For Allied forces in the Gulf,
the preparation is over. The real battle? Only days away.
This relentless activity is a reminder that if final-hour diplomacy stumbles,
then action against Iraq will be both certain and uncompromising.
Saddam Hussein says it will be "The Mother of all Battles."
President Bush demanded that the conflict must be swift and decisive.
This will not be another vietnam.
This will not be a protracted, drawn-out war.
Israel retained the right to defend itself
and would retaliate if Iraq took any offensive action.
A Defence spokesman said Israeli jets could be over Iraqi territory
within 20 minutes.
The UN Secretary-General said,
only God knows if there would be peace or war.
When I walk out of here, I want quiet!
- Fags, factor 20, bacon sandwich. - Ta.
It's mine, it's mine, it's mine!
- This is for Kate's birthday. - Yeah?
"Dearest Kate. I'm truly sorry I can't be with you on your birthday."
Shit. Four years old. I've missed every one of them.
# "Wow.! Allah.!"
"*Darling", "you've got to let me know"
# "Should I stay or should I go"
- Here you go. - See you soon.
Give me a hug.
You take care of Mummy, OK?
You could always get that dog you were talking about.
Piss off, Andy.
See you when I see you.
- New boots? - Aye. Gucci.
Very chic.
Image is very important, especially when you're dealing with rag-heads.
Yeah. Watch your step, Chris.
# "Should I stay or should I go now"
# "If I go there will be trouble"
If anyone touches you while I'm away,
I'll knot their bollocks so tight, they'll be pissing out their ears.
Hey, where's Tony?
Shit!
Bring my bergen, will you, mate?
# "Should I stay or should I go now"
{y: I}*Should I stay or should I go now
# "If I go there will be trouble"
Hello, mate!
All right, mate?
Mate! Easy!
- Room for a midget? - NO!
- Where's his gear? - Stan's got it.
- How do I look? - "# Should I stay or should I go now.?"
"Every soldier" {y: I}hopes for a major war in his lifetime.
{y: I}This one was mine.
The Scud missiles' launch platforms
will make them too difficult to locate and attack, let alone destroy.
The attack on Tel Aviv
has not, so far, resulted in any response from Israel
It's not yet been confirmed, but it looks like all our tasking's changed
and it'll be against Scuds since Israel has been taking hits.
A lot of pissed-off people in Tel Aviv.
- How long have we got? - Three days, who knows?
Plenty of time.
Eat over there, shit over there, sleep wherever you can find a space.
The MO's along the end of the track, so don't forget to get your jabs.
- We got jack shit. - Chris, this'll do.
- Hi, Ray. - Oh, great, I've got the Kiwi
- What the hell is this? - Lego.
Very thoughtful of you. Just what we needed.
Watch it! Jesus!
Sid's got a brew-up.
Great, lads, listen in.
I know it's a pain in the arse and not on.
This is your nuclear, biological and chemical protection suit and bits.
Just think of it as a large condom with legs.
- What have we got here? - Blankets, beds, Coke,
and most importantly of all soft toilet roll
- Did you see the doc? - Yeah.
- Jabs? - No. I did get some morphine, though.
There's two apiece.
Seven across: "Turncoats for the opera". Five letters.
It's a crossword clue.
{y: I}That night we had our first attack.
- What's the score on the jabs, mate? - Stan says: "No jabs".
I asked them if these suits worked. He said: "Whatever turns you on."
Don't fart in it, it's fatal
Can you get two into one suit?
- For what, mate? - Fun. You feel lonely in here.
Looks like TV to me.
What are you thinking?
Seven across: "Turncoats for the opera".
Andy!
Warning order. Eight-man patrol You command, Ray will be 2 i/c.
You will be cutting a communications line.
No move for three days. Briefing at 0800 tomorrow.
Okay, boss.
It's not too clever staying up here.
I don't want to lose you in some bone incident.
OK, let's get on with it. As you know, your task is against Scud.
Ground: Northwest of Baghdad.
