Ingenious mechanic and veteran of Popski’s Private Army
Jim Spencer was a Canadian veteran of the Long Range Desert Group that successfully raided to the rear of Rommel’s Afrika Korps in 1942-43. Having impressed Vladimir Peniakoff with his skill in emergency motor repairs, he later transferred to the Russian émigré’s own unit: Number 1 Demolition Squadron or “Popski’s Private Army”.
During a combined LRDG/PPA patrol to find a route for Montgomery’s left hook round the Mareth Line in Tunisia, in January 1943, Peniakoff’s jeep hit a rock, ramming the sump up against the crankshaft. Spencer removed the sump, battered out the dent and sealed the cracks by soldering on a flattened-out can of sliced peaches which he had just finished eating. Peniakoff was delighted by his ingenuity.
Three days later the patrol reached the Wadi Zem Zem where the track wound through a maze of 8ft-high thorn bushes. The LRDG patrol commander, Captain Ken Lazarus, and Peniakoff went forward to investigate suspected movement, so the patrol dispersed its vehicles ready for a brew-up. Within minutes they were under fire from a German armoured patrol.
Spencer and a Rhodesian LRDG member manning 0.5-inch Browning machineguns stopped the leading armoured car and set it on fire. When the rest of the enemy column dismounted and began an enveloping movement, legging it for the wadi rim was the only option and, miraculously, almost everyone made it. The survivors began the long trek back to the Zella oasis only to be picked up by Lazarus and Peniakoff returning from their reconnaissance. A few days later a fresh patrol found the required route that was later successfully exploited.
Following the surrender of German and Italian forces in North Africa in May 1943, most of Peniakoff’s men were incorporated into either the LRDG, sent to Lebanon to train for mountain warfare, or into Lieutenant-Colonel William Stirling’s 2nd Special Air Service. Left with only a handful of desert stalwarts, Peniakoff began recruiting afresh and invited Spencer to join him for the Italian campaign.
Spencer was one of two Canadians accepted and he served with Captain Jean Caneri’s patrol throughout the long slog up the Italian peninsula and the bitter winter of 1944-45. They ended the campaign sailing their jeeps by vehicle landing craft into Venice, and Spencer recalled driving round St Mark’s Square.
Richard James Spencer was born in Birkenhead but his family emigrated to Vancouver Island. He returned to England to enlist as a vehicle mechanic soon after the outbreak of war, transferring to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1942. On demobilisation he returned to Vancouver to work in the Alberni Pulp and Paper Mill until his retirement. I n later years he became a member of the Friends of Popski’s Private Army. He is survived by his wife, Melva, and one son. A daughter predeceased him.
Richard James Spencer, Special Forces REME fitter, was born on April 13, 1919. He died on July 29, 2013 aged 94
General Sir Michael Wilkes
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Officer of great ability and charm who played a decisive role in shaping Britain’s modern Special Forces
A tall, strong man with a quick wit and a reputation for knowing what he was about, Mike Wilkes was difficult to ignore. As a young man, he revelled in the irregular lifestyle of the Special Forces officer. Headhunted to command 22 SAS in his mid-thirties, he rose to one of the top jobs in the British Army, as Adjutant General.
He was undaunted by officialdom or political expediency; he had set himself high standards of excellence as a young officer, and he refused to compromise when he thought something important.
When challenged by a (Scottish) Secretary of State for Defence on how many black guardsman there would be in the Queen’s Birthday Parade, he offered the answer he thought least likely to provoke disharmony: “Something like the proportion in the Highland regiments”.
Wilkes first showed that he was out of the ordinary on his Gunners’ young officers course after Sandhurst, when he won a direct posting to the 7th Parachute Regiment RHA. The customary route to the Royal Horse Artillery was through exemplary service with a field or medium regiment, a step he avoided by virtue of his impressive course rating. He joined a battery supporting a Parachute Regiment battle group in Bahrain and developed a fascination for the desert that he never lost.
His father, Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Wilkes, had been a Gunner, and to the young Wilkes that was the regiment that offered the widest choice of employment, but even after his outstanding start he found that his career choices led him elsewhere.
When he was presented with a posting to the Junior Leaders Regiment in Oswestry — his suspicion was that it was intended to ensure he would be conveniently situated to play rugby for the Army — he volunteered instead for the SAS selection course.
Having passed, he joined “A” Squadron of 22 SAS commanded by Peter de la Billière, who was to become a friend for life. A year in North Borneo during the Indonesian “confrontation” with Malaysia, engaging Indonesian regular forces on both sides of the frontier, was followed by a second in South Arabia conducting undercover counter-terrorist operations in the Aden townships — dangerous work without a hint of routine or orthodoxy.
