SAS Heroes
Page 6
Although it was dark and the location was beyond the reach of any street lights, the car crept forward along the country lane with its headlights extinguished. It rolled to a halt and three men got out, leaving the driver behind the wheel. Dressed in dark anoraks, the men moved like shadows away from the car. One carried a spade and after a few paces he and one of the others moved ahead while the third man reached inside his coat to withdraw an automatic pistol. The gunman skipped up onto a low stone wall, scanning the darkened fields in the dim moonlight that filtered through a scattering of clouds. The two others walked briskly forward down into a dip, then pushed their way through a roadside hedge. The man with the spade dug into the soft earth, quickly hacking away until he uncovered a layer of black plastic. Together, he and his accomplice lifted a heavy, bulky package from the ground, carrying it through the hedge onto the road. The treasure trove containing the tools of the terrorist’s trade was now in the hands of an IRA active service unit.
What the IRA men did not know was that this was not the first time that their arms cache had been unearthed. The hiding place had been discovered by Special Branch several days before, when the signs of recent excavation had been spotted. The weapons had been dug up by an SAS patrol and ‘tagged’ with a transmitter that sent out an alert the moment they were moved. Before the terrorists had even carried their haul back through the hedge, alarm bells were ringing at a nearby army base. First to respond when the call went out was Bronco Lane, patrolling the area with a partner in an unmarked car. They immediately raced to the scene, the engine screaming as the driver hurtled along the country roads, slamming the car through the gears.
The noise of the approaching car echoed through the still night air. The blaze of the headlights that cut up into the night sky as Bronco’s car crested each small rise quickly let the IRA men know that someone was coming. While they couldn’t be sure that they had been rumbled, they weren’t taking any chances. They quickly loaded the weapons into the boot of their car then piled in, the car’s wheels spinning as it took off, heading away from the oncoming vehicle. Just as the lights of Bronco’s car had signalled his presence to the IRA gang, so too did their headlights help Bronco to pinpoint their vehicle. He could tell that he and his partner were gaining on their target and he soon spotted the red glow of its tail lights appearing and disappearing as the two cars slithered round corners among the hedgerows. Then the lights vanished completely and, rounding a bend, the SAS men spotted the IRA car sitting idle in the road up ahead, its lights off, its doors wide open, its occupants gone. The driver stood on the brakes and Bronco flung open his door, his Browning 9mm in his hand, leaping out before the vehicle had come to a complete stop.
The driver sent an urgent radio message requesting back-up from the army Quick Reaction Force (QRF), relaying their position. Bronco was already at the IRA car, giving it a cursory check to ensure that it was actually abandoned. He popped his head up above the hedgerow to try to spot the fleeing terrorists and was greeted with a fusillade of bullets. He ducked down, listening to the sound of running feet and the curses of the men stumbling across the muddy field in the dark. Judging that they were more occupied in trying to escape than looking out for him, Bronco picked out a gap in the hedge, squinted through it to try to spot any lurking gunmen and then pushed through, hurling himself to the ground. He could see four shadowy shapes making off across the field and opened fire, squeezing off half a dozen shots before rolling to his feet, charging forward and diving for cover again as a hail of fire from the IRA men sent spurts of mud and tufts of wet grass leaping into the air around him. He knew he was outnumbered and outgunned, but judged that his best course of action was simply to attack. Again he returned fire, emptying his magazine. Slapping another 13-round magazine into the grip of his Browning he sprinted forward, peering into the darkness then pausing to level another few shots at the figures up ahead. A barrage of fire came his way once more and he dived for cover.
Bronco could hear his partner coming up behind him, calling to identify himself. He yelled an acknowledgement then set off again, staying low, moving fast. But this time there was no sign of his elusive quarry. They had almost certainly split up, escaping through the hedgerows and across other fields or into the enveloping darkness of the nearby trees. The only consolation to temper Bronco’s disappointment was that they were moving too fast to have taken the arms cache with them. That was still in the car. The job of scouring the area for the fugitives was now down to the army QRF.
