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From December 1977 to June 1978, he was posted to South Armagh, Northern Ireland, as part of the British Army's 'Operation Banner'. In 1978 and 1979, he returned to Armagh as a newly promoted Lance Corporal, and claimed to have killed for the first time during a firefight with the Provisional Irish Republican Army. McNab wrote of the incident: "I remember vividly the first time I had to kill someone to stay alive. I was a 19-year-old soldier in Keady, south Armagh, and my patrol stumbled across six IRA terrorists preparing for an ambush. When the shooting started they were just 20 metres away from my patrol. I was scared, very scared." McNab was awarded the Military Medal for this incident. However, security sources later claimed that the person McNab shot was only wounded and died as a result of injuries from a separate shootout later that day.
In 1982, after spending eight years with the Royal Green Jackets, he decided to attempt SAS selection. Having failed his first attempt he finally passed in 1984, and transferred to the SAS. While serving with Air Troop, B Squadron, 22 SAS for ten years, McNab worked on both covert and overt operations worldwide., which included counter terrorism and drug operations in the Middle East and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland. McNab trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, prime target elimination, demolitions, weapons, tactics, covert surveillance roles and information gathering in hostile environments, and VIP protection. He worked on cooperative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and Western backed guerrilla movements as well as on conventional special operations. In Northern Ireland, he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14 Intelligence Company, going on to become an instructor.
During the First Gulf War, McNab commanded Bravo Two Zero, an eight man SAS patrol that was given the task of destroying underground communication links between Baghdad and north-west Iraq and with tracking Scud missile movements in the region. The patrol was dropped into Iraq on 22 January 1991, but was soon compromised, escaping on foot towards Syria, the closest coalition country.
Three of the eight men were killed; four were captured (including McNab) after three days on the run and one member, 'Chris Ryan', escaped. The four captured men were held for six weeks before being released on 5 March. By the time he was released McNab was suffering from nerve damage to both hands, a dislocated shoulder, kidney and liver damage and hepatitis B. After six months of medical treatment he was back on active service. In the words of the SAS's commanding officer, the story of the patrol "will remain in Regimental history forever".
Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab claims to have been the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier when he left the SAS in February 1993. Biography | Andy McNab Official Website
Tough, resourceful, ruthless – as an SAS trooper, Nick Stone was one of the best. Now he’s back on the streets. After a botched mission, the Regiment no longer want his services. But British Intelligence does – as a deniable operator. It’s the dirtiest job in a very, very dirty world. In Washington DC, it’s about to get dirtier still. On the apparently routine tail of two terrorists, he discovers the bodies of an ex-SAS officer and his family. Soon he’s on the run with the lone survivor of the bloodbath – a seven year old girl. And whilst she can identify the killers, only Stone can keep them at bay – and solve a mystery whose genesis takes him back to the most notorious SAS mission in recent history… Remote Control is the first of Andy McNab’s blistering Nick Stone thrillers – bestsellers whose landscape is so compellingly close to the truth that they had to be vetted by the Ministry of Defence, and could only be published as fiction… ‘Proceeds with a testosterone surge’ Daily Telegraph
First in—the official motto of one of the British Army's smallest and most secretive units, 16 Air Assault Brigade's Pathfinder Platoon. Unofficially, they are the bastard son of the SAS. And like their counterparts in Hereford, the job of the Pathfinders is to operate unseen and undetected deep behind enemy lines. When British forces deployed to Iraq in 2003, Captain David Blakeley was given command of a reconnaissance mission of such critical importance that it could change the course of the war. It's the story of nine men, operating alone and unsupported, 50 miles ahead of a US Recon Marine advance and head straight into a hornets nest, teeming with thousands of heavily-armed enemy forces. This is the first account of that extraordinary mission—abandoned by coalition command, left with no option but to fight their way out of the enemy's backyard. And it provides a gripping insight into the Pathfinders themselves, a shadowy unit, just 45 men strong, that plies its trade from the skies. Trained to parachute in to enemy territory far beyond the forward edge of battle—reefalling from high altitude breathing bottled oxygen and employing the latest skydiving technology—he PF are unique. Because of new rules introduced since the publication of Bravo Two Zero, there have been no first-hand accounts of British Special Forces waging modern-day warfare for nearly a decade. And no member of the Pathfinders has ever told their story before, until now. Pathfinder is the only first-hand account of a UKSF mission to emerge for nearly a generation. And it could be the last."A gripping account of special forces at work... a tremendous adventure story." The Daily Telegraph "The best account yet of the SAS in action." The Sunday Times"
About the Author
ANDY MCNAB joined the infantry as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was ‘badged’ as a member of 22 SAS Regiment and was involved in both covert and overt special operations worldwide. Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab was the British Army’s most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993. He wrote about his experiences in two phenomenal bestsellers, Bravo Two Zero, which was filmed starring Sean Bean, and Immediate Action.
