Bandit Country Sas Operation

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But will the SAS be able to find an IRA sniper, before he finds them...?

July 1989, South Armagh: the cheering mobs stood over the body of a British soldier. He was the ninth to have been killed by the so-called Border Fox, an IRA sniper whose activities had helped to make this area of the United Kingdom the most feared killing ground in Western Europe. The British government was determined to break the tightly-knit South Armagh Brigade of the IRA before more lives were lost. This task would demand unique skills skills possessed only by the men of the Special Air Service. The SAS men of Ulster Troop are the best in the world at surveillance, unsurpassed in counter-insurgency techniques. And now, once again, they were going to have to prove it. Soldier U SAS: Bandit Country tells the story of their hunt for the Border Fox and the terrorists of South Armagh a murderous, little-publicised war in which every encounter, whether in or out of uniform, was potentially a battle to the death.

South Armagh was firstdescribed as "Bandit Country" by Merlyn Rees when he was Northern Ireland's Secretary of State, and for nearly three decades it has been the most dangerous posting in the world for soldiers. Toby Harnden has stripped away the myth and propaganda associated with South Armagh to produce one of the most compelling and important books of the subject. Drawing on secret documents and interviews in South Armagh s recent history, he tells the inside story of how the IRA came close to bringing the British state to its knees. For the first time, the identities of the men behind the South Quay and Manchester bombings are revealed. Packed with new information, "Bandit Country" penetrates the IRA and the security forces in South Armagh."

A NEW EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED BOOKS ON THE TROUBLES Branded as 'Bandit Country' by the British government, South Armagh was the heartland of the Provisional IRA. It was the rebel Irish stronghold where Thomas 'Slab' Murphy reigned supreme, bomb attacks on England were planned and the SAS tracked the IRA snipers who hunted British soldiers. In this acclaimed and remarkable book – originally published in 1999 – Toby Harnden, winner of the Orwell Prize, brings to bear his skills as a fearless journalist, inspired investigator and gifted historian, threatened with imprisonment for protecting his sources in Northern Ireland but undeterred. He draws on secret documents and unsparing interviews with key protagonists on both sides to produce perhaps the most compelling and essential account of the IRA and the Troubles.

A mean and dirty war is being waged on British soil. In the 1970s that war was at its bloodiest. Sectarian violence was an almost daily occurrence and the terrorist groups, who financed their operations through robbery, fraud and extortion, engaged in torture, assassination and wholesale slaughter. To cope with the terrorists' activities in the British Army needed the support of exceptional soldiers who could operate deep undercover. The group chosen as most suitable for this task was the legendary Special Air Service the SAS! Deployed in Northern Ireland in 1976, the regiment was soon embroiled in some of the most secretive, dangerous and controversial activities in its history. These included plain-clothes work in the towns and cities, the running of operational posts in rural areas, surveillance and intelligence-gathering, ambushes and daring cross-border raids. Soldier E SAS: Sniper Fire in Belfast is the fifth in a series of novels based on this extraordinary regiment a thrilling 'factoid' adventure about the most daring soldiers in military history: the SAS!

Seán Hartnett grew up in Cork in the 1970s where he observed the worst of the northern Troubles with fascination. Despite his family s strong republican ties and his own attempt to join the IRA, Hartnett shocked family and friends when he changed allegiance and joined the British Armed Forces. In 2001 Hartnett returns to his native Ireland, but this time as a member of the British Army s most secretive covert counter-terrorist unit in Northern Ireland, Joint Communications Unit Northern Ireland aka JCU-NI, the FRU, 14 Intelligence Company, or simply The Det . For the next three years Hartnett is directly involved in some of the highest profile events of that period, from the arrest of John Hannan for the bombing of the BBC in London, to the tragic murder of David Caldwell; the prevention of the murder of Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair and some of the biggest blunders by British Intelligence in the history of the Troubles, including the true story behind the murders of Corporals Howes and Wood at an IRA funeral in 1988. Charlie One , the call sign for the most wanted targets of British Intelligence operations in NI, documents the journey of an Irish Republican serving in Britain s most secretive counter-terrorism unit. Filled with roller coaster emotions and explosive revelations of British Intelligence covert capabilities and operations, Charlie One provides a truly unique, detailed and unbiased account of the secret war fought on the streets of Northern Ireland.

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE 2012. This is the tale of the Welsh Guards in Helmand in 2009. Underequipped and overstretched, guardsmen from the coal mining valleys and slate quarry villages of Wales found themselves in Helmand in some of the most intense fighting by British troops for more than a generation. They were confronted by a Taliban enemy they seldom saw, facing the constant threat of Improvised Explosive Devices and ambush. Leading them into battle was Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, destined for the highest ranks. He was a passionate believer in the war but was dismayed by how it was being conducted. Dead Men Risen will unnerve politicians and generals alike. In chilling detail, Toby Harnden reveals how and why Thorneloe was killed by an IED during Operation Panther's Claw. Harnden, who had known Thorneloe since they met in Northern Ireland in 1996, was on the ground in Helmand with the Welsh Guards. He draws on a trove of military documents, including many by Thorneloe, the first British battalion commander to die in action since the Falklands war of 1982. Major Sean Birchall left behind an unvarnished account of the shortcomings of the Afghan forces that represent Nato's exit strategy. Lieutenant Mark Evison wrote a diary that raises questions from beyond the grave. It was more than half a century since a British battalion had lost officers at these three key levels of leadership. By the time the fighting was over, almost no rank had been spared. A visceral and timeless account of men at war, Dead Men Risen conveys what it is like to be a soldier who has to kill, face paralysing fear and watch comrades perish in agony. Given unprecedented access to the Welsh Guards, Harnden conducted more than 300 interviews in Afghanistan, England and Wales. The searing heat of the poppy fields and mud compounds of Helmand to the dreaded knock on the door back home, the reader is transported there. Harnden weaves the experiences of the guardsmen and their loved ones into an unsparing narrative that sits alongside a piercing analysis of military strategy. No other book about modern conflict succeeds on so many levels. Dead Men Risen is essential for anyone who wants to learn the reality of Britain's war in Afghanistan.

SAS THOMPSON, L

A former officer of British South Africa’s anti-terrorist unit recounts his experiences on the frontlines of the Rhodesian Bush war from 1976–1980. A native of New Zealand, Lindsay ‘Kiwi’ O’Brien served in the British South Africa Police Support Unit’s anti-terrorist battalion. He traveled across the country as a section leader and a troop commander before joining the UANC political armies as trainer and advisor. The BSA Support Unit started poorly supplied and equipped, but the caliber of the men, mostly African, was second-to-none. Support Unit specialized in the “grunt” work inside Rhodesia with none of the flamboyant helicopter or cross-border raids carried out by the army. O’Brien’s war was primarily within selected tribal lands, seeking out and destroying Communist guerilla units in brisk close-range battles with little to no support. O’Brien moved from the police to working with the initial UANC deployment in the Zambezi Valley where the poorly trained recruits had to learn fast or die. O’Brien’s account is a foreign-born perspective from a junior commander uninterested in promotion and the wrangling of upper command. He was decorated and wounded three times.

A portrayal of the Irish Republican Army includes coverage of its associations with Qaddafi's regime, Margaret Thatcher's secret diplomacy with Gerry Adams, and the Catholic Church's negotiations with Republican leadership.