Operation Certain Death

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Connaughton, Richard (September 2001). "Operation 'Barass' (sic)". Small Wars & Insurgencies. London: Routledge. 12 (2): 110–119. doi: 10.1080/714005388. S2CID 220390148. 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. 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.

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. A powerful tale from an author who knows his stuff. Addictively compelling, you’ll be reading into the small hours’ Alan McDermott, author of Fight to Survive It seemed almost incomprehensible that the Squadron had embarked in HMS Hermes as recently as just over 100 days earlier. 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]Tim Collins, late of the Royal Irish Regiment, was serving as operations officer under the DSF during Barras. Officers serving with special forces usually return to their parent regiment after their tour of duty, and Collins' next duty was as commanding officer of 1 R IRISH. Breathtaking. Kim Hughes is the man who stands between us and oblivion' Andy McNab (author of Bravo Two Zero) His book is called "Special Forces Pilot: A Flying Memoir of the Falklands War" and is published by Pen and Sword Books.

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. Dorman, Andrew M. (2009). Blair's Successful War: British Military Intervention in Sierra Leone. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754672999. Collins, Tim (2005). Rules of Engagement: A Life in Conflict. London: Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 9780755313747. Over the coming days and weeks, there was plenty of time to reflect on events of recent weeks and months.

The night vision goggles enabled us to fly right down to ground level at high speed and enabled us to navigate very accurately." Richard Hutchings, former RNAS helicopter pilot In his new job as Director of Special Forces he will report to David Cameron and liaise with MI5 and MI6 . 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.

Officially, the SAS mission was called Operation Barras. The men on the ground called it Operation Certain Death. The capture of the Royal Irish patrol had undermined the confidence of the Sierra Leonean population in the British operation, which they hoped would help to bring an end to the country's civil war, and embarrassed the British government, which had been critical of similar previous incidents involving UNAMSIL personnel. [2] [15] Operation Barras restored confidence in the British forces, prompting military historian William Fowler to call the operation "a necessarily spectacular endorsement of the rule of law and the elected government of Sierra Leone". [53]

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Two days later, on 31 August, five of the eleven hostages were released in exchange for a satellite telephone and medical supplies. [14] [15] The OC of the captured soldiers had originally decided to release the youngest first, but this was changed to the married men last minute. However, out of the married men the West Side Boys wanted two of them to remain due to their signals experience. The released soldiers included the Sergeant Major, two corporals and two rangers. The West Side Boys told the British negotiators that the remaining captured soldiers which included the OC, a Captain, a Sergeant, a Lance Corporal and two Rangers that they would not be released until the gang's remaining demands were met. The released soldiers were flown for debriefing to RFA Sir Percivale, of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, off the coast. [14] 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]

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] As the SAS operation concluded, the Chinooks ferried prisoners and bodies from Gberi Bana to the Jordanian battalion of UNAMSIL. From there, the bodies would be identified and buried, and those prisoners identified as West Side Boys would be handed over to the Sierra Leonean Police. [38] [39] Operation Barras also freed 22 Sierra Leonean civilians who had been held captive by the West Side Boys—the men were used as servants and put through crude military training by the West Side Boys, possibly with the intention of forcing them to fight in the future, while the women were used as sex slaves. Planners had been concerned that West Side Boys might try to conceal themselves among the civilians and so the civilians were also restrained and taken to the Jordanian peacekeepers' base to be identified. A 23rd civilian was caught in the crossfire and killed during the assault. [37] [40] Magbeni [ edit ] An RAF Chinook with underslung Land Rover, a procedure used to retrieve the Royal Irish patrol's vehicles from Magbeni You haven’t seen these people in action. I have. Believe me, if British forces have to come in and rescue us, this place is finished. There won’t be a building left standing.’ ‘Then that, Major, will be a very good thing.’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. COBRA is a British government committee convened to handle national crises. The committee is named after the room in which it meets—the Cabinet Office Briefing Room—and usually known as "COBRA" or "Cobra" or sometimes "COBR". Similarly to the SAS, COBRA first became known to the public during the Iranian Embassy siege. [29] [30] But after holding the five for 17 days, the rebels stepped up their demands and insisted on a new government. 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. During the negotiations, the relatives of several of the West Side Boys were brought to the gang's camp to ask them to release the British soldiers. The gang responded that they had nothing against the soldiers, but that holding them had brought attention to their demands—which now included immunity from prosecution, safe passage to the UK to take up university courses, and guaranteed acceptance to the re-formed Sierra Leone Army. [16] Military planning [ edit ]