regiment during the Battle of the Imjin River in 1951.-Hill 235:...
. By this time the battalion was vastly outnumbered, low on ammunition and cut off from United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
lines. Large himself was shot in the left shoulder and, along with most of the remaining Glosters, was forced to surrender.
After a 10-day forced march north, and having received only basic medical attention, Large arrived at a prison camp
Prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of combatants captured by their enemy in time of war, and is similar to an internment camp which is used for civilian populations. A prisoner of war is generally a soldier, sailor, or airman who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or...
outside Chongsung, about 50 miles north east of Sinuiju
Sinuiju
Sinŭiju is a city in North Korea, neighboring with Dandong City, China via international border and is the capital of North P'yŏngan Province...
. He spent the next two years in the camp and celebrated his 21st birthday there. Throughout this time he had two bullets and at least 18 pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body. To help Large cope with the chronic pain
Chronic pain
Chronic pain has several different meanings in medicine. Traditionally, the distinction between acute and chronic pain has relied upon an arbitrary interval of time from onset; the two most commonly used markers being 3 months and 6 months since the initiation of pain, though some theorists and...
of his untreated injuries, an American POW
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
introduced him to marijuana, which grew wild in the area. Although he found it to be a very effective painkiller
Analgesic
An analgesic is any member of the group of drugs used to relieve pain . The word analgesic derives from Greek an- and algos ....
, he was alarmed by its psychoactive effects and subsequently tried to limit his use of the drug. During his incarceration Large, like many of his fellow prisoners, also suffered from beri-beri and dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
.
In March 1953, a Chinese doctor operated on Large and removed a tracer round from his ribs as a preliminary to his being released as part of an exchange of wounded prisoners. Having weighed 217 pounds (98.4 kg) in March 1951, he had dropped to 136 pounds (61.7 kg) by the time of his release. He also still had very limited movement in his atrophied and wasted left arm and was later told that if he had been treated by a British doctor at the time of his injury he would most likely have had his arm amputated.
Large was one of a batch of 22 exchanged British POWs whose release and subsequent return to Britain became front-page news:The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper reported that the group had been unaware of the death of King George VI (which had occurred over a year earlier), but were now looking forward to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was the ceremony in which the newly ascended monarch, Elizabeth II, was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ceylon, and Pakistan, as well as taking on the role of Head of the Commonwealth...
. Interviewed after his release, Large described the war as "useless" and said that he believed the communist's claims that the US had engaged in germ warfare
Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War
Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War were raised by the governments of People's Republic of China and North Korea against the United States...
.
Presidential Unit Citation (US)
The Presidential Unit Citation, originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the Armed Forces of the United States and allies for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy on or after 7 December 1941...
. The citation is conferred on units of the armed forces of the United States and of allied nations, and was awarded for "exceptionally outstanding performance of duty and extraordinary heroism in action against the armed enemy ... Every yard of ground they surrendered was covered with enemy dead, until the last gallant soldier of the fighting battalion was over-powered by the final surge of the enemy masses."
After returning to the UK, Large was offered a discharge
Military discharge
A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve.-United States:Discharge or separation should not be confused with retirement; career U.S...
on medical grounds, which he declined. He went on to serve briefly in the quartermaster's
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
stores, as an instructor, and in the regimental police. Throughout this time he worked on regaining his fitness and rehabilitating his arm.
Special Air Service
In 1957, wanting to escape the "stupidities of drill" and the "bullshit" of the regular Army, Large volunteered for the SASSpecial Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
(the British Army's special forces
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
regiment) and successfully completed the selection course; however, almost immediately afterwards he crashed his motorbike. Having injured his ankle in the crash, he had to repeat selection – this time with one boot two sizes larger than the other in order to accommodate the bandages and swelling. He went on to serve with 22 SAS in Malaya
Federation of Malaya
The Federation of Malaya is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957...
, Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
, Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
and Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
.
Malayan Races Liberation Army
The Malayan Races Liberation Army was the name given by British security forces to a combatant in the Malayan Emergency, an insurrection and guerrilla war against the British and Malayan administration from 1948-1960 in what is now Malaysia....
