History
Popski’s Private Army was founded by Major Vladimir Peniakoff 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.
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