Ex-SAS trooper Nick Stone is extremely highly trained. Clever, ruthless and very effective, it is no surprise that he is hired by British Intelligence. On deniable operations – one of the most dangerous lines of work. Sarah Greenwood is beautiful, intelligent and cunning – and the only woman Stone has ever truly opened up to. But now he has been ordered to hunt her down. Hotly pursued through the American wilderness, Stone finds himself at the centre of a deadly game of cat and mouse. He must get to the heart of a terrifying conspiracy theory to which only Sarah holds the key. But will he manage to before the tension reaches boiling point? ‘When it comes to thrills, he’s Forsyth class’ Mail on Sunday
Spoken from the Front is the story of the Afghan Campaign, told for the first time in the words of the servicemen and women who have been fighting there. With unprecedented access to soldiers of all ranks, as well as pilots, reservists, engineers, medics, Royal Military police, mechanics, cooks and other military personnel, Andy McNab has assembled a portrait of modern conflict like never before.This is the full experience of British troops on the ground and in the air. The horrors, cruelties, drudgery, excitement and banter of these soldiers' lives combine to form a chronological narrative of all the major events in Helmand during the British Army's time there.
From their action-packed, dramatic, moving and often humorous testimonies in interviews, diaries, letters and emails written to family, friends and loved ones, merges a 360-degree picture of guerrilla warfare up close and extremely personal. It is as close to the real thing as you can get.Tough, resourceful, ruthless – as an SAS trooper, Nick Stone was one of the best. Now he’s back on the streets. After a botched mission, the Regiment no longer want his services. But British Intelligence does – as a deniable operator. It’s the dirtiest job in a very, very dirty world. In Washington DC, it’s about to get dirtier still. On the apparently routine tail of two terrorists, he discovers the bodies of an ex-SAS officer and his family. Soon he’s on the run with the lone survivor of the bloodbath – a seven year old girl. And whilst she can identify the killers, only Stone can keep them at bay – and solve a mystery whose genesis takes him back to the most notorious SAS mission in recent history… Remote Control is the first of Andy McNab’s blistering Nick Stone thrillers – bestsellers whose landscape is so compellingly close to the truth that they had to be vetted by the Ministry of Defence, and could only be published as fiction… ‘Proceeds with a testosterone surge’ Daily TelegraphHe is one of the most highly decorated soldiers alive. He is also the first to break the code of silence about the most elite fighting force in the world. What Andy McNab has to say is so explosive that the British government tried to stop him.
A street fighter, a hard case, and a flawless soldier, Andy McNab became one of the elite fighting men in "the Regiment"--Britain's covert SAS. His actions behind the lines in the Gulf War made him a hero. But the full story of his life and his amazing career in Special Forces has remained a secret...until now.
In harrowing detail, McNab takes us inside the Regiment, chronicling nine years of covert operations on five continents. Plunging us into a world of surveillance, counterintelligence, and hostage rescue, he takes us behind the scenes on some of their top secret missions. For the first time, he reveals the shocking details of their training--physically severe, mentally grueling, and sometimes deadly. And he dares to expose some of their highly confidential codes and rules--including the one that sanctions murder.
