Jack Byrne, born in Preston, enlisted in the 1st Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, in February 1939. At the Fall of France he was twice wounded, first by shrapnel and then by a deep bayonet thrust just above the groin in a bloody hand to hand encounter during the 51st Highland Division’s rearguard action on the Dunkirk perimeter. Left for dead in the bottom of a trench, he was found in semi-conscious condition by two French civilians who carried him to the beachhead, whence he was evacuated to England. Byrne and another survivor of the 1st Gordons, Lieutenant Bill Fraser, next transferred to the newly-raised No.11 Commando, which having been drawn from the pick of the Scottish regiments underwent rigorous training on the Isle of Arran during the autumn and winter. In January 1941, No.11 Commando embarked for service in the eastern Mediterranean with ‘LAYFORCE’, and in early June spearheaded the Allied invasion of Vichy-occupied Syria with an amphibious landing and a classic infantry assault in broad daylight across the Litani River; Byrne being part of Fraser’s Troop of Gordon Highlanders which for the purposes of this operation was the part of the Commando under Major (later Lt-Col.) Geoffrey Keyes, VC.
By the time 11 Commando returned to Egypt, the decision had been taken to disband Layforce. Byrne was reluctant to return to his original unit and it was therefore a matter of considerable interest when Fraser told him and three others of the Gordons Troop that a Scots Guards officer called Captain David Stirling was looking for volunteers to join a new independent command consisting of seven officers and fifty nine other ranks, to be known as ‘L’ Detachment of the Special Air Service Brigade...
D.C.M. London Gazette 7 October 1943: 2060658 Corporal John Vincent Byrne, “L” Detachment, 1st Special Air Service Regiment (The Gordon Highlanders).
‘Cpl Byrne was captured by the Germans in Libya while returning alone from a special sabotage mission. He was sent to a Prisoner of War camp in Germany where he volunteered to act as an Officer’s batman as he thought this would give him a better opportunity of escaping. He was, accordingly, transferred to Oflag XXIB, an Officers camp, where he made two attempts to escape but, unfortunately, was recaptured on each occasion. On 18 Jul 43, while being transferred to another camp, he escaped from a transit camp at Koenigsberg and succeeded in reaching Danzig, where he boarded a Swedish ship and finally arrived at Goteborg on 25 Jul 43. This NCO showed courage, pertinacity and initiative of the very highest order under the most trying circumstances.’ One of only four D.C.M’s gazetted to ‘L’ Detachment, Special Air Service Regiment, during the Second World War.
