Wessex twin-turbine, single-rotor light-support helicopter, designed and built in Britain by Westland and designated HC2 in RAF service, which it entered well over 30 years ago. The Wessex proved invaluable during the Falklands campaign, and the aircraft also saw service with US forces during the Vietnam War, as well as with other British services and with other armed forces around the world. Capabilities include deployment as a troop transport (up to 16 fully equipped troops), as a search-and-rescue helicopter, and as a trainer; Wessex were also used for VIP/royal transport duties with the RAF’s Queen’s Flight. There are still two RAF squadrons operating the aircraft
whiteout extreme blizzard conditions
wilco SAS term for someone who is positive, willing, co-operative
Plate Section
Bradbury Lines (later Stirling Lines), Hereford, after passing SAS Selection, November 1972. In fact, as this was an all-arms survival course, only ten of those in the picture were going on to 22 SAS. The author is at far right in the back row; the other unobscured faces are those of men who were subsequently killed.
On Operation Storm in Oman: Taff by the mortar pit on Diana One. Dhofar, 1973. Hanging from the bush at right is a chuggle, a cloth water bag that cools the liquid by evaporation.
The author (left) and Taff cleaning their SLRs on Diana One.
The author’s sangar on Diana One, 1973, with Taff at right. The gully in the background was a favourite adoo machine-gun position (arrowed. Both troopers’ SLRs have been placed immediately to hand.
The author deploying to a new location by Huey helicopter during his third tour on Operation Storm, 1975.
The author at Tawi Atair during his second tour in Oman, just after the end of the monsoon – hence the greenness of the terrain. The photo also shows how poorly equipped the SAS were in those days.
A mortar pit at the Simba position in Dhofar, 1975: the author (right) with ‘Jimmy’. The weapon is an 81mm mortar.
Green Five, the sangar at Simba shared by the author, in September 1975, with ‘Killer’ Denis at right. With him is Chris Hennessey, who was killed the day after this photo was taken when he was hit by an adoo mortar round.
Two days after Chris was killed, another trooper died at Simba. The author holding up part of the Katyusha rocket that killed him.
A captured adoo coastal location near the Yemeni border during the final push in Dhofar, September/October 1975. The troops are geysh, and in the foreground there is an unexploded bomb.
Captured adoo mortar rounds and other equipment being logged by SAS members during the final push in Dhofar. Seated at right are firqa – Dhofari irregulars loyal to the Sultan.
One of the first-day covers franked by SAS members during their illicit raid on the post office at Grytviken, with the date set to that on which the Argentinian garrison on South Georgia surrendered.
The Mention in Despatches the author received for leading a four-man patrol at Fox Bay on West Falkland to observe and report on the substantial Argentinian garrison there.
D Squadron members checking Land Rover 110s at Victor, in the United Arab Emirates, January 1991. Several LAW80s in their barbell-shaped cases can be seen on the ground.
An SAS trooper and off-road Honda motorcyle beneath the tailplane of a C-130 at Victor, prior to deployment to Al Jouf in Saudi Arabia.
An RAF Special Forces Chinook flying low over the desert during the Gulf campaign.
Half of an SAS half-squadron mobile patrol just prior to moving forward into Iraq. ‘Not all the Land Rovers carried the same assortment of weapons … but all were a variation on the theme of “mobile but heavily armed”.’
The RAF Special Forces Chinook landing in Iraq at 0125 hours local time, Tuesday. 1 March 1991. On board is the author who, as RSM, was just about to sack the officer commanding Alpha One Zero and Two Zero and take over himself.
A member of I Corps (left) questioning the Iraqi officer captured when Alpha One Zero ambushed his Gaz jeep and killed his three fellow officers. The prisoner (who has been given a British tunic) was flown out of Iraq on the Chinook that brought the author in to take over command of A10.
SAS 110s camouflaged in an LUP during operations in Iraq: nice and cosy, but not conducive to going into action or moving quickly – hence the author’s decision that Alpha One Zero should not use cam nets.
A 110 and a member of D Squadron under a cam net in Iraq. A GPMG can be seen on the vehicle at top right, with a burnous – a locally made Arab coat – hanging beneath it.
A Special Forces C-130 taking off from a back-country earth landing strip. ‘The RAF pilots … really were brilliant flyers … They would fly in at low level and land these huge monsters on grass, gravel, mudflats, even a frozen lake …’
The escape map with which the SAS were issued while still at Al Jouf. Being silk, the map could be folded very small, and wouldn’t turn to pulp if it got wet; as a tool for navigation, however, it was far from ideal. The red arrow indicates Victor Two.
A sketch map showing the Iraqi communications installation at Victor Two, annotated to show the various enemy positions and those of Alpha One Zero during the latter’s attack.
A USAF A-10 Thunderbolt – more usually known as the ‘Warthog’ – in action over Iraq. It was an A-10 that confirmed that the author’s patrol had destroyed the 250-foot communications mast at Victor Two.
The ‘Wadi-Bottom Wanderers’: an SAS Bedford 4-tonner, part of the supply convoy that drove from Saudi Arabia into Iraq to resupply the Regiment’s mobile patrols.
The Sergeants’ Mess meeting convened by the author in the Wadi Tubal during the resupply, 1224 hours local time, 16 February 1991. The author is seated in the front row, with the RQMS on his left.
A rather different view: a cartoon by JAK of the same subject. The author and the famous cartoonist were later to become firm friends.
Mess Meeting at Wadi Tubal, Western Iraq, by David Rowlands, the painting commissioned by the author after the Gulf campaign.
The minutes of the Sergeants’ Mess meeting held behind enemy lines, signed by the RQMS, the author, the CO, the Deputy Director of Special Forces, and Generals de la Billière and Schwarzkopf.
Resupply at Wadi Tubal, 11–17 February 1991. The RQMS, Gary, is reclining at centre, with Major Bill, the officer who led the supply convoy into Iraq, second from left.
The author with the Prince of Wales during the latter’s visit to Stirling Lines, the SAS barracks in Hereford, in April 1991.
Table of Contents
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Afterword
Glossary
Plate Section
Eye of the Storm Page 45