Immediate Action

by Andy McNab

  "Sounds good to me," I said. "We could get it done, get the reinforcements in, then withdraw and get back for tea and cakes."

  We then had to look at time and space: What was the earliest time we could get the attack in?

  "I don't particularly want to rush this." Rod had made up his mind what he wanted to happen. "I don't want to go in tomorrow morning. I want to spend the day planning; we've got to get our guys sorted out. If we go straight in at first light, it means we've got to move before last light tonight. Let's go in the day after tomorrow."

  Everybody was in agreement.

  "If we move from here to the FRP tomorrow, spend the night at the FRP, and then go and do the attack at first light, then we've cracked it. So we've got tonight and tomorrow to sort our shit out. More nods. "I'll send the. sitrep in a minute. If they want us to move earlier, they'll tell us. But by the time we get an answer, we won't be able to move for first light tomorrow morning."

  "We've got enough P.E and all the kit we need," Rod said. "We don't need anything bringing in apart from Gar and his gang."

  "Easy one," Tony said. "Just- get them straight in on the helipad. We'll get that cleared as soon as we take the camp."

  The last item on the checklist was the assessment of tasks.

  "We've got the two huts people are staying in," I said. "And we've got the river and those boats. I don't know what was down there with the boats, I couldn't see far enough. I don't know if people were staying there, or what. But the only escape route I can see is from the camp down to the river."

  "I think we do need a cutoff group," Rod said. "If there's any fuckers coming down that river and we're mincing around, we've got no early warning and nothing to stop them. We could be in the shit."

  "I agree," said Tony.

  "So one patrol will become a cutoff group down the bottom there."

  Rod pointed. "Their job is stop any runners, take control of that northern end of the camp, and give us early warning along the river."

  We'd made a guess about how the enemy were going to react to an attack.

  They'd got the weapons, and it wouldn't be the first time they'd used them. The effect of that would be that we might have our own casualties, so we'd got to cater accordingly. We had the patrol medic packs, which for this sort of task mainly contained trauma management packs. We'd got a helipad, so all we had to do was make sure that squadron HQ had a heli stood by to casevac; where it was going, and why it was going there, the pilot wouldn't know yet. All he would know was that his aircraft was stood by.

  The next stage was to summarize all the deductions that we'd come to and to look at the different options open to us; it was a matter of weighing up the advantages and disadvantages and selecting the best course.

  That then became the plan, and from that plan Rod would make orders.

  There were going to be four groups: a cutoff group by the river, two assault groups that were going to take the houses, and a cover group that was going to cover the advance up to the two buildings and dominate the area in case there were runners. On top of that, Gar was organizing everrhing back at the F.O.B. He had helis stood by to bring in a force to burn down the camp and the publicity machine to film it.

  It was now past midday on day five since finding the camp. Rod had to put it in some form of orders that the patrols could understand.

  This was quite difficult because our Spanish was only good enough to get by. We needed to involve them as much as we could, because in the near future they would be doing this themselves.

  Everybody assembled around the sand model with weapons and belt kit.

  Some of the boys were interested in it; other ' rs looked tired and indifferent. Terry spoke the best Spanish, so he did the talking.

  "We have found the camp," he said, 14 and this is what it looks like.

  Tomorrow morning we're all going to leave here, and go to the final RP.

  From there my group will move to the other side of the camp and become the cutoff for the attack. Everyone else will stay at the final RP.

  The following morning the three groups will move to the camp.

  Andy's group will be the cover group; Rod's group will attack this building, and Tony's group will attack this one. Each patrol commander will show you what he wants you to do. In the camp there are about eight armed men. We will go in there early in the morning, when they are asleep. There will be no problems. All you have to do is listen to what your patrol commander is telling you.

  "In a minute, when we've finished, the patrols will get together in their areas and the patrol commander will tell you what he wants done.

  Are there any questions?"

  They all shook their heads and split into their groups.

  The four of us got back together to confirm what would be going on.