Your area of concern will be this northern main supply route.
The Scuds landing in Israel are causing the alliance problems.
Two nights ago, the Israeli air force was in the air
waiting to attack targets inside Iraq.
If Israeljoins in the war,
the alliance with the Arab states will crumble,
which, of course, is what Iraq wants.
But if the Scud attacks on Israel don't stop within two weeks,
Israel willjoin the war. We're not concerned about the fixed silos.
Air strikes are taking care of those.
The mobile launchers are a different matter.
They're almost impossible to locate, but they have one weakness:
To programme in their targets, they need assistance from Baghdad.
This information is fed through fibre-optic cables
buried along the MSRs between Baghdad and the border towns.
Cut those cables and they can't fly.
Missión in two parts:
One, locate and destroy the fibre- optic cable along the northern MSR;
two, destroy mobile Scud.
Repeat: One, locate and destroy the fibre-optic cable
along the northern MSR;
two, destroy mobile Scud. Any questions?
This terrain's crap. It's like a billiard table.
How the hell are we going to find a hide in that?
- Maps? - One in a million.
Air navigation, otherwise jack shit.
- If we get better, they're yours. - Shit.
Wind your neck in, Chris. This is what it's all about, mate.
Getting on with what you've got.
- So how are we getting in? - There's no point taking vehicles.
We'lljust stick out like a bulldog's bollocks.
Looks like a heli drop-off.
Give Harry and his crew a warning order.
If we're going to find the cable, we have to hit the MSR at its narrowest.
That'll be at a bend. Everybody cuts corners, what about here?
Shouldn't be any military activity whatsoever.
Just be aware of the airfield in the southwest.
No population. Looks good to me.
- Weather? - Much like a spring day in the UK.
Are the cables above ground or buried in pipes?
Don't know yet. We're waiting for more intelligence.
Will we need to use plastic explosives,
or do we give them a tap with a hammer?
A boy in D Squadron used to lay fibre optics for a telecom company.
I'll see if he knows the score.
Once we cut the lines, someone will renew them.
Exactly. If you can take them out, it will slow down the repair time.
- Great. - We'll be operating here,
around 178K from the Syrian border.
It's more than twice that far to Saudi. We'll infill by heli.
Our drop-off point being around 20K south of the MSR.
From there, move north to the MSR
and find a hide in the area of this bend.
Once in position, find a cable
and place the charges on staggered timings along a 3-4K length.
If we get into any shit, we call AWACS on the TACBEs.
Get some air support while we wait for the heli pick-up.
If that doesn't happen, tab to Syria.
OK.
- What do you want TACBEs for? - To order pizza. I need eight.
Eight? You work in pairs, don't you?
- OK, four. - Four TACBEs.
They're to call in air support, you understand?
- Yeah. - They're not for any other purpose.
- Right. What's this? - That is a shiny thing.
- But I want one. - You don't know what it does.
As much link as we can carry for the Minimis and 5.56 for the 203s.
What's your score with the 203 bombs and claymores?
Are you out of your skulls?
The Regiment hasn't been together since Worid War II.
We're not scaled up for this. We're skint.
- Whose is all this? - It's A and D Squadrons'.
We're operational in three days.
So are they. You don't even have a job, yet.
Why bring us out if you haven't got any kit?
Ray, find some claymores and 203 bombs,
and take Chris with you.
Cyril, have a word with the other squadrons.
- See if you can get some gear. - Ha!
"Dearest Jilly. If you're reading this, I'm dead."
"Don't mope around. Get the insurance money and have a good time."
"PS Don't forget 500 pounds is for the next squadron piss-up."
"PPS I love you."
- Are those the TACBEs? - Yeah. There's only one between two.
- Have you tested the 319? - No, I'll test it tomorrow.
We've got our call sign - Bravo Two Zero.
Sounds good to me. I like the easy-to-remember ones.
Doesn't get any easier, does it?
No.
- What's that shiny thing? - It's a SatNav.
Put it on the list, mate. Mark can have it.
