The Warrior's Tale

A friend loaned me a book which I have just finished.  It is not a particularly well written book, it is rather too episodic as it jumps hither and thither, and a confusing host of odd-ball characters are cursorily introduced, dropped, re-appear and then disappear, and conversations and descriptions are littered with specialist 'insider' jargon not always fully explained to the reader.  Even so, for anyone interested in, putting it somewhat grandiloquently but absolutely accurately, the ethos of the warrior this book is essential reading.  It is also, in its studiously off-hand, under-stated, English way, deeply moving.

The book is called Seven Troop and is written by ex-Sgt. 'Andy McNab' DCM, MM, the leader of the ill-fated SAS patrol into Iraq during the first war which led to the deaths of several of his men and the capture and subsequent torture of the remainder.  His book describing that episode, Bravo Two Zero, was a world-wide smash hit and 'McNab' (not his real name) went on to write several fiction adventure yarns.  Hitherto, I had never read any of his books, even Bravo Two Zero, because I had gleaned enough information from the newspapers to satisfy my curiosity on that particular operation.  Incidentally, I was faintly amused to find out that 'McNab' and his fellow SAS troopers were tortured in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.  However, they were really tortured, in the improper old-fashioned meaning of the word, and how they must have smiled at the subsequent fuss over the mild mistreatment of some prisoners in American hands many years later.  Funnily enough, the likes of The Guardian never made half as much fuss over their beatings, whippings and burnings - why am I not surprised?  'McNab' tells of his daily torture and gives away just one little example of how thorough the SAS are in preparation.  Apparently there was an American Marine pilot who had been held and brutally tortured by the North Vietnamese for six years - but had survived!  The SAS command had him flown over to the UK to talk to the men so that they might learn something from his experience if, as was frequently the case, they might risk the same predicament.  'McNab' clung to the advice he was offered by that American pilot and it helped him withstand his torment.

Anyway, 'McNab' has written this book, I think, as a tribute to the men he served with in his first operational sub-unit inside the SAS - 7 Troop.  It is a desperately sad tale.  They say you have to be mad to join the SAS, which I suspect may be true; in which case it proves that I am at least only half mad because whilst I did consider trying for it, in the end I didn't, mostly because I doubted my ability to pass the selection course.  I had managed to bluff my way through the Para selection tests but that was a tea-party compared to what you had to endure with the SAS.  According to 'McNab', some 200 soldiers joined the course with him and at the end only eight remained!  Having passed, he describes in a series of short chapters his various activities and some of the men with whom he served.  The second half of the book is the long, sad and, to me as an ex-soldier, the deeply moving account of how so many of them perished, not by enemy action, although several did, but by their own hand!  You read this book and come away convinced that an above average number of SAS men are, by their operational experiences, driven into mental breakdown.  Or, perhaps there is something about the average psychological profile of the type of men attracted to that regiment which inclines them to psychosis. Even the ones who avoid it still manage to give the impression of being, shall we say, slightly odd!

And yet ... and yet ... what superb warriors they are!  And I use that rather old-fashioned word with deliberation.  It isn't just their courage, all soldiers have that capability in them which is why they are soldiers, but in the SAS it is allied with tremendous skill and technique.  I once went on an exercise with them in Denmark and I still remember vividly how hugely impressed I was by their impeccable soldiering skills.  They really thought through everything in detail and trained and practiced accordingly.

Even so, the book ends on the despondent scene at the little churchyard in Hereford, the town that hosts the SAS HQ, with 'McNab' visiting the graves of dead friends and comrades and pouring a splash of rum over their graves in remembrance of times past and lives lost.  McNab, himself, as he admits, was once a young, ignorant tearaway from a ghastly housing estate in Peckham where he thieved and fought until his native wit and intelligence told him that any more would lead to disaster.  To give himself one last chance he joined the army, and like so many before him, found a sort of salvation.  He now spends a lot of time speaking to young soldier recruits at the British army in-take centre at Catterick.  He is the very best example that they could have set before them.

Read the book, it's terrific!

Comments

[Pavlov's Cat]

led to the deaths of several of his men and the capture and subsequent torture of the remainder.

Can I just correct you on this Mr Duff.

Chris Ryan (his real name) was also in Bravo 2 Zero and actually managed to escape and evade back to friendly lines, as detailed in his excellent book 'The One That Got Away'.

[David Duff]

Yes, indeed, sorry, bit of brain fade occurred!

[Laban]

From Chris Ryan's 'The One That Got Away' :

"When I was seventeen, on my first escape and evasion exercise with the Territorial SAS, up at Otterburn in the middle of winter, I was caught by the hunter force of Three Para. They got us, gave us a good kicking, stripped us naked, tied our wrists and anchored us up to the chest in the middle of the river until we were completely numb. Then they took us to an insulated airborne shelter (anyone know what one of those is ?), with five gas heaters blazing, where the temperature was about 120 degrees. As our circulation got going again, the pain became excruciating - and it was then, when we were doubled up in agony on the floor, that they started interrogating us about who we were and what we had been doing. As soon as we were warm and starting to recover, they put us back in the river and so began the whole process again ..."

On Ryan's eighteenth birthday he was captured and interrogated on exercise by Belgian paratroops. He doesn't say exactly what they did to him, but thought "there's no way I'm ever going to get captured again".

Brummie Stokes was a tough chap too :

British climber and SAS men Brummie Stokes and Bronco Lane survived an open-air bivouac after climbing the summit of Everest in 1976, but were badly frostbitten. When Stokes arrived back in England, he consulted with a doctor regarding his severely frostbitten toes. The doctor saw it was clear there would need to be amputation of the toes, but he advised that they should wait for two months to see which tissue was going to die off and which could be saved. The summer of 1976 was a particularly hot one, and pretty soon, as the toes started to get blacker and to separate from the good flesh, they also began to smell terribly. After the first month, tiny maggots began eating at the dead tissue between the frostbite that had gone hard and the healthy flesh on Stokes' feet. A gap was appearing between the two that began to expose the bones of the by-now dead toes.

One evening he attended a party in Hereford, and during its course a nurse from the local hospital asked to see the frostbitten toes. As he removed his dressings, the audience reeled from the smell of rotten flesh. The nurse was unfazed and asked about the maggots and whether she could touch the toes so she could know what they felt like. By now the toes were all hard and wrinkled and completely dead. She reached down to squeeze the big toe and Stokes felt a sharp pain shooting up through his ankle.

He looked down to see her fainting at his feet. She had tweaked the big toe hard and it had fallen off.

It was laying on the carpet - although not for long. The dog saw to that. Two more girls fainted and several people were sick. It was horribly embarrassing for Stokes - but at least he got most of the curry to himself!

(From High : Stories Of Survival From Everest And K2)

[David Duff]

Nice to know that the fine traditions of my old unit 3 Para lived on! Actually, later on when I transferred to the Intelligence Corps I did spend some time with the Interrogation Centre and once had a go at some SAS trainees. Never got a word out of any of them!

All that makes it even more important that the army, and the SAS Command themselves, make better efforts to monitor the mental health of these terrific soldiers. 'McNab's' book is a sorry tale in this regard.