Eye of the Storm (61 page)

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 …’