At this stage the SAS had little public profile, and Wilkes revelled in the varied and unconventional lifestyle that took him with small SAS training teams to sub-Sahara Africa, where emerging nations of the region sought advice on security and VIP protection.
The Gunners did not forget him, however, and after three years with 22 SAS he was recalled to be adjutant of a medium artillery regiment about to go to Northern Ireland in an infantry role.
Then, while commanding the prestigious Chestnut Troop of 1st RHA in Germany, he was asked to take over command of 22 SAS; he was only 36. This was an exceptional challenge. His squadron commanders were all more experienced in Special Force operations, and the command involved control over widely dispersed commitments with minimal guidance from above. He accepted, nonetheless, and never regretted his decision.
His advice was sought during the raising of the US Delta counter-terrorist force, which was a chance to establish strong links with Washington. His personality proved ideal for this sort of work. Not only did he look the part, but his unhurried manner and easy humour went down well across the Atlantic; he never allowed his expertise to be seen as anything more than a source to be tapped as and when required.
Ironically, perhaps, after he had put so much effort into 22 SAS, it was not Wilkes but his successor Lieutenant-Colonel (later General Sir) Michael Rose, who was in command during the siege of the Iranian Embassy in 1980. This event, with some of the more dramatic moments broadcast live on television, brought the SAS into the limelight and formed the basis of the public reputation it enjoys today.
Looking back on his period of command, Wilkes realised that he had had a greater degree of autonomy over both action and counter-terrorist philosophy than he ever enjoyed again, even when a member of the Army Board.
His next appointment could scarcely have offered a greater contrast. The then Chief of the General Staff, General (later Field Marshal Lord) Bramall, a frequent visitor to Wilkes’ Hereford SAS base, invited him to be his Military Assistant. Wilkes loathed the job at first and frankly intimated to Bramall he would welcome a change. Bramall told him, equally frankly, that he was doing fine and should get on with it.
At the beginning of 1986, after commanding an armoured brigade in Germany, Wilkes was recalled to Special Forces. He was instructed to bring the SAS and the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service under a new joint service command answering to the Chief of the Defence Staff. This called for all his charm and strength of resolve, as the two organisations were rivals in both reputation and expertise. He succeeded.
He was perhaps fortunate to survive his term as Director. On a goodwill visit to his opposite number in the German Army, it was suggested that the two directors should make a parachute jump. Wilkes agreed, only to find that his borrowed German parachute failed to open. He deployed his reserve chute just in time, but it was unable to open fully. He hit the ground very hard indeed. Luckily no bones were broken, but he was bruised from head to foot.
A return to Germany in 1988 to command 3rd Armoured Division was less dramatic, but not without its difficulties. Severe restrictions on field manoeuvres had been imposed in response to economic and environmental pressures. Even so, Wilkes ran a divisional exercise that involved pushing two armoured brigades over the Weser using floating bridges at night.
Promoted and knighted KCB to become Commander UK Field Army and Inspector-General of the TA in 1990, he had barely come to grips with the job before the First Gulf War demanded his presence at the Joint Command HQ at High Wycombe.
He made flying visits to the war zone to advise General de la Billière on armoured warfare — drawing on his own command experience in Germany. He was in General Norman Schwarzkopf’s command post when the US Secretary for Defence called to say that King Fahd of Saudi Arabia had complained to President George Bush Sr, after a CNN newscast had shown US serviceman and women dancing together in his desert kingdom.
Wilkes was appointed Middle East Adviser to the CDS, an extra, unpaid job, for the rest of his service. His advice on the reorganisation of Jordan’s armed forces earned him the country’s Order of Merit 1st Class.
In his final appointment as Adjutant General, from 1993 to 1995, he faced a host of problems arising from changing social attitudes, relating to such questions as the role of women in the Army, housing policy, the ethnic balance and changes to military legal practice.
He was Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief Jersey, where his wife had lived as a child, from 1995 to 2000. Subsequently, he took up various directorships in the retail sector and
advised on Middle East matters. He was Colonel Commandant of the Honourable Artillery Company 1992-98,
president Army Cadet Forces Association from 1993 and president of the
Special Forces Club, the Travellers’ Club and the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club.
He married Anne Huelin, daughter of the Jersey landowner Major J..L..R. Huelin. She survives him with two sons.
General Sir Michael Wilkes, KCB, CBE, Adjutant General 1990-1995 was born on June 11, 1940. He died on October 27, 2013 aged 73