(MRLA) guerrillas engaged in the Malayan Emergency
Malayan Emergency
The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army , the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960....
uprising. By the time of Large's involvement there was little communist activity and, despite months of jungle patrols and encounters with leeches, scorpions, civet cats
Leopard Cat
The leopard cat is a small wild cat of South and East Asia. Since 2002 it has been listed as Least Concern by IUCN as it is widely distributed but threatened by habitat loss and hunting in parts of its range...
and tigers, he never had any contact with MRLA guerrillas.
While suppressing a rebellion in Oman in 1958, Large infamously lost his temper with a recalcitrant donkey. Recalling the incident in a 2003 interview, he said:
All the donkey handler did was laugh. Just as I turned round, the donkey's face was right by me and it shook its head and I stuck a punch in among it somewhere, and the donkey went down like it was shot ... much to my amazement. But not to as much amazement as the donkey handler's – I've never seen a bloke sober up so quick. It was a hole in one: the donkey struggled to its feet and looked really willing to go up the hill and the donkey handler lost his laugh.
Several weeks later, in January 1959, Large was part of the "A" and "D" Squadron assault on the Jebel Akhdar
Jebel Akhdar (Oman)
The Jebel Akhdar, Jabal Akhdar or Al Jabal Al Akhdar , also known as the camals hideout, is part of the Al Hajar Mountains range in Oman, which extends about 300 km northwest to southeast, between 50-100 km inland from the Gulf of Oman coast. It is one of Oman’s most spectacular areas...
. This entailed a 2500 metres (8,202.1 ft) overnight ascent of the south side of the jebel
Jabal
Variations of words jabal, jabel, jebal, jebel, jbel, djebel, jibal, etc. have been used for the Arabic word "jah-bahl", 'جبل', meaning "mountain, hill or slope"...
, with each soldier carrying 120 lbs of kit. Having completed the ascent the SAS were able to surprise and defeat the rebels, who had previously held the plateau as a virtually impregnable stronghold.
During the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in Borneo, Large took part in Operation Claret
Operation Claret
Claret was the code name given to operations conducted from about July 1964 until July 1966 from East Malaysia across the border in Indonesian Kalimantan during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation. They were instigated by the Director of Borneo Operations Major General Walter Walker with the...
. As the leader of a four-man SAS patrol, he spent up to two weeks at a time hidden in the jungle on deniable incursions into Indonesia
Kalimantan
In English, the term Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, while in Indonesian, the term "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo....
, performing reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
or ambushing Indonesian forces.
While hidden on the banks of the Sungei Koemba River during one of these incursions, Large and his patrol had the opportunity to assassinate Colonel Leonardus Moerdani, the commander of the Indonesian special forces
Kopassus
Kopassus is an Indonesian Army special forces group that conducts special operations missions for the Indonesian government, such as direct action, unconventional warfare, sabotage, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and intelligence gathering.Kopassus was founded on April 16, 1952...
in the area (and later Commander-in-Chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces and subsequently Indonesia's Minister of Defence and Security), who was passing by on a river boat. However, at the last moment Large spotted a woman on the boat. He later described the incident:
There could have been other women and there could have been children on the boat. And we don't do that sort of target, so ... it went. And it was in fact the very man we'd been looking for for three months: Colonel Moerdani of the Indonesian paracommando unit, and he was on the end of my rifle and I let him go – but ... you can't blat women and kids.
For his service in Borneo, he was mentioned in despatches.
Parachuting
Parachuting
Parachuting, also known as skydiving, is the action of exiting an aircraft and returning to earth with the aid of a parachute. It may or may not involve a certain amount of free-fall, a time during which the parachute has not been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal...
was an important part of SAS training and operations, but it was not an experience that Large enjoyed. His considerable bulk meant that he descended far too quickly to have any chance of a comfortable landing, added to which he suffered from a fear of heights
Acrophobia
Acrophobia is an extreme or irrational fear of heights. It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort that share both similar etiology and options for treatment.Most people experience a degree of natural fear when exposed to heights, especially if there is little...
. Despite this, he eventually qualified as a parachute instructor, although the footnote on his course report read, "not suited to parachuting – either in size or inclination."
