MEDALS won by Gordon Highlanders are expected to fetch up to £50,000 at an auction.
The medals, which range from order of merit to distinguished conduct medals, will go under the hammer later today at Dix Noonan Webb auctioneers in London.
One medal in particular is expected to sell for tens of thousands of pounds.
It belonged to an “invincible” Gordon Highlander who was bayoneted and escaped as a prisoner of war.
Sergeant Jack Byrne, who died in 2007 aged 85, served with the Gordons and was hand-picked for the first SAS unit.
During World War II he served at Dunkirk, on D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.
His military honours included the Distinguished Conduct Medal, which is expected to fetch between £40,000 and £50,000, and medals for his service in Africa, France and Germany.
He also received the General Service Medal.
Auctioneer David Erskine-Hall said: “He was exceptionally brave and exceptionally lucky to the point that he was almost invincible.
“Any awards to SAS servicemen from World War II are extremely rare, but to have a medal from one of the founding members is very special.”
Sgt Byrne was born in Preston, Lancashire, and joined the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders in 1939.
He was bayoneted at Dunkirk in 1940 and was chosen as one of the first 60 SAS commandos.
While serving in Libya in 1942, he was shot in the face. The bullet did not injure him seriously but he was sent to a German prisoner of war camp and escaped.
He was later shot in the knee during the D-Day landings and in the stomach in Malaya.