Operation Certain Death

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I was so busy doing the job, most of the time your mind was focussed on planning the next flight, flying it, debriefing from that flight, and sleeping. I became pretty much a nocturnal creature. Connaughton, Richard (September 2001). "Operation 'Barass' (sic)". Small Wars & Insurgencies. London: Routledge. 12 (2): 110–119. doi: 10.1080/714005388. S2CID 220390148. The three of us managed to get past this base and we were about to walk around the corner of this quiet side street when a car pulled up alongside us," said Richard. In his new job as Director of Special Forces he will report to David Cameron and liaise with MI5 and MI6 .

But despite “suicidal” odds, they rescued their comrades, a local army officer held in a latrine pit and 22 civilian hostages in a firefight lasting just 30 minutes. With little to do, my thoughts turned increasingly to family, how would Lorraine (his wife) cope if I were never to see her again? The Falklands War was also the first time Night Vision Goggles (NGV's) were used by the Royal Navy, something that was untested state of the art technology at the time. You're so focussed on what you had to do, you didn't have much time to think about the other aspects of war." Negotiators secured the release of six of the soldiers, but were unable to gain the freedom of the remaining five and their SLA liaison officer before the West Side Boys' demands became increasingly unrealistic. Negotiators concluded that these were delaying tactics rather than an effort to resolve the crisis. By 9 September, the soldiers had been held for over a fortnight. Fearing that the soldiers would be killed or moved to a location from which it would be more difficult to extract them, the British government authorised an assault on the West Side Boys' base, to take place at dawn the following day, 10 September.Over the coming days and weeks, there was plenty of time to reflect on events of recent weeks and months. On 29 August, Fordham demanded proof that the captive soldiers were still alive, and Kallay brought with him to that day's meeting the two officers from the group—Marshall, the company commander, and Captain Ed Flaherty, the regimental signals officer. During the meeting, Flaherty shook hands with Fordham and covertly passed him a sketch map of Gberi Bana which detailed the layout of the village and the building in which the soldiers were being held. [14]

Prior to the Falklands War, all flying at night had to be done at a height that was safe above the highest piece of ground on a particular route, so typically it was 1,000 feet above the ground. In his book he also recalls the first of many missions dropping off patrols into the Falkland Islands from HMS Hermes. With the progression of the plans, the enhanced A Company was tasked with planning for an assault on the village of Magbeni, to the south of Rokel Creek, while the SAS would aim to release the captive Royal Irish soldiers by assaulting Gberi Bana, on the north bank. The Magbeni assault had several purposes: to neutralise weapons in the village which could disrupt the SAS operation, to distract the West Side Boys in Magbeni and prevent them from crossing Rokel Creek to interfere with the operation in Gberi Bana, to defeat the West Side Boys and destroy their military capabilities, and to recover the Royal Irish patrol's vehicles. [19] [24] Well-told of a successful SAS rescue mission in Sierra Leone. Multiple points of view and roughly straight timeline increases drama. American readers are reminded that other parts of the world are in crisis and other major powers are doing something about it. Other nations, especially UN peacekeepers, don’t come off so well. Perfect for fans of Ollie Ollerton, Andy McNab and Mark 'Billy' Billingham - a breathless, edge-of-your-seat thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author and bomb disposal expert, Kim Hughes GC.

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I felt something of how a condemned man must feel in the hours before his execution; the minutes seemed like hours. Although Richard's part of the mission was successful, overall it failed because the Special Forces team encountered a difficulty on the ground that prevented them from completing their task. Officially, the SAS mission was called Operation Barras. The men on the ground called it Operation Certain Death.