Encounters such as the one just described, where quick thinking and lightning reactions are essential, were situations in which Bronco excelled. He was, by then, a highly experienced soldier, having been in the army since he was 16 years old. Bronco was born in south Manchester and enjoyed a fairly stable upbringing until he was eight, at which time his parents divorced. After that, young Bronco’s home life fell apart and he went off the rails. He survived mainly on school dinners and made frequent visits to the Juvenile Court for a variety of misdemeanours. At the age of 16, however, he joined the Royal Artillery Junior Leaders, Mill Troop. Two years later he passed the entry course for the 7th Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, and served with 1 Battery in Bahrain, attached to the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment. In 1966, Bronco went to Aden as part of 3 Para Battalion Group.
To understand why British Army forces, including the SAS, were in Aden at all, you need to know a little about the region’s history. The port of Aden has been an important trading centre for about 3,000 years and was visited by both Marco Polo and the Arab explorer Ibn Batuta in the 11th and 12th centuries. The ancient natural harbour is protected by the crater of an extinct volcano, Jebel Shamsan, that lies at the end of the curving arm of a peninsula known as Khormaksar. The harbour is one of the largest natural anchorages in the world, with over 40 square miles (104 square km) of sheltered water. It is still very much in use today, with modern container-ship facilities having been built and a major oil refinery at Little Aden on the opposite side of the bay from the peninsula. The port became part of the British Empire in 1838 when one of the ruling sheikhs from the surrounding countryside ceded it to the Crown. Aden quickly grew to become a collection of small towns. Crater, nestling, as you might expect, in the crater of the Jebel Shamsan, is the old port town, having developed near to the harbour facilities that were originally established on the outer leg of the peninsula. On the inner bay are Tawahi at the end of the Khormaksar peninsula and Ma’alla, with Sheikh Othman round on the mainland. Little Aden stands on its own, a smaller peninsula, mirroring Khormaksar as a second arm to the pincer of Aden’s anchorage.
The territory inland from the port and stretching along much of the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula became, through a series of agreements with different tribal leaders, the British Protectorate of Aden. The entire territory was roughly the size of England and Wales. One may well ask why the British should bother courting the friendship of sheikhs from far-flung desert tribes living in the mountains of a rather unlovely, inhospitable land strung out along a barren, sun-scorched coastline. Why did they see this area as being of value? The reason, as with almost any property, is its location. The port lies roughly halfway between the Suez Canal in Egypt and Bombay (now Mumbai) in India, making it an important stopping-off point where the old sailing ships could take on water and provisions. With the arrival of steam power, Aden took on extra significance as a coaling station too.
Aden was at first administered by the British East India Company, who sent in a detachment of Marines in 1838 in an attempt to eradicate the pirates preying on the company’s ships from bases in the area. From then on, there was a permanent British military presence in the territory. The Royal Navy established a base there and, later, so too did the RAF, building a runway at Khormaksar. In the days before long-distance flights, when aircraft operated with limited range, Khormaksar served as a refuelling and transit point for military flights from the Far East bound to Africa and Europe.
It was around this time that things began to go dramatically wrong for the British in Aden. The trouble could certainly be seen as a legacy of British misrule in the area, and the perception among the Arab population that Britain no longer had the political will to back what military strength she still retained only made things worse. Britain was seen as an ageing, toothless lion, unable to make a stand against the emerging might of Arab nationalism personified by Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt during what became known as ‘the Suez crisis’.
The Suez Canal had been operating since 1869 and was run by the Suez Canal Company, which had negotiated a 99-year deal with the Egyptians to lease the land through which the canal was cut. Britain and France ultimately jointly owned the Suez Canal and, as the waterway became an ever more important lifeline between Britain and India, British troops were stationed in the vicinity of the canal, an area declared ‘neutral’ by international treaty, to protect British interests during localized disturbances.
