Rare special forces items go under the hammer

A collection of special forces memorabilia found in the attic of a house has sold for more than £3,500 at an auction.

The possessions belonged to Leslie Scott, who told young relatives he had been a cook during World War Two rather than revealing he was an officer.

A collection of items relating to his military service was discovered after his death, including two wing badges of the Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force (SAARF).

The wing badges are a rare find and often described as "the stuff of which collectors' dreams are made", David Duggleby Auctioneers said.

SAARF was a unit created in early 1945, with teams parachuted behind enemy lines to aid Allied prisoners of war.

The embroidered wings were sold as separate lots during the sale on Thursday, with the first lot also including Captain Scott's medals, photographs and other service memorabilia.

The first sold for £2,100, whilst the second lot, which auctioned the other wing as a stand-alone item, fetched £1,500.

Jess Tarver, specialist valuer at David Duggleby Auctioneers, said the unit was brought together in a matter of weeks and involved 360 British, American and European parachute-trained volunteers.

"The SAARF plan was to parachute in three-man reconnaissance teams close to [prisoner of war] camps to monitor conditions and call in the cavalry if things turned ugly," she said.

During a mission to monitor camps in the Altengrabow area, half of the 18 men involved were captured.

"The mission ended miraculously well when they persuaded the camp commandant that with Allied forces fast closing in he should permit the evacuation of prisoners," she said.

"He provided them with a radio to call in transport."

Ms Tarver said Captain Scott's relatives were "unaware of the treasure they had discovered" when they cleared out his London flat after his death at the age of 89 in 2008.

"They have actually spent the last 16 years in an attic of a house in the village of North Duffield near York," she said.

"The family got a shock when they offered a number of surplus items on eBay and received a bid of £1,000 for the wings - which was the point at which they decided they needed advice."

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