Popski's Private Army
Encyclopedia
Popski's Private Army, officially No. 1 Demolition Squadron, PPA, was a unit of British
Special Forces
founded in Cairo
in 1942 by Lieutenant Colonel
(then Major
) Vladimir Peniakoff
DSO
MC
. Popski's Private Army was one of several raiding units formed in the Western Desert during the Second World War. They also served in Italy
before they were disbanded in September 1945.
in Cairo in October 1942, becoming operational on 10 December 1942, as an 8th Army Special Forces unit at the suggestion of Lieutenant-Colonel John Hackett. Its official name was No. 1 Demolition Squadron, PPA and it was formed specifically to attack Field-Marshal Rommel’s fuel supplies, in support of General Montgomery’s offensive at El Alamein
.
After the Long Range Desert Group
(LRDG) and the Special Air Service
(SAS), PPA was the last and smallest of the three main irregular raiding, reconnaissance and intelligence units formed during the North African Campaign. Major
Peniakoff had just been awarded a Military Cross
for his intelligence reporting and petrol dump raiding while leading the Libyan Arab Force Commando for three months behind enemy lines, and for an operation while attached to the LRDG. There were further laurels to come.
Popski’s nickname
referred to a Daily Mirror cartoon character, and was given to him by Captain Bill Kennedy Shaw
, the LRDG’s Intelligence Officer, because his signallers had problems with “Peniakoff”. The unit’s cover name came from Hackett’s exasperation at Popski’s delay in coming up with something suitable: “You had better find a name quick or we shall call you Popski’s Private Army”. “I’ll take it” said Popski.
Vladimir Peniakoff
was born in 1897 in Belgium
of Russian Jewish intellectual parents. He was privately educated in Belgium and went up to St John's College, Cambridge
, becoming an ardent Anglophile, influenced by Bertrand Russell
. Only four terms later though he signed up as a French gunner during World War I but was invalided out in 1918 after 12 months in hospital.
. He worked in his father’s chemical factory in Belgium, then in 1924 moved to Egypt
to run a sugar refinery. With plenty of leisure time throughout the next 15 years, he climbed in the Italian Alps and learnt to fly light aircraft around the Middle East. He explored the Eastern and Western Deserts, relying only on his own resources, learning desert navigation, meeting and talking history with Arab tribesmen. He became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, married and had two daughters.
When the Second World War broke out and after his rejection by the Royal Air Force
and the Royal Navy, a reluctant British Army was persuaded to take on this podgy but persistent middle-aged Belgian. Assigned to mundane garrison duties as an arabic-speaking junior officer in the Libyan Arab Force (LAF), Popski plotted his escape and formed the Libyan Arab Force Commando (LAFC) – a small group of British and Libyan soldiers who operated behind the lines in the Jebel Akhdar area of Cyrenaica
.
After returning to Cairo in the middle of 1942 only to discover that his LAFC had been disbanded while he was away, Popski was invited to join an LRDG raid in the area he had just left, learning much about their ways, lost the little finger on his left hand to an Italian bullet, and won a Military Cross
(MC). It was shortly after this that PPA was formed: the smallest independent unit of the British Army at 23 All Ranks. The original officers of PPA were three friends who had served together in the Libyan Arab Force: Popski, Robert Park Yunnie and Jean Caneri.
Events proceeded rapidly as the Germans and Italians were chased out of North Africa almost before PPA really got going. A joint LRDG-PPA patrol discovered the gap in the mountains that let Montgomery's armour outflank Rommel’s Mareth Line
defences, and PPA was among the first elements of 8th Army
, pushing West, to meet the British 1st Army and American 2nd Corps, pushing East, in Tunisia in early 1943. Many PPA raiding and reconnaissance operations were carried out around the time of the Kasserine Pass fighting, including taking the surrender of 600 Italians, alongside British and American forces.
The summer of 1943 was spent in Algeria and Tunisia recruiting and training new volunteers from the LRDG, SAS, Commandos and Royal Armoured Corps for the fight in Italy, bringing the unit’s size up to about 35 all ranks, with two fighting patrols and a small HQ. For a short while PPA experimented with using 1st Airborne Division’s gliders to deliver them and their jeep
s behind the Axis lines in Sicily, but their part in that operation was cancelled at the last minute.
and headed inland. Popski immediately pulled off a major intelligence scoop by cleverly discovering the weakness of the German 1st Parachute Division opposing 1st Airborne. As a result of this success Popski was allowed to increase the size of PPA to 80 all ranks, but throughout the Italian Campaign about 100 men were actually deployed at any one time.
