Book description
The SAS mission conducted behind Iraqi lines is one of the most famous
stories of courage and survival in modern warfare. Of the eight members
of the SAS regiment who set off, only one escaped capture. This is his
story. Late on the evening of 24 January 1991 the patrol was compromised
deep behind enemy lines in Iraq. A fierce fire-fight left the eight men
miraculously unscathed, but they were forced to run for their lives.
Their aim was to reach the Syrian border, 120 kilometres to the
north-west, but during the first night the patrol accidentally broke
into two groups, five and three. Chris Ryan found himself left with two
companions. Nothing had prepared them for the vicious cold of the desert
winter, and they began to suffer from hypothermia. During the night one
of the men was to disappear in a blinding blizzard. The next day a
goat-herd came across the two survivors. Chris's remaining partner, went
with him in search of food and was never to return. Left on his own,
Chris Ryan beat off an Iraqi attack and set out alone. His greatest
adventure was only just beginning. This is the story of courage under
fire, of hairbreadth escapes, of the best trained soldiers in the world
fighting against adverse conditions, and of one man's courageous refusal
to lie down and die. Chris Ryan was born in 1961 in a village near
Newcastle. In 1984 he joined the SAS. During his ten years in the
Regiment , he was involved in overt and covert operations and was also
Sniper team commander of the anti-terrorist team. During the Gulf War,
Chris was the only member of an eight-man team to escape from Iraq, of
which three colleagues were killed and four captured. It was the longest
escape and evasion in the history of the SAS. For this he was awarded
the Military Medal. During Ryan's last two years in the Regiment he
selected and trained potential SAS recruits, he left the SAS in 1994 and
is now the author of many bestselling thrillers for adults, as well as
the
Alpha Force
and Code Red
series for younger readers.
