One of my favorite characters from the war I read about as a kid. I was looking up some more information on him to jog my memory and just love to hear about him and his unit. Sad that he died from a brain tumor.
Leuitenant - Colonel Vladimir Peniakoff
D.S.O. - M.C. "POPSKI"
"Vladimir Peniakoff was born in Huy, Belgium, on 30 March 1897. His parents, who had emigrated from Russia remained Russians all their lives, but Vladimir opted for nationality of the country where he was born. .... Vladimir Peniakoff was granted a commission in the Libyan Arab Force -a company which he transformed into a commando-unit, with the idea of operating behind the enemy lines. But it was as a lone operator that Vladimir became known.- being taken to and from behind enemy lines by that famous unit, the Long Range Desert Group. Towards the end of the desert campaign Vladimir was asked to form a raiding unit of his own -the outcome being the "No 1 Long Range Demolition Squadron". During their travels with the L.R.D.G., the New Zealanders found his real name Peniakoff too much of a tongue-twister, so he was dubbed "POPSKI" by those brave and resourceful soldiers. When Vladimir hesitated in choosing a name for his new unit, General Sir John Hackett, who was then in charge of Special Operations in the Middle East, dubbed his unit into "Popski's Private Army". The formation of the unit, however, didn't take effect until just before the battle of El Alamein, and P.P.A. was therefore too late to take part in the battles for Egypt and Libya, but it made contributions to the fighting in Tunisia and Algeria. After the desert and North Africa campaign, P.P.A. operated extensively in Italy and Austria up to the last day of the war. After the war P.P.A. disbanded and Popski married a girl from Suffolk. Later he lived in England where he died in the middle of May 1951 of a brain tumor.... More"
"A somewhat
irregular British Army small unit of
World War II, attached to the British
Eigth Army. Created and headed in
Egypt by
Lieutenant-Colonel Vladimir Peniakoff (nicknamed
Popski), P.P.A. did mostly behind the lines
sabotage and
recon work, blowing up
depots, gathering information about German materiel and movement and pointing out targets for the
RAF.
P.P.A. saw service first in
Cyrenaica and
Tripolitania (currently part of
Lybia and
Tunisia), in collaboration with the
Long Range Desert Group.
In 1943, after the victory on
Rommel's forces, the unit moved to
Italy and started again its dangerous work. P.P.A. took part in fighting on the
Adriatic coast in the
Po area (close to Venice) and linked up with the Russians in
Austria.
The unit started with a headcount of sixteen and was, at its biggest, slightly over one hundred; it always remained a small unit, because Popski wanted to know personally each one of his men.
The unit could be compared with the
Special Air Service and the
Lovat Scouts. P.P.A. appears to have excelled at collaborating with
partisans and local forces.
Their badge was a silver
astrolabe - the reference was
navigation in the
desert - worn on a black
beret. Apparently Popski was not very particular about uniforms, as long as they were not enemy uniforms."
Popski's Private Army@Everything2.com
Military History Online - Popski's Private Army
Popski's Private Army - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
PPA-index.html
Kotare: Popski on Leadership and Teamwork