PPA was unusual in that all recruits, including officers, reverted to lowest rank on joining – Private or Lieutenant. The unit was run quite informally: there was no saluting and no drill, officers and men messed together, every man was expected to know what to do and get on with it, and there was only one punishment for failure of any kind: immediate Return To Unit. It was also efficient, having an unusually small HQ.
Three fighting patrols, each of 18 men in six jeeps, and one Tactical HQ patrol of four jeeps were formed and given great autonomy. Each jeep was armed with .50in and .30in machine guns, giving the patrols immense firepower for their size. The men trained hard for amphibious, mountain and parachute operations, demolition and counter-demolition, reconnaissance and intelligence gathering.
They were deployed in many rôles, often clandestine, and for several months even operated as regular front line troops, holding a sector of the Allied front line that was badly depleted after the withdrawal of forces for the D-Day landings in Normandy, nipping around in their jeeps to fool the Germans into believing that they were opposed by much larger units.
Several operations used DUKW
s or small landing craft called RCL
s (manned by 7 Royal Engineers
who inevitably became known as “Popski’s Private Navy”) to sail up the Adriatic and get behind the German front line, chaperoned by the Royal Navy’s Coastal Forces.
Throughout the bitter winter weather and fighting of 1944 and 1945 PPA undertook their operations ahead of regular forces, in support of British, Canadian, Indian
and Polish armoured, infantry and Commando units. They located targets for the Allied Air Force, chased Germans out of rear-areas, saved bridges, captured many prisoners and guns, and accepted the surrender of the entire German garrison at Chioggia
.
At various times PPA worked alongside other secret units such as the LRDG, SAS, No. 1 Special Force (SOE
), Phantom, ‘A’ Force and Office of Strategic Services
. Along the way they adopted many strays, including Russian, Italian and German POWs, Italian regulars and partisans, both royalist and communist.
Popski was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
(DSO) in November 1944, during joint operations (as “Porterforce”) with the 27th Lancers
and Italian partisans of the 28th Garibaldi Brigade, to liberate Ravenna
, but shortly afterwards lost his left hand to a German rifle-grenade.
Popski’s Private Army finished the war with a flourish: sailing some of their jeeps on RCLs to St. Mark’s Square in Venice
where they drove round and round just for the hell of it, the only wheeled vehicles ever to have been there. The unit was disbanded four months later on 14 September 1945, after hunting for Himmler
, disarming Italian partisans and discouraging Josip Broz Tito
’s partisans from encroaching on Austrian and Italian territory.
By this time PPA personnel had gained between them a DSO, a Distinguished Conduct Medal
, 6 MCs, 10 MMs
, 14 Mentions in Despatches, and HM King George VI had personally requested an account of the unit’s exploits.
before demobilisation, naturalisation and achieving fame as a British writer and broadcaster.
He died in London in 1951 of a brain tumour, having lived long enough to see his book Private Army become a best-seller. Popski is buried in Wixoe Church cemetery in Suffolk
alongside his second wife Pamela Firth.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
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...
founded in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
in 1942 by Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
(then Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
) Vladimir Peniakoff
Vladimir Peniakoff
Lieutenant-Colonel Vladimir Peniakoff DSO MC , nicknamed "Popski", was the founder and commanding officer of "Popski's Private Army".- Early life :Vladimir Peniakoff was born in Belgium to Russian parents...
DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
. Popski's Private Army was one of several raiding units formed in the Western Desert during the Second World War. They also served in Italy
Italian Campaign (World War II)
The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the...
before they were disbanded in September 1945.
History
Popski’s Private Army was founded by Major Vladimir PeniakoffVladimir Peniakoff
Lieutenant-Colonel Vladimir Peniakoff DSO MC , nicknamed "Popski", was the founder and commanding officer of "Popski's Private Army".- Early life :Vladimir Peniakoff was born in Belgium to Russian parents...
in Cairo in October 1942, becoming operational on 10 December 1942, as an 8th Army Special Forces unit at the suggestion of Lieutenant-Colonel John Hackett. Its official name was No. 1 Demolition Squadron, PPA and it was formed specifically to attack Field-Marshal Rommel’s fuel supplies, in support of General Montgomery’s offensive at El Alamein
El Alamein
El Alamein is a town in the northern Matrouh Governorate of Egypt. Located on the Mediterranean Sea, it lies west of Alexandria and northwest of Cairo. As of 2007, it has a local population of 7,397 inhabitants.- Climate :...
.
After the Long Range Desert Group
Long Range Desert Group
The Long Range Desert Group was a reconnaissance and raiding unit of the British Army during the Second World War. The commander of the German Afrika Corps, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, admitted that the LRDG "caused us more damage than any other British unit of equal strength".Originally called...
