Popski's Private Army

No. 1 Demolition Squadron, PPA
Vladimir Peniakoff
Active	10 December 1942–14 September 1945
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Role	Reconnaissance Raiding Counter-demolition
Size	80 men
Part of	Eighth Army
Nickname(s)	"Popski's Private Army"
Engagements	Second World War
Commanders
Notable commanders	Vladimir Peniakoff
Insignia
Identification symbol	Astrolabe
No. 1 Demolition Squadron cap badge

Popski's Private Army, officially No. 1 Demolition Squadron, PPA, was a unit of British Special Forces set up in Cairo in October 1942 by Major Vladimir Peniakoff, MC (nicknamed Popski; later promoted to lieutenant colonel and awarded the DSO). Popski's Private Army was one of several raiding units formed in the Western Desert during the Second World War. The squadron also served in Italy, and was disbanded in September 1945.

No. 1 Demolition Squadron was formed specifically to attack Field-Marshal Rommel's fuel supplies, in support of General Montgomery’s offensive at El Alamein, at the suggestion of Lieutenant-Colonel John Hackett. The unit became operational on 10 December 1942 as an 8th Army Special Forces unit. 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.

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. Four terms later, he signed up as a gunner with the French Army during the First World War. However, he was invalided out in 1918 after 12 months in hospital.