In 1936, a treaty was signed between Britain and Egypt allowing Britain to consolidate its control of the canal zone, but a change in the Egyptian political leadership led to that agreement being rescinded in 1951. When Nasser seized power in Egypt in 1954, he negotiated a withdrawal of British forces from Egypt and Suez. Egypt’s arms deals with the Soviet Bloc then led to a deterioration of relations with the Western powers, culminating in Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal in 1956. Britain and France responded by invading to regain control of the canal. They did not, however, have the support of America and when the Soviets demanded their withdrawal, they were forced to comply. There could be no Cold War stand-off without America’s backing, so they were out of Egypt again within a week.
The impact of the Suez crisis, however, was felt throughout the Middle East. Emboldened by his Soviet-backed triumph, Nasser made inflammatory broadcasts on Radio Cairo calling for Arabs everywhere to rise up and cast off the yoke of colonialism. Lo and behold, Soviet-supplied weaponry began appearing to help the Arab brothers in their cause. Britain coerced the various factions within the Aden Protectorate (offering weapons and cash to win their cooperation) into forming the Federation of South Arabia (FSA) with its own Federal Regular Army (FRA) and armed police force. The FSA was promised full independence for the Protectorate and the colony and that, to ease the transition of power, British forces would remain stationed in Aden until after independence, which was scheduled for 1968. A strong British military presence was important to ensure that none of the rival groups attempted to flex their muscles and take sole control and that no other parties from outside the FSA could think about a military takeover during the shaky handover period. Britain, however, was to renege on its promise to stay, with disastrous consequences.
The Brits in Aden enjoyed a modern colonial lifestyle. Although the oppressive heat and barren countryside left Aden as a far-from-favourite posting, service personnel as well as BP employees and their families could enjoy swimming off beaches protected by shark nets, fishing for leopard ray or shark for those who ventured out in boats, and a sports stadium at Steamer Point. The ex-pats were also far from isolated as there was a great deal of interaction with the local populace. The military bases were required to employ a certain number of Arabs as part of the arrangement with the FSA. Locals brought all manner of goods on to the bases – from fresh fish to shaving soap – to sell to service personnel, and British families shopped in the markets, patronized local bars and restaurants and worked alongside the locals on a daily basis in the port or at the oil refinery. As relations between the British authorities and the FSA became ever more strained, however, the British having decided to pull out of Aden earlier than promised, the colonials’ relaxed lifestyle was to change. In the mountains of the Protectorate, disgruntled Queteibi tribesmen, who had long enjoyed a reputation for being violent and unpredictable, began launching attacks against troops of the FRA. Encouraged by communist propaganda and Nasser’s fiery speeches, the tribesmen stepped up their activities when the ruler in Yemen was overthrown in an Egyptian-backed military coup in 1962. Communist insurgents began infiltrating south from Yemen into Aden, supplying weapons to those who now saw themselves as Adeni nationalists. The money and guns from the British had dried up, so the tribesmen turned to the communists.
The Yemenis viewed the colony of Aden and the lands of the FSA that lay between Yemen’s southern border and the Gulf of Aden simply as being South Yemen. With their encouragement and support, two rival terrorist groups emerged in Aden, intent on destabilizing the region – the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY). It was these two groups who began fighting the British, the federal authorities and each other in the back streets of Aden. The situation reached crisis point in December 1963 at Khormaksar Civil Airport (the RAF base shared some of its facilities with commercial carriers), as a group of dignitaries waited to board a De Havilland Comet bound for London.