This is the story of the fighting men of the SAS. Here is how they live. And here is how they die...Their mission: To take out the scuds. Eight went out. Five came back. Their story had been closed in secrecy. Until now. They were British Special Forces, trained to be the best. In January 1991 a squad of eight men went behind the Iraqi lines on a top secret mission. It was called Bravo Two Zero. On command was Sergeant Andy McNab. "They are the true unsung heroes of the war." -- Lt. Col. Steven Turner, American F-15E commander. Dropped into "scud alley" carrying 210-pound packs, McNab and his men found themselves surrounded by Saddam's army. Their radios didn't work. The weather turned cold enough to freeze diesel fuel. And they had been spotted. Their only chance at survival was to fight their way to the Syrian border seventy-five miles to the northwest and swim the Euphrates river to freedom. Eight set out. Five came back. "I'll tell you who destroyed the scuds -- it was the British SAS. They were fabulous." -- John Major, British Prime Minister. This is their story. Filled with no-holds-barred detail about McNab's capture and excruciating torture, it tells of men tested beyond the limits of human endurance... and of the war you didn't see on CNN. Dirty, deadly, and fought outside the rules.
This is Andy McNab's explosive true story of his life in the SAS. In 1983 Andy McNab joined SAS B Squadron, otherwise known as Seven Troop. This is Andy McNab's gripping account of the time he served in Seven Troop - from the day he joined them in the Malayan jungle, to the day he handed in his beret and started a new life. Never-before-revealed operations and heartbreaking human stories combine in his thrilling true story. This recording is unabridged. Typically abridged audiobooks are not more than 60 per cent of the author's work and as low as 30 per cent with characters and plotlines removed.
Everybody knew that we would have to move out of that hide position because we were so closed up, we were such an easy target, so it was a.. really a question of out of the frying pan into the fire. We come out of our position of concealment but then we were exposed on... the plains. But it was the only option that we had.
So it was... really a controlled frenzy. Everybody was starting to get as much liquid down them as possible because we knew we were going to have to start moving fast; we knew that we were going to have to leave a lot of our... equipment behind so we need to sort of get as much liquid down and refill our water bottles before we start moving.People started to throw chocolate.. started to eat chocolate...
Q. Tell me how did you first.. what did you do, you first began to hear the creak of the APC......?About four or five hundred metres out of that hide position we started to hear track vehicles coming from the East which is to our lefthand side as we were moving South. It was... very frustrating because you couldn't see what it was. Because of the lie of the ground there was a slight rise. These vehicles have come from the main supply route, and they were now starting to move towards this... depression that we was in. There's nowhere you can go... it's pointless running because again you make up an extra hundred metres and that's about sort of sixteen turns of... the tank trucks. It's nothing... it means nothing.So we just had... to stop where we were, get our bergens off, our rucksacks, what we call our bergens off because we're not going to be able to do anything with them on... and prepare the 66s, the... anti-tank rockets. By now these were... already prepared, these were all stripped down and they were just closed up so there was very minimal sort of work you had to do. Just open them up and get ready.Again it's... a very frustrating time because... you can't see what's happening. All you can do is hear what the noise are. You know it's a track vehicle, you know... that these... vehicles are coming, but there's nothing you can do. You've got to wait...And everybody was... sort of shouting at each other, trying to... maybe get information from somebody from the extreme righthand side, can they see anything, you know. I couldn't see anything, any of the people to my left.. Stan couldn't see anything at all and you was just hoping that maybe it was this sort of.. your mind was cut in half, you understand the realism of it, they're going to come over and they're going to see you but the... sort of.. the fantasy side of... your mind is saying, "Well, maybe they won't. Maybe they'll turn left and go somewhere else". And that's want you want because that's the last thing you want is to start getting involved in any contact of any type. Number one that's not our task; we're not there to start fighting people. [W]e're not a big force for that... We're not armed enough for that, that wasn't our task.