(LRDG) and 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), PPA was the last and smallest of the three main irregular raiding, reconnaissance and intelligence units formed during the North African Campaign. Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Peniakoff had just been awarded a Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
for his intelligence reporting and petrol dump raiding while leading the Libyan Arab Force Commando for three months behind enemy lines, and for an operation while attached to the LRDG. There were further laurels to come.
Popski’s nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
referred to a Daily Mirror cartoon character, and was given to him by Captain Bill Kennedy Shaw
Bill Kennedy Shaw
Major William Boyd Kennedy Shaw OBE was a British desert explorer, botanist, archaeologist and founding member of the Long Range Desert Group during World War II...
, the LRDG’s Intelligence Officer, because his signallers had problems with “Peniakoff”. The unit’s cover name came from Hackett’s exasperation at Popski’s delay in coming up with something suitable: “You had better find a name quick or we shall call you Popski’s Private Army”. “I’ll take it” said Popski.
Vladimir Peniakoff
Vladimir Peniakoff
Lieutenant-Colonel Vladimir Peniakoff DSO MC , nicknamed "Popski", was the founder and commanding officer of "Popski's Private Army".- Early life :Vladimir Peniakoff was born in Belgium to Russian parents...
was born in 1897 in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
of Russian Jewish intellectual parents. He was privately educated in Belgium and went up to St John's College, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, becoming an ardent Anglophile, influenced by Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
. Only four terms later though he signed up as a French gunner during World War I but was invalided out in 1918 after 12 months in hospital.
North Africa
After the war, Peniakoff qualified as an engineer in GrenobleGrenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
. He worked in his father’s chemical factory in Belgium, then in 1924 moved to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
to run a sugar refinery. With plenty of leisure time throughout the next 15 years, he climbed in the Italian Alps and learnt to fly light aircraft around the Middle East. He explored the Eastern and Western Deserts, relying only on his own resources, learning desert navigation, meeting and talking history with Arab tribesmen. He became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, married and had two daughters.
When the Second World War broke out and after his rejection by the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
and the Royal Navy, a reluctant British Army was persuaded to take on this podgy but persistent middle-aged Belgian. Assigned to mundane garrison duties as an arabic-speaking junior officer in the Libyan Arab Force (LAF), Popski plotted his escape and formed the Libyan Arab Force Commando (LAFC) – a small group of British and Libyan soldiers who operated behind the lines in the Jebel Akhdar area of Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...
.
After returning to Cairo in the middle of 1942 only to discover that his LAFC had been disbanded while he was away, Popski was invited to join an LRDG raid in the area he had just left, learning much about their ways, lost the little finger on his left hand to an Italian bullet, and won a Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
(MC). It was shortly after this that PPA was formed: the smallest independent unit of the British Army at 23 All Ranks. The original officers of PPA were three friends who had served together in the Libyan Arab Force: Popski, Robert Park Yunnie and Jean Caneri.
Events proceeded rapidly as the Germans and Italians were chased out of North Africa almost before PPA really got going. A joint LRDG-PPA patrol discovered the gap in the mountains that let Montgomery's armour outflank Rommel’s Mareth Line
Mareth Line
The Mareth Line was a system of fortifications built by the French between the towns of Medenine and Gabès in southern Tunisia, prior to World War II...
defences, and PPA was among the first elements of 8th Army
Eighth Army (United Kingdom)
The Eighth Army was one of the best-known formations of the British Army during World War II, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns....
, pushing West, to meet the British 1st Army and American 2nd Corps, pushing East, in Tunisia in early 1943. Many PPA raiding and reconnaissance operations were carried out around the time of the Kasserine Pass fighting, including taking the surrender of 600 Italians, alongside British and American forces.
The summer of 1943 was spent in Algeria and Tunisia recruiting and training new volunteers from the LRDG, SAS, Commandos and Royal Armoured Corps for the fight in Italy, bringing the unit’s size up to about 35 all ranks, with two fighting patrols and a small HQ. For a short while PPA experimented with using 1st Airborne Division’s gliders to deliver them and their jeep
Jeep
Jeep is an automobile marque of Chrysler . The first Willys Jeeps were produced in 1941 with the first civilian models in 1945, making it the oldest off-road vehicle and sport utility vehicle brand. It inspired a number of other light utility vehicles, such as the Land Rover which is the second...
s behind the Axis lines in Sicily, but their part in that operation was cancelled at the last minute.
Italy
In September 1943 an advance patrol of PPA sailed to TarantoTaranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
and headed inland. Popski immediately pulled off a major intelligence scoop by cleverly discovering the weakness of the German 1st Parachute Division opposing 1st Airborne. As a result of this success Popski was allowed to increase the size of PPA to 80 all ranks, but throughout the Italian Campaign about 100 men were actually deployed at any one time.