  Terry's cutoff team would move to the north of the camp. They would be in position as a cutoff if anyone legged it from the camp to the boats, the only known escape route. It would be no good their going to the helipad; there was nothing there, and it was surrounded by jungle. "I won't bother trying to rig the boats," Terry said, "because of the compromise factor during daylight hours." If anybody found the boats had been tampered with, they'd be suspicious and on the alert.

  The cutoff team's other job was to give an early warning of anything coming down the river. We could be sitting there in the daytime in our FRP, ready to do a first-light attack, and six boatloads of narcoguerrillas could slip quietly into the camp for a big piss-up.

  There'd be twenty of us screaming in there big time, suddenly confronted by a defending force of eighty. Not to be recommended.

  It was now starting to rain, and it was a funny sight watching all the normal activity going on with water dripping off people's noses.

  The cutoff team would take their bergens and belt kits with them because they would be working independently. They would split off from us as soon as possible once we'd reached the FRP, because they needed as much daylight as possible to get there, sort their shit out, and do their recce so they'd know what they had to do and where they had to do it. As they moved into position, the rest of us would be in the FRP, acting as the immediate action; if they were compromised, we'd soon know because we'd hear the shooting and commotion.

  We'd then just have to go for it, straight into the camp and do it there and then.

  "As soon as you're in position, give us a shout on the Motorola channel six," I said. "If we don't hear anything, we'll just carry on as planned, because we might not get the comms."

  All the patrol commanders had Motorola comms that we had brought with us from the UK. They gave us about a kilometer and a half in good open countryside; sometimes we'd get comms in the jungle with them; sometimes we wouldn't. If we didn't get a report from Terry, and hadn't heard any gunfire, we would have to assume that he was okay anyway and carry on.

  One-of-three-Joses would take Tony and Rod down to the camp and show them the start line and the two buildings. Once they came back, we'd wait until first light the next day, when we'd start moving off.

  "Once the camp attack goes in," Rod carried on to say, with the rain still falling and being ignored by everyone, "the cutoff will stay put until it gets the all clear from me. if I can't raise you on the comms, I'll send a runner down.

  Make sure your patrol knows! Once the buildings are secure I want Andy's team to clear the work hut and then go up to the helipad. If you move in once it's secure, we'll centralize all the boys, get them down, and I'll call Gar in with the aircraft, so I want you, Andy, to take the comms with you. Once Gar comes in we'll get back to the bergens and sort ourselves out."

  "That's that, then," said Tony. "We'd better get the sitrep off to Gar and make sure he knows when we're going in, then sort the boys out and get our heads down."

  The sitrep stated what we were going to do, what time the camp attack was going in, the way we were going to do it, and how we wanted the helicopters brought in, which was on orange smoke. We sai
d that we'd open up the net the following morning to get a confirmation that everything was okay before we went in. We wouldn't move until 0900 hours to the final RP, and from there we'd go ahead with our plaa.

  We went to our own individual patrols and started explainiqg what we wanted them to do. "When we get to the FRP tomorrow morning," I said, pointing to One of-three-Joses, "you will take Tony and Rod to the camp and show them the edge and where the two buildings are. It's a very important job. If they want to see anything else, show them where it is, then come back to us.

  Is that all right?"

  He grinned and nodded, proud to shoulder the responsibility.

  "When he comes back," I said, "we're going to wait there all night, back to back, and wait for first light.

  We'll then move forward; it's our job to make sure everybody else is protected while they're going into the position. What I want you to do is follow me; I'll put you in the position and show you where the rest are coming in and where to be looking. If you see anything, I don't want you to shoot, I just want you to tell me, and I'll decide if you shoot or not. If you hear me shooting, you shoot. Is that okay?"

  They nodded; they were happy with that because there wasn't much to think about. I really wanted to labor this point because I didn't want them flapping and landing up shooting one of our blokes as they were coming in. "When we get into position, you will see our people coming from your right-hand side, going towards those buildings.