Q. And what happens next?We... heard the... 66 go off on the extreme lefthand side and what the patrol had is what we call `mobility kill'. It had stopped the vehicle because it's destroyed the... tracks or... the wheels itself, but it hasn't damaged the people inisde so that.. obviously they're... cut, they're bruised, they're slightly dazed but it hasn't destroyed the firing and the protection capabilities of that vehicle.It then, for them and for us, got very chaotic. They were very confused about what was going on.. the... Iraqis, their command and control was... very unorganised. It looked like people were screaming out other vehicles and just firing. That was a... time of confusion, for them. And it was a time of confusion for us because we were... trying to,... first of all, take in... what... we're going to start fighting. This might have been the... first sort of three vehicles of sixteen. We weren't too sure, but basically we were in the shit! There's nowhere to go but forward.It... wasn't so much a sort of an up and... charge sort of situation... What we try to create is a thing called `fire and manoeuvre' so there's always fire going down, but we're always going forward. This in training is always very good and looks very good, but in practice it never is. It's very confusing;m people possibly getting wounded, getting injuries which slow 'em down, weapons have... stoppages, so it stops the flow but that's all part, again it's not a science, it's all part of what goes on.For myself personally I just scream and shout, but it's for me.... I don't really know the reason why it's just something that... I feel that I have to do, whether it's trying to give me more aggression, more... sort of courage or whatever, I don't know what it is.
Q. And you're firing at the Iraqis, what do you remember of that?...Again, it's a very chaotic time... you're trying to take aim, you're out of breath 'cause... you're exerting yourself now. You're trying to get in fire position, you're weapon will move up and down, you're... trying to take aim shots because you want to conserve your ammunition...
Q. How far away are the Iraqis?Well the... at one stage they were... sort of a hundred metres away, but we had to go forward, and we got to about fifteen, twenty metres... and still firing and moving on and by this time there was an APC that moved back with some more troops. They... got in the APC, and they started to move back.The 66s had been used up apart from mine because I left it back at the start point. Again, with all the adrenalin, shouting at the people, telling 'em that we're going to go forward... Also, you get involved in your own little world with the people around you. So it is a big effort, it is a patrol effort, but everybody's involved in their own little world.
Q. And what does the scene look like now? A lot of dead Iraqis....?There's .. yeh... there's people who are dead, there are people who are wounded... People cry, people scream, people beg, 'cause they think that... you're going to kill 'em, that you're going to go up and execute 'em. People beg.The troops that withdraw were... very much now sort of re-organising theirselves... It's very much like a scenario in a school playground where you would get two gangs: they would have a fight, one would run away and then sort of poke their fingers out "We're going to get you!" And then they'd sort theirselves out and come forward again. Now we don't want to get involved with that, so we ran... that's enough. The object is... not to fight the enemy it's to get away from 'em.
Q. And what was your most vivid memory, your snapshot memory of that engagement? Just... one ... teenager, basically, one... 17 year old conscript who was in the truck... who was just sitting there crying. I don't know how badly he was wounded... He... wasn't in the throes of death, but he was just sitting there crying, and he was covered in blood. He was shot or injured somewhere 'cause he thought... he was going to die which... it's pointless doing anyway, all of that stuff; you just want to get away. It... wasn't a scene of carnage but... there was dead and wounded and, again, ... the only concern you have about... these soldiers is if they're wounded they are nowhere near their weapons. So as you move forward you... you know if they're going... to do anything or not because... you're looking at 'em and you're pointing your weapon at 'em and they... and quite rightly so, ... they want nothing to do with it... [I]t's a natural reaction; they're wounded, they're conscripts, they don't want none of this.So as long as you know you're safe with these people, that they've thrown their weapons away, that's fine, or they're backing out from it. And a lot of 'em are so involved in their own... little world as well 'cause they're injured, they think they're going to die, probably some of them did afterwards. So it's... just small contained areas that... you see.
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