'Humbled to follow in my SAS hero dad's footsteps'

Standing on the top of a mountain range in northern Italy, Rob Hann found himself feeling emotional and humbled by the knowledge he was retracing the very route his father had taken during World War Two.

His father Stanley was part of a secret SAS mission in 1944 during which he and his comrades covered 100 miles "with half the German Army" after them.

Details of the mission were not discovered until after Stanley's death in 2001 and Mr Hann was determined to not only learn more about it, but to experience the journey himself.

So, he and his two grown-up sons travelled to the Apennine Mountains and hiked the same route his father had taken 81 years ago.

"I wasn't really prepared for absolutely how difficult it was - and the terrain itself is incredible," he said.

Mr Hann, from West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, said he only had a sketchy idea of his father's wartime experiences.

The truth emerged when he was given a grainy black and white photograph, which led him to discover his father, who was an ordinary milkman before and after the war, had taken part in the SAS mission called Operation Galia.

The mission involved 33 men being dropped behind enemy lines into the Rossano Valley deep in the Apennine Mountains in December 1944.

It was designed to divert German attention from the Allied offensives pushing northwards and succeeded in diverting 6,000 enemy troops to the mountainous region.

The men endured extreme hardship, bitter weather, and constant danger but Mr Hann said his research indicated it "was one of the most successful operations of World War Two".

Mr Hann then discovered more rare wartime photographs of the mission, some of which are believed to have been taken by his father.

This prompted him to write a book about the mission called SAS Operation Galia.

Mr Hann had tried to walk the most difficult mountainous parts of his father's escape route before but he could not finish the route.

But he completed the four-day, 60-mile hike on his second attempt as part of an organised expedition, while raising money for the Nottingham-based charity Footprints.

"The humble feeling you feel is how these men manage to survive that experience and how they never talked about it, how they kept tight-lipped," Mr Hann said.

"Even up until the time my dad died he wouldn't talk about it, it was secret and they took that to the grave with them."

Mr Hann was accompanied by his sons William and Joseph, along with the son and daughter of his father's wartime comrade Eric (Lofty) Kennedy.

He said walking with them on the 81st anniversary year of Operation Galia was particularly special and not only "very physically demanding" but "very emotional too".

"Especially doing it with the family of one of my dad's best friends and sharing the story with them. And also to do the research and understand a bit about what his wartime experience had been has been a phenomenal journey in itself," he said.

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