PPA was unusual in that all recruits, including officers, reverted to lowest rank on joining – Private or Lieutenant. The unit was run quite informally: there was no saluting and no drill, officers and men messed together, every man was expected to know what to do and get on with it, and there was only one punishment for failure of any kind: immediate Return To Unit. It was also efficient, having an unusually small HQ.
Three fighting patrols, each of 18 men in six jeeps, and one Tactical HQ patrol of four jeeps were formed and given great autonomy. Each jeep was armed with .50in and .30in machine guns, giving the patrols immense firepower for their size. The men trained hard for amphibious, mountain and parachute operations, demolition and counter-demolition, reconnaissance and intelligence gathering.
They were deployed in many rôles, often clandestine, and for several months even operated as regular front line troops, holding a sector of the Allied front line that was badly depleted after the withdrawal of forces for the D-Day landings in Normandy, nipping around in their jeeps to fool the Germans into believing that they were opposed by much larger units.
Several operations used DUKW
DUKW
The DUKW is a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck that was designed by a partnership under military auspices of Sparkman & Stephens and General Motors Corporation during World War II for transporting goods and troops over land and water and for use approaching and crossing beaches in amphibious...
s or small landing craft called RCL
RCL
RCL may refer to:* Royal Canadian Legion* Reliance Capital Limited* Remote Controlled Lighting Limited, an architectural spotlighting company...
s (manned by 7 Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
who inevitably became known as “Popski’s Private Navy”) to sail up the Adriatic and get behind the German front line, chaperoned by the Royal Navy’s Coastal Forces.
Throughout the bitter winter weather and fighting of 1944 and 1945 PPA undertook their operations ahead of regular forces, in support of British, Canadian, Indian
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
and Polish armoured, infantry and Commando units. They located targets for the Allied Air Force, chased Germans out of rear-areas, saved bridges, captured many prisoners and guns, and accepted the surrender of the entire German garrison at Chioggia
Chioggia
Chioggia is a coastal town and comune of the province of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy.-Geography:...
.
At various times PPA worked alongside other secret units such as the LRDG, SAS, No. 1 Special Force (SOE
SOE
- Organizations :* Special Operations Executive, a British World War II covert military organisation* State-owned enterprise, a government-owned business* Sega of Europe, a computer game developer* Sony Online Entertainment, a computer game developer...
), Phantom, ‘A’ Force and Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
. Along the way they adopted many strays, including Russian, Italian and German POWs, Italian regulars and partisans, both royalist and communist.
Popski was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
(DSO) in November 1944, during joint operations (as “Porterforce”) with the 27th Lancers
27th Lancers
The 27th Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1941 to 1945.The regiment was raised in June 1941 from a cadre of personnel taken from the 12th Royal Lancers, and was assigned to 11th Armoured Division as the divisional reconnaissance regiment...
and Italian partisans of the 28th Garibaldi Brigade, to liberate Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
, but shortly afterwards lost his left hand to a German rifle-grenade.
Popski’s Private Army finished the war with a flourish: sailing some of their jeeps on RCLs to St. Mark’s Square in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
where they drove round and round just for the hell of it, the only wheeled vehicles ever to have been there. The unit was disbanded four months later on 14 September 1945, after hunting for Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, disarming Italian partisans and discouraging Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
’s partisans from encroaching on Austrian and Italian territory.
By this time PPA personnel had gained between them a DSO, a Distinguished Conduct Medal
Distinguished Conduct Medal
The Distinguished Conduct Medal was an extremely high level award for bravery. It was a second level military decoration awarded to other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to non-commissioned personnel of other Commonwealth countries.The medal was instituted in 1854, during the Crimean...
, 6 MCs, 10 MMs
Military Medal
The Military Medal was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other services, and formerly also to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land....
, 14 Mentions in Despatches, and HM King George VI had personally requested an account of the unit’s exploits.
Post-war
Popski was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and became the British-Russian liaison officer in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
before demobilisation, naturalisation and achieving fame as a British writer and broadcaster.
He died in London in 1951 of a brain tumour, having lived long enough to see his book Private Army become a best-seller. Popski is buried in Wixoe Church cemetery in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
alongside his second wife Pamela Firth.
External links
- Friends of PPA online part of the PPA Memorial, Official Register of PPA Personnel, PPA Roll of Honour, PPA Awards, PPA War Establishments and other information.
- PPA Preservation Society personnel database, photos and information.
- Special Forces Roll of Honour awards, images and links for many units including PPA.
- Popski's Private Army a comprehensive synopsis of the PPA story, by Allen Parfitt.
- BBC News story about the discovery in the desert of a bag lost by an LRDG despatch rider (incorrectly thought to be PPA) during WWII.