  Anything else could be the enemy. But I don't want you to shoot unless I shoot or tell you to.

  "Once the attack has happened we'll then have to do two other things.

  We'll have to move to the long building here, check the storeroom, and go to the helipad. But I'll tell you where to go and when. Keep nice and calm, and if you see something, shout: 'Get down!

  Get down!" If they shoot at you, you shoot back. You must be very careful. You'll hear lots of explosions and maybe other gunfire.

  Don't worry about that. You just keep looking at your job."

  I looked at each of them in turn. "Rodriguez, any problems?"

  "No."

  "Nino?"

  "No."

  "Gonz?"

  "No."

  "One-of-three-Joses?" 'No."

  "Good. Tomorrow Gar comes in with helicopters and more men. We put our bergens on and fly out. Thenparty time!"

  Rodriguez whispered, "Yee-hah! " and everybody gave a low laugh.

  I liked these guys. I enjoyed talking to them; they had a really good sense of humor. We were very much on the same wavelength; all they wanted to do was get the job done and then get back and have some fun.

  They were very much into dancing and whiskey; me, I couldn't dance, but I did like Famous Grouse.

  The blokes in charge of the assault groups had a harder job getting across what they wanted their-boys to do. Looking over from our position, I saw Rod's group standing in a line, as if there was a door; he had them walking in and practicing their moves, all in slow time and very quiet. It was still raining, and their drenched uniforms were clinging to them. Some had packed their issue sombreros with them, and now I saw why; they were perfect for keeping the rain off their faces.

  It was getting to last light. We stood to and then put the hammocks up.

  I lay in my hammock, eating cold bangers and beans. For pudding, I'd swapped some of my food for a can of condensed milk, which I poured over some hardtack biscuits. It made me think of Tiswas, where Lenny Henry played a reggae bloke called Winston; he used to eat condensed milk sandwiches. I thought about other kids' shows, and then I thought about Kate and how much having a child had changed my life.

  In my early days I'd have been relishing the task and looking forward to a lifetime in the Regiment; I used to take the piss out of people on jobs who talked about their kids or said, "My boy's got his piano exam tomorrow, I hope he's okay." Now I could see their point.

  Such apparently trivial things were in fact very important. Kate was walking, talking, and being stupid, and I was missing quite a bit of it.

  I decided that when I got back, the three of us would go off on a holiday. And this time I meant it.

  It had stopped raining by first light. I told my group to make sure their weapons were oiled up and a round in the chamber. I checked for rattles amid lots of thumbs up and winking.

  The Regiment blokes met up, and we got, the radio out. As soon as Gar had confirmed, we could go in.

  It came up: "Yes, go ahead. The helicopter reaction time will be about one hour. It will come in on your orange smoke. If there's no sitrep sent by ten hundred hours on the morning of the attack, we will come in anyway to take it."

  We were going to move off half an hour later for the final RP.

  The order of march was my patrol, then the cutoff group, and finally the two assault groups. There was an air of excitement and acceptance that finally the show was on the road.

  I told Rodriguez that he was going to be lead scout for the whole troop, and that sparked him up into being very official and important.

  Everybody was leaning on his weapon, bergen on, ready to go.

  Rodiguez was at the front, checking his compass. He already knew the way, but it looked good.

  We set off, and Rodiguez became the world's best scout. We were stopping every fifteen meters for him to check for movement or sound.

  When we got to the area of the FRP, we stopped and everybody knelt down.

  When Terry came up, I pointed, "it9s in that direction; that'll take you round the right hand side."

  We checked the maps, and he said, "I'll get down to the line of the river and go left, and see where I can get in. Once I see the Geminis, I'll sort myself out from there."

  "Right," Rod cut in. I could see the shine on his lips; it was a wonder they didn't stick together with all that grease on. "We'll open up our Motorolas at five o'clock tonight.