In his memoirs Large recalls that the last shots he fired on active duty were warning shots. Fired at long range at the ground a few feet in front of a local woman, they were intended to dissuade her from heading into "certain danger". Despite firing increasingly close to the woman's feet, she continued forward, moving out of sight, only to reappear moments later leading the previously unseen bull which she had been intent on retrieving – "What a player! God help any poor son-in-law she might have."
Large spent the final years of his 27-year Army career as an instructor with 23 SAS Regiment (one of the SAS's two reserve regiments), eventually leaving the Army in 1973 as a squadron sergeant major and warrant officer class 2.
Legacy
In his book SAS Heroes: Remarkable Soldiers, Extraordinary Men, former SAS soldier Pete Scholey describes Large as "simply the finest soldier [I] had ever met ... an inspiration to those around him ... with an admirable sense of fair play".Andy McNab
Andy McNab
Sergeant ‘Andy McNab’ DCM MM is the pseudonym of an English novelist and former SAS operative and soldier.McNab came into public prominence in 1993, when he published his account of the failed Special Air Service patrol, Bravo Two Zero for which he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in...
, who joined the SAS 11 years after Large's departure, has written about Large's enduring impact on the Regiment:
Being like Lofty was something I aspired to without realising it. When I joined the Regiment I was told that the best way to survive those first years in the Sabre squadron was to pick out someone who you thought you would like to be. Shut up, watch and listen. For me there were a number of the 'old and bold' who fitted that requirement. It wasn't until later in my service that I learned that most of them, as newly 'badged' members to a squadron, had picked Lofty.
Personal life
Before leaving for Hong Kong with the Wiltshire Regiment in 1951, Large had met Ann, who was working as a nanny at the Regiment's depot in DevizesDevizes
Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The town is about southeast of Chippenham and about east of Trowbridge.Devizes serves as a centre for banks, solicitors and shops, with a large open market place where a market is held once a week...
. She wrote to him five times a week during his captivity in Chongsung, although only about 90 of these letters were actually delivered to Large. They eventually married in 1955 and afterwards lived in an Army rental property on the top floor of a farmhouse in Longford, on the outskirts of Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
. In 1960 they moved with the Regiment to Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
, where they later had two children, Andy and Donna.
Later years
After leaving the Army Large worked in the UK and the Middle EastMiddle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Having earned a heavy goods vehicle
Large Goods Vehicle
A large goods vehicle , is the European Union term for any truck with a gross combination mass of over...
driving licence and a qualified testing officer's certificate during his time in the Army, he spent the last 14 years of his working life as a driving instructor.
He wrote two books about his time in the Army: One Man's SAS and One Man's War in Korea, and was one of the first non-commissioned officer
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
s (NCOs) to write about the SAS, preceding such soldiers-turned-authors as Andy McNab and Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan
Sergeant ‘Chris Ryan’ MM is the pseudonym of a former British Special Forces operative and soldier turned novelist...
. A third book, Soldier Against the Odds: From Korean War to SAS, consisted of revised versions of his first two books together with some additional material. Andy McNab has said that "[Large's first two books] were recommended reading for Regiment candidates. He was instrumental in setting the template for future members of the Regiment."
In his seventies, Large, along with Pete Scholey, returned to the Borneo jungle as part of a 2003 Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary about the history of the SAS, taking the camera crew to the exact spot on the bank of the Sungei Koemba River where his patrol had successfully ambushed an Indonesian Army river boat in 1965.
Having been ill with leukaemia for three years, he died aged 76 at St Michael's Hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...
, Hereford. His funeral was held on 1 November 2006 at St Martin's Church (which has a long association with the SAS).
External links
- Part 1 and Part 2 of Channel 4 documentary in which Large is interviewed
- The chapter devoted to Large in Pete Scholey's book SAS Heroes: Remarkable Soldiers, Extraordinary Men
- Pathe and BBC newsreel footage of the arrival (on 4 May 1953) of Large's group of 22 exchanged POWs at RAF LynehamRAF LynehamRAF Lyneham is a Royal Air Force station in Wiltshire, England. It was the home of all the Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Royal Air Force before they were relocated to RAF Brize Norton.The station was also home to No...
in WiltshireWiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...