Andy McNab - Bravo Two Zero

I was starting to feel tired. It was time for a break, or we’d begin to make mistakes. You only rush your planning if you have to.

We had a brew and stretched our legs before getting down to the business of how to destroy Scud.

Thirty-seven feet long and about 3 feet wide, the Russian-built SS-1C Scud-B had a range of 100-175 miles. It was transported on, and fired from, an eight wheeled TEL (transporter erector launcher). Crews were trained to operate from points of maximum concealment. Not very accurate, Scud was designed to strike at major storage sites, marshaling areas, and airfields, and was almost more of a propaganda weapon. As well as conventional high explosive, it could carry chemical, biological, or nuclear warheads.

When our armored divisions were sent to Saudi, a rumor had circulated that if Saddam Hussein used chemicals against British forces, Mrs. Thatcher had instructed the generals to go tactical nuclear. I never thought that in my lifetime I’d find myself up against chemical agents. No one in their right mind would use them, but here was a man who had done so against Iran and his own people and would no doubt do so again in this war if the need arose.

“There are maybe fifteen to twenty TELs but many more missiles,” Bert said. “You can expect the TEL to be accompanied by a command vehicle, like a Land Cruiser, with the commander and/or the surveyor aboard. In the TEL itself will be the crew, two in the front, and other operators in the back. The command post within the TEL itself is in the center of the vehicle, entry being via a door on the left-hand side. There might be infantry in support, but we don’t know how many-nor whether there might be several TELs together in convoy, or operating individually.”

It became clear that the surveyor was the main personality at a Scud launch. After the transporter rumbled up to an unprepared site, there was a wait of about an hour before the Scud could be launched. The time was spent in accurate site surveying, radar tracking of upper atmosphere balloons, calculating such factors as angle of deflection, and pumping in of propellants. There were a couple of lesser players, too-the commander, and the operators in the control center who tapped in the coordinates. That made a minimum of three people to be killed in order to render the launcher totally inoperable. However, they could be replaced. We’d still have to deal with the Scud.

How would we destroy it? Air strikes are all very well, but we knew that the Iraqis had excellent DF (direction finding) capability, and we had to assume the worst scenario-that their DF equipment was intact and operational. It worked via a series of listening posts dotted around the country that shot a bearing out to the source of a radio signal. It only took two such bearings to pinpoint a position; it would then be very easy for them to get hold of us, especially if we were on foot. Calling in an air strike would effectively mean that we had gone overt.

We’d only use air strikes if the Iraqis made us an offer we couldn’t refuse-say, the world’s supply of Scuds in convoy. Then we’d just have to get on the net (radio network) and take a chance of getting DF’d. We had to assume that they’d know we were there anyway just because the strike had been directed in.

If we were going to attack the missile itself, there were dangers with the warhead. We wouldn’t know if it was chemical, biological, nuclear, or conventional, and we didn’t want to have to take the precaution of attacking with NEC protective clothing on because it takes time to put on and slows you down badly. The fuel was also a problem, being highly noxious.

The TEL itself would be a better target, because without it the rockets couldn’t be launched.

“Can we destroy it?” Bob said.

“Probably, but we don’t know how easy it would be to repair,” Dinger said. “And anyway, it’s too near the missile.”

“What about the flight information that has to be installed into the rockets?” Chris said.

The more we thought about it, the more sense it made to do a hands-on attack to destroy the control center in the middle of the vehicle.

“We could just put a charge in there which would fuck things up nice without any problems to us,” Vince suggested. “The TEL must be protected against the rocket blast-enough to stop our charge affecting the missile.”

We knew what to attack, but how would we do it? We finally decided that when we saw a Scud being launched, which shouldn’t be too difficult given the billiard-table terrain, we would take a bearing and find it. Hopefully if the landlines were destroyed there would not be any launches anyway.

We knew the vulnerable points. We knew there would be no problems, finding the Scuds. We would go to the area, pinpoint the launch site, and put in a CTR (close target recce) to find out how many troops there were, how many launchers were left, and where the stags were. In a typical CTR, we’d probably find the Scud, then move back and stop at an FRY (final RV) about a mile away, depending on the ground. From there, four blokes would go and carry out a 360degree recce of the position itself, looking for vulnerable points. Two of us would then go in as far as we had to in order to complete the information. Then we’d withdraw to the FRY. I’d have to give a quick brief for that CTR-how we were going to do it, how we were going to get there, what direction we were going to come back in, what the recognition signal was as we came back into the FRY. You always come back in exactly the same direction you left from, to cut down confusion. My normal recognition signal was to walk in with both arms outstretched in a crucifix position, my weapon in my right hand. Different patrols use different signs. The aim is to cut out the noise of a challenge and be easily ID’d. FRVs have to be somewhere easily identifiable and defendable, because navigating back to them in pitch darkness is not as easy as it sounds. Back at the FRY, I’d mentally prepare a quick set of orders for the attack and then tell everybody what was “on target.”

Until we actually got on the ground, we would work on the assumption that we’d have at least three “points of contact”: i.e.” we’d kill the surveyor, control-center commander, and operators. This would normally be done with silenced weapons. A man will always drop if you put a round into his body T-the imaginary line from one temple running across the eyebrows to the other temple and from that line down the center of the face from the bridge of the nose to the base of the sternum. Pop in a round anywhere along the T, and your man will always go down. It must be done from close up, almost right on top of him. You go from a “rolling start line” and just keep going until he turns round; then you must be quick. You cannot hesitate. It’s all down to pure speed, aggression, and surprise.

So much for the theory. Vince had brought a silenced weapon with him from the UK, but another squadron had come and begged it off him for a specific task and there were none left. D Squadron had got to Saudi before us, and down at the stores there had been a nasty outbreak of Shiny Kit Syndrome. They had snaffled everything in sight, and there was no point in us going and asking them nicely if we could please have our ball back. They’d only say they needed it-and probably they did. In the absence of silenced weapons we’d probably have to use our fighting knives-weapons resembling the famous Second World War commando dagger-if we wanted the attack to remain covert for as long as possible.

A fire-support base consisting of four men would be positioned, and then the other four would move out and infiltrate the Scud area. We’d take out the surveyor, then the characters sleeping or sitting in the TEL. Then we’d lay a charge made from PE4 plastic explosive. My guess was that about 2 pounds of explosive on a 2-hour timer inside the TEL would do the trick. We’d close the door and up it would go, well after we’d ex filtrated We’d put an anti handling device on the PEas well, so that even if they found it and went to lift it, it would detonate.