Yeah.
Well seeing as you've got no brew left, I'm off.
"Dearest Kate. My dearest, dearest shiny thing."
"This is a letter I've never wanted to write."
"Or you to read."
"Here we check"- "zeroed" {y: I}the Minimis and 203s.
{y: I}Weapons are just a tool
{y: I}So long as they go bang and hit "what you're aiming at", "that'll do."
- Nice to have known you, wankers. - And you, dickheads.
"The kit's divided equally", "so if anything goes wrong",
{y: I}any two of us can carry out {y: I}the task with some success.
"We only took the essentials", "but" "even that added up to 209lbs each",
{y: I}the weight of a 15 stone man.
- How does it fee"I?" - Bloody hell!
How far have we got to tab with this?
Right, gents. Listen up.
Sort out your kit and bag it up.
Next of kin, one bag. Squadron, another.
Remember to label which is which.
Don't want your parents knowing you wear stockings and suspenders
every chance you get, do we?
Last Supper's around six.
We might be getting some fresh in, especially for you.
Why don't we stuff them all in bin-liners and take them with us?
We're not a bunch of new age trave"lle"rs.
It's always a question of style with you.
- You are what you wear. - And what you carry.
Everything goes into the bergens except for the NBC kit,
which, in deference to Chris, we will carry in these designer sandbags.
Right, anything we've forgotten?
Aye. Cover story. There's a high chance of dipping out on this one.
The obvious one is pilot rescue.
We're a search team looking for downed pilots,
- and our own heli went down. - Sounds good.
- You want a piccie? - Yeah, might as well
Watch it, watch it.
- You got the shiny thing. - No, Chris. Leave that.
Let the loadies do that, the lazy bastards.
I'm going for a piss.
For my parents, for Jilly, for Kate when she's 15, and one for you.
Tossers!
What does mine say?
"Cock this up and I'll come back to haunt you."
- Seriously. If it goes wrong... - Yeah?
Can I have your sailboard?
- Yeah, if you do one thing for me. - Aye.
- Pay off the mortgage on my house. - Right-oh.
- Andy. - Oi, clever bollocks.
- Introduce yourself. - Name and proof-of-life statement.
We need to know you're alive if we have to give a ransom away.
Andy McNab, 31. If I win, I'd like to travel and work with children.
Thank you. Stan.
- Stan Rigby. - Otherwise known as "Doctor Sex".
Statement: "Chaucer died on October 25th, 1400."
Tony Benati. Swiss-Italian. Ex-Royal Marine.
- Hobbies: Tall women. - Statement?
Statement? "That's another fine mess you've gotten me into!"
- Mark Warner, mate. - Mate!
Kiwi. Australian SAS. Statement:
"I'm five foot six, and that's official!"
And I'm shy!
Dinger.
Ex-para. Chain-smoker.
Statement: "My God, my Country, my Harley Davidson."
- Not necessarily in that order. - You wanker.
Baz Lane. Ex-para like Dinger, only better looking.
Statement: "I will give up smoking next year."
This year! Shit.
Chris. Statement: "I have an XR4i and the colour is green."
Tony, mail I'll stick it in your kit when you're done.
- You've forgotten Ray. - Brilliant! My poll tax demand.
- Ray! - "Ray Davies. From Reader's Digest:
Congratulations, you've been selected from many in your area
for a free entry into our special prize draw."
That's shit, that is.
- Is that your statement? - Yes.
- You all set? - Yeah.
Since yesterday, more Roland missiles are en route,
so we'll be going down a bit lower, to about 80 feet, to avoid them.
OK. Let's go through those contact drills again, Harry.
All right, then. Contact on landing. We'll break and drop you 40Ks west.
Contact on departure. Get me on the TACBE and I'll come back,
and give you one minute.
I want plenty of covering fire on the approach, OK?
OK.
If we go down, whatever way you go, we'll go the other.
Nothing personal, but to the Iraqis we're simply aircrew,
whereas you guys are Friday the 13th.