  We'll keep it open until last light. If we haven't heard anything from you, we'll just take it that you're there and we're not getting the comms. If there's been a change of plan, tomorrow morning, when the attack goes in, just sit tight and there'll be a runner down to get you.

  The helis will be in at ten o'clock anyway if we fuck UP. If I don't see you then mahana, we'll see you at some other time. I take it you'll chuck a right and go down to the road."

  My lot and the two assault groups sat in a large circle, resting against our bergens in the FRP.

  Tony turned to me and said, "I suppose we'll be off now. We'd better go and have a look at this place, hadn't we?"

  I went over to One-of-three-Joses and said with a thumbs-up, "You ready?"

  "I'm ready."

  I had a quick check of his kit and that his safety catch was on, and he mooched into the canopy with Tony and Rod. I could see him stopping every six paces, probably to show off to his mates that he was big time now, he was leading a recce patrol. Tony went up to him and pointed in the direction of the camp with a motion of "let's get on with it," and they disappeared from sight.

  The aim was to confirm what had been seen. If there was any change, we'd have to reassess and tell the cutoff that night. If not, too bad, the attack would still go in.

  Tony and Rod needed to be on this recce because they needed to know where exactly the two buildings were located. They'd seen models of them, they had an idea of where they were; however, it was a lot easier to see them on the ground, for somebody to point them out and say,

  "That's your one, and that's yours." The rest of us just sat there for the next five hours, eating biscuits, drinking water, swatting flies, and rubbing on mozzie rep. There was no talking, no smoking, no brewing up. The odd one or two were nodding off. it was a really boring time, as it so often was. My mind drifted to Hereford; for the first time ever in my life I felt pangs of homesickness. I missed family life; I missed our times together.

  There were a couple of trees that needed to be chopped down because the roots were going to affect the foundation
s of our house at some stage, so I was going to have a look at that. I thought about the holiday; then I had a chuckle to myself, thinking about Rod and Tony on their stomachs, puffing and panting, kitten-crawling through the mud and gunge.

  It looked as if we were in for a downpour, which wasn't the most exciting prospect, seeing as how it was the equivalent of a night out on belt kit. I told the boys to jet their ponchos out, really nice and slowly, and prepare for the rain. It came, not too hard, but insistent.

  The recce patrol came back in at about four-thirty, looking like drowned rats.

  "What do you reckon then?" I said.

  Rod was drinking some water from a bottle, then pouring it over his head to sweep his hair back. He said, "There's no problems with that. We'll just bung an explosive entry on there. But you will get in position first because we go over that open ground. If we're seen, we're in the shit."

  "We saw the cook and bottle washer running around in that first hut,"

  Tony said. "Then we saw a boy coming out with a Car fifteen [small version of the M16].

  And that's all we saw. The generators were going, and there was activity, but not much. Good here, ain't it?"

  Rod grinned with a face full of mud and said, "We should be down there on the piss with those boys, not sitting here waiting to jump on them.

  We're on the wrong bloody side here; look at the state of my kit."

  We had a little giggle at the thought of Terry; his boys wouldn't even have their ponchos out, they'd be sitting on their bergens, ready to go, probably shivering their cocks off.

  We got our Motorolas out and put our earpieces in.

  At five o'clock we switched on to see if Terry was going to come on the net. We got jack shit.

  There were no big problems with that. Maybe it was the distance or the weather, or maybe they were all hanging upside down from a tree having their bollocks tickled. There was nothing we could do about it now. If he was there in the morning, he was there. Nevertheless, we kept the net open.

  Just before last light Tony tried again. "Terry, Ton check?" Y5 Nothin. Everybody hunched up in his poncho as the rain fell harder.

  Back at the squad. ron HQ there would have been maximum activity going on. Gar would have been getting everybody geared up, and everybody would now be stood to. Gar had said it would take them about sixty minutes' flying time to get to us. He wouldn't have enjoyed having to involve other agencies, but there was no option; we needed the aircraft-especially if the shit hit the fan and we needed some casevac aircraft in.