An investigation into the capture of the patrol was launched by Land Command and a senior officer was despatched to Freetown to debrief the members of the patrol. The report was critical of Marshall, stating that he "made an error of professional judgement in diverting from a planned and authorised journey to make an unauthorised visit to the village of Magbeni." [55] Several members of A Company were new recruits who had only completed basic training two weeks prior. Lowe decided that replacing them with more experienced soldiers would risk undermining the cohesion and morale of the company, but several specialist units from elsewhere in 1 PARA were attached to A Company to bring the company group up to the required strength, including a signals group, snipers, heavy machine gun sections, and a mortar section. [18] [19] The additional firepower was included to maximise the options available to the planners, given that the West Side Boys had a numerical advantage and that additional resources would not be immediately available should the operation run into difficulties. [20]During that short time, a war had been fought and won over 8,000 miles from home.' State of the art technology That night they were flown to Santiago and even invited to spend the night at the General's palace. The two villages were to be assaulted simultaneously—Gberi Bana, where the Royal Irish were held, by the SAS and Magbeni by an SAS team and the paras. In addition to the remaining Royal Irish soldiers, the SAS were also tasked with extracting Lieutenant Musa Bangura—the patrol's SLA liaison, whose extraction was given the same priority as that of the Royal Irish—and a group of Sierra Leonean civilians who were being held by the West Side Boys. [34] Assault [ edit ] US Marines fast-roping from a Sea Knight—the same insertion technique used by the SAS at Gberi Bana The enhanced A Company group—approximately 130 troops in total—arrived in the country in several groups and joined the SAS, who had already established a base in Hastings, a village 30 miles (48 kilometres) south of Freetown, where several of the paras recognised former colleagues among the troopers from D Squadron. At Hastings, the paras focused on live firing exercises and rehearsed various scenarios in a scale replica of Magbeni which had been constructed at the camp. [27] [28]

The bomb-maker has bigger plans in place, designed for maximum destruction. Plans that are personal to Riley - and his family. And he has no qualms about how many innocent bystanders are caught in the firestorm. The deranged killers – known as the West Side Boys – wanted medicines, the release of prisoners taken during a 10-year civil war and an amnesty ­before they would free the peacekeepers from the Royal Irish Regiment. Andrew M. Dorman of King's College London suggested that the fate of the wider British operation in Sierra Leone depended heavily on the success or failure of Operation Barras and that, had the British forces been defeated, the United Kingdom would have been forced to withdraw all its forces from Sierra Leone. Dorman also suggests that a defeat would have "raised questions" regarding Tony Blair's policy of using armed force for humanitarian intervention. [57] [58]

I couldn't believe it, I said to him 'No, we're from the British ship in the port,' and he said, 'There is no British ship in the port, please get into my car,' and he drove us into base." MI6 safe-house The SAS located the captive British soldiers from the latter's shouts of "British Army, British Army!", though Bangura had been held separately and proved more difficult to locate. He was found in a squalid open pit, which had been used by the West Side Boys as a lavatory, [37] and had been starved and beaten during his captivity, and thus had to be carried to the helicopter. Less than 20 minutes after the arrival of the SAS, the remaining members of the Royal Irish patrol, including Bangura, had been evacuated from the area. [36] British forces were deployed to Sierra Leone in May 2000, initially for a non-combatant evacuation operation under the codename Operation Palliser, in which they were tasked with evacuating foreign nationals—particularly those from the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries, and others for whom the British government had accepted consular responsibility. As part of the mission, British forces secured Sierra Leone's main airport, Lungi. Having secured Freetown and Lungi, and evacuated the foreign nationals who wished to leave, the initial forces left and were replaced by a "Short Term Training Team" (STTT), whose mission was to train and rebuild the Sierra Leone Army. The STTT was initially formed from a detachment from 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, who were replaced in July 2000 by 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment (1 R IRISH). [8] On cue 'Flyco' delivered the navigation data as practised many times during our training sorties, but this time it was for real. I fixed our position in TANS and all three aircraft launched into the darkness. Operation Sutton was underway.' Out of the car stepped a captain of the Chilean carabineros - who came up to us in spanish and said, 'Are you the three British airmen?' It was just like the moment of out of the TV programme, 'Allo 'Allo.