- Harold, we've got our slot. - All right, let's get to work.
- Go well? - Well?
They've stolen half of D Squadron's kit,
and there's a complaint from the Americans,
but for a three day turnaround, it's not bad.
120, 80 feet, 90 knots.
Roger that, 80 feet, 90 knots.
- Re-entrant left, four miles. - Roger that. Re-entrant left.
Building left. Lights have just come on.
Roger that. Lights on.
Tell your crew we're now over the border.
OK.
- We're over the border. - We're over the border!
- Clear lines. - We're over the border.
- Body armour? - Sit on it, mate.
- Protect your bollocks. - You ain't got any, mate.
{y: I}I went over every detail of the job.
{y: I}I was worried by {y: I}the lack of intelligence and kit.
"No recent satellite pics", "no decent maps."
{y: I}But these things happen. {y: I}You get on with what you've got.
{y: I}At least we were well armed. {y: I}I was conscious too
{y: I}about the high proportionof green sweets.
{y: I}I needed to swap them for red ones {y: I}at the first opportunity.
Lock on!
- Lock on! - Shit!
- Breaking left. - Break left.
Fine.
Chaffing.
"7"0, 60 feet.
- 50 feet. - 50 feet. Roger.
Bollocks to it. If this is going to happen, I don't want to hear it.
- Deploy. - Should be there.
Was that a Roland?
It's all right for you. We have to come back this way.
Two minutes to landing.
Two minutes! Two minutes!
Ready!
12 feet, 10 feet!
Eight feet!
Six feet!
Four feet!
That's it. Go, go, go!
Four gone, five gone, six gone.
Approximately 15 seconds.
Seven gone.
Andy's doing the final sweep.
Eight gone. All clear. Let's go, go, go!
What the hell is that doing here?
Where are the dogs?
There's a plantation over there, about half a K.
- It wasn't on the map. - No.
What the f...?
Scud.
Get a fix on those positions. Chris!
Get the rest of them in.
"It was over a two"- "hour hike" "to the MSR", "the main supply route."
{y: I}The danger of finding "a hide"- "out in pitch black"
{y: I}is that at first light you could find {y: I}yourself in a housing estate.
"The MSR wasn't a road like the M1", {y: I}but a white strip of sunbaked sand.
{y: I}I saw the junction boxes straight away.
{y: I}That gave us the landline.
{y: I}But we had a problem.
Give us a hand, mate. It's going to be a squirty one.
There's a battery of S60s right on our doorstep.
- We'll have to move. - Now?
No, we'll wait till dark. Good news is I've located a landline.
- Any joy, Baz? - No.
No problem. Lost comms plan comes into effect as of noon.
The heli will meet us tonight with a new one.
Do we have to hump all this stuff back to the Rv?
No, we'll go. Ray and his lot can stay here.
Did you say you've seen a landline?
Yeah. Stan, you can take the next stag.
This is Bravo Two Zero.
We are a ground call sign, over.
From now on, we each carry our own shit.
Sounds like a thought for today.
This is Bravo Two Zero. We are a ground call sign, over.
Why don't we cut it as soon as it gets dark and then piss off?
Without a radio we're in the shit. This is going to take a few days.
Let's Rv with the heli, get a new one. Then we'll crack on.
This is Bravo Two Zero. We are a ground call sign, over.
No luck?
I'm sending OK, but I don't know if they're getting it.
We might have a bum frequency.
Meaning what?
Well if they give us a new radio tonight,
it still wouldn't work.
It's noon.
Lost comms plan comes into effect now at the base.
So do we go for the Rv tonight or what?
We go for the Rv.
Mm.
Hello, governor.
{y: I}It had to be Ray. If it had been "anyone else", "Tony or Stan",
{y: I}they might have talked the kid down.
"His own kids might love him", "but he'd" {y: I}never get a job playing Santa Claus.
Lovely piece of choccie, yeah. Look at that, look at that.
From the old country. Here you are, here.
Come on. Shit!
