page_title: Mike Calvert
section_title: SAS Operations
hierarchical_section_title: Mike Calvert / Military career / SAS Operations
caption_attribution_description: English: Brigadier Mike Calvert, Commandant SAS Brigade, at the ceremony marking the passing of 3 and 4 SAS (2 and 3 Regiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes) from the British to the French Army at Tarbes in southern France.
context_page_description: James Michael Calvert was a British soldier involved in special operations in Burma during the Second World War. He participated in both Chindit operations and was instrumental in popularizing the unorthodox ideas of General Orde Wingate. He frequently led attacks from the front, a practice that earned him the nickname amongst the men under his command of "Mad Mike."
context_section_description: Calvert was evacuated to Britain on medical grounds (ironically following an accidental injury) in September 1944. In March 1945 he was appointed to command the Special Air Service Brigade organising Operation Amherst. He held this appointment until the brigade disbanded in October 1945.
  After the war, he attended the Army's Staff College. After passing the course, he was appointed to a staff post as lieutenant colonel in the Allied Military Government in Trieste. He was then selected in 1950 to command the Malayan Scouts engaged in operations against Communist insurgents in the Malayan Emergency. Although he held the local rank of brigadier, he nevertheless led several patrols and operations in person. However, the Malayan Scouts were not subject to proper selection procedures and never lost an early reputation for poor discipline. Calvert's exertions meant that he was invalided home in 1951.
caption: Calvert at the ceremony marking the passing of 3 and 4 SAS to France in October 1945.
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