British "Stay Behind" SOP Units

[Raellus]

Most NATO armies developed special "stay behind" units during the Cold War. Although some of these small units were made up of pre-existing SOF, not all were. The British, for one, developed Special Observation Post (SOP) units, recruited from the regular army and trained by SAS/SBS personnel (but not becoming part of either SOF unit).

From the written intro to the podcast (first link below):

"The [British] “stay behind” Special OP Troop consisted of selected soldiers in 6 man patrols whose task was to dig in large underground hides known as “mexe” shelters along the inner German border. They would then allow the main Soviet forces to pass over them before deploying to two smaller observation posts (Ops) where they would engage the enemy with the long-range guns and rockets of the British Army."

https://coldwarconversations.com/episode212/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ful...68344520914345

Non-SOF SB, like the British Army's SOP troops, could be a cool background for a PC. CB MEXE shelters and caches could be cool finds for PCs of any background.

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