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"Bravo two zero" is a book about the true story of
the most highly decorated British patrol since the Boer war. It is a SAS petrol consisting of eight men, Sgt. Andy McNab, Dinger, Tony, Baz Brown, Chris Ryan, Ray, Stan, Mark and Warner. Andy is the commander of this group as well as the author of the book.
He joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment. He served in B Squadron 22 SAS for nine years and worked on both covert and overt special operations worldwide including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and North Ireland.
Trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, prime target elimination, demolitions, weapons and tactics, covert surveillance and information gathering in hostile environments, and VIP protection, Andy McNab worked on co-operative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and western guerrilla movements as well as on ordinary special operations. In Northern Ireland he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14th Intelligence Group where he was made an instructor. Andy McNab also worked as an instructor on the SAS selection and training team and instructed foreign special forces in counter terrorism, hostage rescue and survival training.
After the gulf war he was awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, therefore he was the British Army\'s most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993.
Bravo two zero arrived in Saudi Arabia last and therefore Andy and his men are soon busy nicking the basic gear they need to go to war. Andy is given instructions of a special mission behind the Iraqi lines and finds out that they have only three days to prepare.
Avoiding missile attacks, they are brought into Iraq by helicopter and are left near the Main Supply Route (MSR).
Their mission is to destroy the Fibre Optic Cable which has been laid parallel to the route to carry targeting information from Baghdad to the numerous mobile Scud launchers.
Things are wrong the moment the team lands, their briefing photographs are not up to date and they have been dropped in the middle of two divisions of Iraqi troops, dangerously close to a settlement on one side and an undocumented anti-aircraft battery on the other.
Because of bombing the MSR is so busy at night that it is impossible to sabotage the
Fibre Optic junction boxes, but during the day Andy and his men would easily be seen from the nearby settlement.
Their situation became difficult very soon, because they are discovered by an Arab shepherd boy who alerts the nearby troops. The Patrol has no option but to fight their way out, the eight manage to get away from the over numbered Iraqi troops.
When it is safe enough to move on, the patrol collect their gear and decide to cross the MSR and head west to safety while there is still an hour of daylight. There, they can sort themselves out and then go back once it is dark. For the next hour, they fight a running battle in the desert as they move back. They have to leave most of their equipment to enable them to move quicker, keeping their belt kits to carry the essentials water and ammunition.
When they eventually stop to rest, Stan is dehydrated, Ray has badly injured his leg and the medi-kit has been destroyed in the fighting. It soon becomes clear that they have lost radio contact with base and that they are
going to have to escape via Syria, 170km away. They begin to move ahead, but then the weather changes the worst storm
the region has experienced in thirty years starts. Andy tries to make contact via an Air Force tactical beacon
radio, but Chris, Stan and Ray do not realise that the others have stopped and carry on. The two groups never
meet each other again.
That night, Andy, Dinger, Baz and Tony manage to walk 85km before stopping to find cover from the bitter cold whilst
Mark recovers from hypothermia. They wait until the next night to make the last 70km to the border, hijacking an
old New York Yellow Cab of the fifties. They make good progress, but have to blast their
way out of a roadblock, leaving behind another battle.
Meanwhile, the Patrol is successfully tracked by an Iraqi Colonel. He has finally caught up with them by the
time they reach the Euphrates river, and in all the confusion, Tony goes missing. Dinger and Baz attempt to
swim trough the freezing river, but Baz can't manage to get through and dies.
Having now lost everyone, it takes Andy and Mark most of the night to work their way through the Iraqi
positions. When Mark hides, Andy thinks that he has been killed, and he walks the
final 2kms the next day ,where he finally gets captured.
The Iraqi Colonel takes over the interrogation of the team from a Captain who thinks Andy is Israeli, but Andy
reveals no more than Name, Rank and Number. We also discover that Dinger has been captured.
The interrogation and torture of Andy and Dinger who have now been handed over to the Iraqi Secret
Police begins in a secret service prison in Baghdad. Their interrogator speaks good English and is well educated.
Andy is continually beaten, his teeth are smashed and at one point a dentist is brought in, not to repair his teeth, but to increase the torture.
After a couple of cover stories, Andy decides to tell the truth, leaving out a few important points. It seems to work out, because Dinger and Andy are moved to a military prison where they are put together with Stan (who was
also captured at the river). They are no longer tortured, but Andy is tickeled by Jeral, a warden who makes him unblock toilets.
They learn that Chris has successfully made it over the border into Syria. Stan and Dinger are then given the
news that they are going home. Andy is at his lowest point and reflects on his life, remembering his daughter. He thinks his live is over,
but the war ends and he is also released. At the Red Cross Hospital, he finds out that Mark is alive.
Back in Hereford, Andy notes that the psychiatrists are more stressing than the Iraqis.
His final thoughts are that if he ever met any of his tormentors in the street and he thought he could get away with it, he
would smack them.
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