Writing Worth Reading
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Writing Worth Reading
This is about the same event as Andy’s book but, as the title suggests, he was the one who managed to escape. And this is another illustration of the human spirit and what SAS guys have to put up with. In fact, he has now got the record for the longest escape and evasion in the SAS, which was previously held by someone in the Second World War who did a similar thing in the Western Desert.
Your final book is by Chris Ryan, The One That Got Away.
Yes, this is about the same event as Andy’s book but, as the title suggests, he was the one who managed to escape. And this is another illustration of the human spirit and what SAS guys have to put up with. In fact, he has now got the record for the longest escape and evasion in the SAS, which was previously held by someone in the Second World War who did a similar thing in the Western Desert.
So, he was part of the Bravo 2 Zero patrol and when they had to bug out they were laying up during the day and marching at night. Chris Ryan eventually somehow got detached from the rest of the group in a blizzard. He wandered off and got lost. You have to remember this is during some of the worst weather they had had for 30 years. He went it alone and decided to go for the Syrian border and, by sheer luck, in the end he made it and crossed the border to freedom. I think it shows a huge amount of spirit and stamina.
What’s the atmosphere like when people come back from missions like that when you think they had died?
Well, it’s typical SAS – let’s get down the pub and get pissed. Once you are on the booze you can tell us the story down there! So that is basically what happens.
Was it a similar deal when you were celebrating your successful mission to release the hostages from the Iranian Embassy in London and Margaret Thatcher came to visit you?
Yes, it was pure exhilaration. You realise what a great success you have made of an operation. I would imagine Chris would have felt exhilarated to have escaped being captured and tortured. After the siege it was a different kind of exhilaration. Maggie Thatcher walked in to see us, like Caesar returning to the Senate. She said, ‘There is nothing sweeter than success and you boys have got it.’ And we all went, ‘Yeah, come and have a drink, Maggie.’ And she did. And then John, who was one of the guys on the balcony at the embassy, wanted to watch the news, and she was wandering about, so he shouted at her: ‘That woman at the front sit down!’ And she did, cross-legged in front of the TV so we could all watch our success on the news.
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Pete Winner, codenamed Soldier ‘I’, spent 18 years in the SAS and survived the savage battle of Mirbat, parachuted into the icy depths of the South Atlantic at the height of the Falklands War, and stormed the Iranian Embassy in London during the hostage crisis 30 years ago. He says MI6 is for the public school boys, and the SAS is for men with an ordinary education who have the strength and determination to seek adventure, survive and come back smiling. He describes his work as involving no publicity, no media. ‘We move in silently, do our job, and melt away into the background.’
