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. Although they only had to travel eleven miles towards Punta Arenas this had to be done under cover of darkness, while keeping an eye out for hostile forces. 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 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]

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] Some of those who surrendered went on to volunteer for the new Sierra Leone Army and those who were accepted went into the British-run training programme. Kallay, the gang's leader, recorded a message for broadcast on Sierra Leonean radio urging the remaining West Side Boys to surrender to UNAMSIL. He also identified the bodies of West Side Boys killed in Magbeni and Gberi Bana, which were subsequently buried in a mass grave. [44] In his book he also recalls the first of many missions dropping off patrols into the Falkland Islands from HMS Hermes. The day before 846 squadron left the UK, they took delivery of seven sets of NGV's which worked with a system called ANVIS.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. 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.'

As I struggled my way to the top of the sleeping bag and managed to extricate myself and sit up, I was greeted by the sight of a very sheepish looking Lieutenant Commander who said, 'terribly sorry 'Royal', can I buy you a beer?' 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 It's now or never,' exclaimed Pete, a poignant remark which was met with a muted response. In a way, Pete had hit the nail on the head. We had only four Sea Kings with which to insert the Special Forces patrols, if we lost any of them and/or the air, on day one of the operation, it would have had a devastating impact on the conduct of future operations."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. 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 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] Although that offer was politely declined on behalf of the aircrew by the British Embassy, they did face the world's media.

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] For three weeks, night after night, the helicopters would fly in troops to the west of Mount Kent and near Bluff Cove and other locations to re-supply patrols. Once the helicopter was destroyed, Richard and two of his crew had to remain uncaptured for eight days. 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. 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 pilotThe ground operation was conducted by D Squadron, 22 Regiment Special Air Service, reinforced with a Troop from C Squadron, Special Boat Service — who assaulted Gberi Bana in a bid to extract the Royal Irish—and elements of 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment (1 PARA), who launched a diversionary assault on Magbeni. The operation freed the five soldiers and their SLA liaison officer, as well as twenty-one Sierra Leonean civilians who had been held prisoner by the West Side Boys. At least twenty-five West Side Boys were killed in the assault, as was one British soldier, while eighteen West Side Boys—including the gang's leader, Foday Kallay—were taken prisoner and later transferred to the custody of the Sierra Leone Police. Many West Side Boys fled the area during the assault, and over 300 surrendered to UNAMSIL forces within a fortnight. Over the coming days and weeks, there was plenty of time to reflect on events of recent weeks and months. That night they were flown to Santiago and even invited to spend the night at the General's palace. You're so focussed on what you had to do, you didn't have much time to think about the other aspects of war." Richard Hutchings, former RNAS Yeovilton pilot