The last of the original wartime members of the SAS left almost £2million to his family, records show.
Major Mike Sadler, who died early last year aged 103, joined the elite Special Air Service after it was formed by David Stirling in 1941.
He took part in night raids on Axis airfields in Libya before being parachuted into Nazi-occupied France after the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944.
He was awarded the Military Cross for his heroics, later served with MI6 and even had a patch of Antarctica named after him.
In 2018, he was further recognized with France's highest award: the Legion d'honneur.
He was played by Tom Glynn-Carney in the first series of the hit BBC show SAS Rogue Heroes, adapted from historian Ben Macintyre's book of the same name.
Major Sadler, who was not depicted in this year's second series of Rogue Heroes, spent his later years in a retirement home near Cambridge, leaving behind his daughter Sally.
Estate records recently made available online show that he left an estate worth just over £1.8 million to her and his brother-in-law.
Major Mike Sadler was recruited by David Stirling, the founder of the British Army's elite Special Air Service regiment, which was formed in 1941.
His brother-in-law's descendants were also listed as beneficiaries.
After deducting debts of £5,559, Major Sadler's estate amounted to £1,805,328.
Major Sadler's wife Pat, whom he married in 1958, died in 2001.
The late soldier left school in 1937 to work on a farm in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.
After the outbreak of war in 1939, Major Sadler joined the artillery unit of the Rhodesian Army.
In 1941 he had been appointed sergeant, but was eventually demoted when he refused a commanding officer's order that his men wear boots instead of sandshoes while sleeping.
He then met a member of the Long Range Desert Group, a reconnaissance unit based in the North African desert.
The soldier persuaded him to join and soon took on the role of navigator. He was soon put in charge of navigation for both the LRDG and the SAS.
Major Sadler was played by Tom Glynn-Carney in the first series of the hit BBC show SAS Rogue Heroes, adapted from the book of the same name by historian Ben Macintyre
In December 1941, Major Sadler was part of the first successful SAS raid – on Wadi Tamet airfield – in which a six-man team destroyed 24 aircraft and a fuel dump.
This was led by Lieutenant Blair 'Paddy' Mayne, a former Irish international rugby star who would become one of Britain's most decorated soldiers as commander of the SAS after Stirling was captured.
Major Sadler, after his time in the Desert War, fought with the SAS in Italy and France, before founding the SAS Intelligence Unit.
On the night of July 26, 1942, without headlights or a map, Major Sadler led 18 jeeps filled with two Vickers K machine guns across 70 miles of desert to within 200 feet of Sidi Haneish airfield.
The group then opened fire as they drove between aircraft, destroying at least 37 aircraft.
But one of the SAS jeep drivers was shot in the head and buried in the sand during the attack.
“I remember the people who did not survive and who did not have the opportunity to receive this great honor,” Major Sadler said after being awarded the Legion d'honneur.
He received the Military Medal for the Tamit and Sidi Haneish attacks.
Major Sadler (left) initially took part in night raids on Axis airfields in Libya before being parachuted into Nazi-occupied France following the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944
Major Sadler was also one of the officers who followed Stirling during the last SAS operation during the Desert War in January 1943.
This involved trying to cross the Tunisian desert to meet the British-American 1st Army, but they were ambushed by a German unit.
Stirling was captured and would spend the remainder of World War II as a prisoner of war in Colditz.
Major Sadler managed to escape together with another SAS soldier and an Arabic-speaking Frenchman.
He guided the group on a five-day, 100-mile trek, without a map or any food supplies, to join the 1st Army.
American war correspondent AJ Liebling witnessed Mr Sadler as he arrived from the desert and wrote: 'This fellow's eyes were round and sky blue and his hair and whiskers were very fair.
'His beard started well below his chin, giving him the appearance of an emaciated and slightly speckled Paul Verlaine.'
On August 7, 1944, Major Sadler was parachuted into the Loire as part of Operation Houndsworth.
The aim was to reach SAS squadrons behind the lines and help destroy fuel depots, encourage local resistance and prevent armored divisions from moving north.
By this time, Hitler had given instructions to execute all captured paratroopers.
Germans struck the convoy of two jeeps while Major Sadler returned fire, allowing the other jeep to flee before escaping himself. He later received the Military Cross for gallantry.
When the SAS was disbanded at the end of the war, Major Sadler left the army and joined the Antarctic Survey of the Falkland Islands.
For his efforts he received the Polar Medal.
The soldier then worked at the US Embassy in London for two years before being recruited by MI6.
He said little about his time in the Secret Intelligence Service, other than the fact that it allowed him to indulge his love of sailing.
He retired in 1984 and spent his later years in a retirement home near Cambridge.
After the war, Major Sadler married Anne Hetherington, but the union was dissolved after two years.
In 1958 he married Pat Benson and the couple had daughter Sally together.