{y: I}Why didn't we shoot him.?
"0ne", "that's a definite compromise." "Two", "if their boys get hold of us",
{y: I}we're not going to last five minutes. "Three", "we're not into that", "anyway."
- What's going on? - He's legging it to the MSR.
There's a truck full of jundies bang in the middle.
Get on the guard net, tell them we have a compromise.
We're going to head for the Rv. Stan, get back on stag.
Hello, Zero. This is Bravo Two Zero. Radio check, over.
Hello, Zero. Hello, Zero. This is Bravo Two Zero.
Radio check, over.
Hey, Dinger?
- Is there an apostrophe in "we're"? - As in what?
- As in "we're in the shit". - Oh, yes.
Hello, Zero. Hello, Zero. This is Bravo Two Zero.
Radio check, over.
Listen in! We're going to follow the dead ground south to the Rv.
If we make good distance now, we can make the rest in darkness.
Leave all your shit here. Just take your bergens.
- Is a brew out of the question? - Signals kit?
Top of my bergen. Code's in my map pocket.
- Medic kit? - Top of my bergen.
- OK. Who's got the shiny thing? - I've got it.
Bollocks, what's that?
- Armour. - Stand to! Come on! Stand to!
- Coming in. - Man coming in!
It's a bulldozer. I think he's lost.
Lost? A sodding bulldozer lost?
- Which way is he heading? - Over there, mate.
OK, we wait it out till he's gone.
Fucking hell!
Let's get on with it.
- Go west, young man, go west. - Let's make like rag-heads.
- Well? - The soldiers just told him to piss off.
He's heading for the guns.
We should have a unión, these hours are scandalous
Yeah. The food's shit, too.
{y: I}We had to make the RV with the heli.
"At least if we had a contact on the planes",
{y: I}we wouldn't be sitting targets.
- Stand to! Stand to! - Stand to!
{y: I}0f course you're afraid. {y: I}Anyone who says they're not
{y: I}is either lying or needs to see a shrink.
{y: I}You want to make a big hole to hide in.
{y: I}You'd get your spoon out {y: I}and dig if it would help.
{y: I}Then training takes over. "You psyche yourself up",
"check all your pouches are closed", "your pockets done",
{y: I}and your magazines are on tight.
Come on, come on.
What's happening? What's happening behind me, Tony?
Talk to me, mate!
I can't see jack shit, but I can hear them to your half right!
- We've got to go! - Ready!
- Ready!
Ready! Ray, you ready?
Shit!
We're going to go for it. Stand your ground!
- Stand your ground! - Stand your ground!
- Chris, stand by! - Aye!
"You move forward", "take the fight to them."
{y: I}It's the last thing they're expecting.
"You're dead anyway", {y: I}so anything you do is a bonus.
Coming through!
- Coming through! - Coming through!
Coming through!
Stoppage! Bastards!
- Coming through! - Coming through!
- Gunner! - Coming through!
Coming through!
Shit!
Here, here, lay it here.
Coming through! Coming through! Coming through!
Down!
Left!
Aargh!
Oh, God!
Fucking outrageous!
Now what?
Right! We're going to pick up our bergens.
We're going to head west. We've got an hour till last light.
We wait till it gets dark and sort our shit out.
- Pass it on. - Back to the bergens.
- Across the MSR? - Across the MSR.
Once it gets dark, we double back.
Back to the bergens!
"For the next hour", {y: I}we fought with the jundies
{y: I}as they pursued us across the plain.
Good here, ain't it
Argh!
- Man down! Man down! - Man down! Man down!
You all right, mate? Yeah? Come on.
Let's go. Let's go!
Shit!
- Present off the wife. - Where's the bloody medic kit?
{y: I}The bergens were binned.
{y: I}We couldn't move {y: I}quickly enough with them.
{y: I}0ur belt kits carried what we "couldn't do without" - "water and ammo."
{y: I}We could hear contacts in the distance.
"Whoever they were firing at", "it wasn't us."