The group included the British High Commissioner of Aden, Sir Kennedy Trevaskis, and a delegation of representatives from the FSA, all heading for a summit on the future of the independent federation. Suddenly, a man appeared near the group in the crowded airport. In his hand he held a grenade. He hurled it at the high commissioner, and Sir Kennedy’s assistant, George Henderson, threw himself in front of his boss. The grenade exploded in the middle of the group. Henderson was fatally wounded, dying several days later in hospital. One woman in the group was killed outright and 53 others, including Sir Kennedy, were injured by shrapnel. The British government then formally declared a state of emergency in Aden. Military patrols in urban areas were stepped up and more troops were sent out into the mountains to fight for control of the hinterland. In April 1964, the first elements of the SAS began to arrive in Aden. They were to take on specific tasks in the province, both up-country and in the urban areas.
As a Para, Bronco was a member of an artillery gun group, manning a 105mm field gun. His job was as that of a ‘layer’, which meant that he had to set the gun up correctly to send its shell off in the right direction at the right trajectory to drop on target. His commander on the gun was Sergeant Eric Gregory, a regimental heavyweight boxer who was a very professional soldier – there was no messing with him. The group were in a position in the line supporting 1 Troop, A Squadron, SAS.
The troop had located an enemy unit heading for a bait (Arab for village) and immediately called in an artillery strike on the enemy. Their command to the gun group was ‘log tight’, meaning quick action was needed. Gregory told Bronco not to rush, but to lay the gun correctly as ‘This is for the lads that matter.’ Gregory had the greatest respect for the SAS. At the age of 19, he had applied for, and passed, the SAS Selection course. At that time, however, the minimum age for entry into the Regiment was 21, so Gregory was sent back to his unit and told to come back when he was old enough. He never did go back, but continued to hold the Regiment in the highest esteem.
Bronco did as he was told, taking his time to lay the gun correctly. He fired an initial two rounds, intending them for ‘adjustment’ – the SAS spotter would report back how close they were to the target and Bronco could then reset the gun to hit the target with his next salvo. But there was no need. Bronco did his job so well the first time that his two rounds found their target straight away and the 1 Troop spotter radioed back to confirm that the enemy unit had been destroyed.
It was working with the SAS in Aden that persuaded Bronco to apply to join the Regiment. His battery sergeant-major ‘persuaded’ him to join the regimental boxing team to harden him up for the SAS Selection course. When the call finally came to go to Hereford for Selection, Bronco was told by the battery sergeant-major that if he came ba
ck having failed, he would let down his regiment and his life would not be worth living. This threat was made quite seriously and Bronco obviously took it to heart as he sailed through Selection.
Once he was ‘badged’, Bronco was posted to 1 Troop, A Squadron, the very outfit and troop that he’d supported with gunfire in Aden. His first operational tour was in the Musandam peninsula in Oman, on a ‘search and destroy’ operation against communist-backed insurgents during Operation Storm in 1970. In all, Bronco completed five operational tours in Oman, rising to become an operations sergeant.
One of these tours, in 1978, proved to be disturbingly eventful. He was part of a four-man 8mm mortar team that was moving across the jebel (mountain). The team comprised Bronco, Barry Jackson, Terry Jickells and the Regiment’s then second-in-command, Major Henry Lee, a somewhat eccentric character. They were part of a large-scale operation involving two SAS squadrons, A and D, as well as a company of Beluchi soldiers of the Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF) and a company of Firquat. (In Arabic Firquat basically means ‘military unit’ and these were irregular troops, some former Adoo (Arabic for ‘enemy’) rebel fighters who had volunteered to serve the sultan and were being trained by the SAS.) Bronco’s team set up a mortar position in support of the advancing troops. They found an ideal tactical fire base in a disused corral and set up the mortar. They now had to await the arrival of the mortar bombs, which were to be brought in by helicopter. They knew that they would come under attack from the enemy as soon as the helicopter landed, so they’d have to be very quick to unload it when it arrived.
When the helicopter arrived, however, they found to their dismay that it had brought them a cargo of water-filled jerry cans – but no mortar bombs. The helicopter made a swift exit. Almost immediately, just as expected, they came under intense fire from heavy machine-guns and small arms. The group hugged the ground, using every scrap of cover and returning fire as best they could with their rifles.