Mike Coburn

When we study history it is imperative we analyze three elements:

Author and the times which influenced/produced them.
The text in question and the times which influenced it.
The internal evidence of the text.

Bravo Two Zero was the ill-fated mission launched by the British SAS to assist American air power during the Gulf War. It was undertaken by eight men led by two Sergeants. Upon insertion into Iraq, the mission was compromised and the eight arrested. One died of hypothermia; one escaped and six were later released. What exactly transpired and when?

All eight have differing perceptions but Mike Coburn unites the majority to make a compelling case that:

(a) The British Military high command did not collect adequate intelligence and played with the lives of the eight men.

(b) The British Military high command supported Andy McNab's and Chris Ryan's (both members of the infiltration team) highly falsified accounts which scapegoat Sergeant Vince Phillips unfairly and unjustly.

(c) The British Military high command refused to learn from the failure.

The legal battles which Coburn fought to be allowed to uncover the dismal truth behind Bravo Two Zero while augmenting the veracity of the book also encapsulates a separate part of his story. The tragedy here is that a lesser known military maxim holds that the final thanks a soldier receives is vilification. Coburn put his life on the line but received nothing much from his high command. Through the medium of this book, at least, he succeeds in providing justice to lost voices.… (mais)

The 3rd book written about the Bravo Two Zero mission by one of the ill fated 8 man patrol. It seems a great shame, after reading this, that Andy McNab and Chris Ryan have benefited hugely by their previous tales of the mission and that this may well be largely ignored - "who needs yet ANOTHER book about it?" indeed.

And yet this is a book the MoD spent £7m of taxpayers money and 5 years of legal proceedings trying to stop getting published. Why? Because it reveals the awful cockups by the military which led to their predicament - and ultimately to the loss of 3 of them. It is also far less tarted up with vivid descriptions of firefights - much of which didn't actually happen, apparently.

Ultimately, as per the original McNab book (I haven't read Ryan's nor do I intend to as that too has been discredited), this is a tale of failure. A patrol dropped in the wrong place, with no transport (there wasn't enough to go around), with the wrong information on where to go in the event things went wrong, with the wrong radio frequencies given to them which meant when they needed a particular comms system it wouldn't work, yet more comms equipment which failed, and when they WERE able to get out a short message about their plight to request rescue or at the very least, working radio equipment, the powers that be decided not to do anything. They were also told by their OC to head for the Syrian border should there be trouble - contrary to what the mlitary orders actually were (head in the opposite direction to Saudi Arabia).

Coburn's story is told in s straight forward fashion, not pulling punches but not whingeing either. He also puts the record straight on the reputation of 1 of the men who died - virtually branded a coward in Ryan's book (one can only guess to give it a USP with the book buying public at the time).

There's also a section on his legal fight to get the book published, and the various underhand ways the MoD tried to stop him. None of which would really surprise most people.

Of any of the Bravo Two Zero books, this to me would seem to be the one to get. The real eye opener is the inability of those behind the scenes to actually be organised, equipped and able to get on with the task at hand without screwing things up.… (mais)

An interesting piece of the Bravo Two Zero jigsaw puzzle. It sheds some further light on why the patrol ended up atempting an escape to Syria, rather than Saudi Arabia, as it had formally intended to, and also on the mystery of the drop-off point, amongst other things. It is perhaps the most revealing account of BTZ from the perspective of Regimental and military politics (De La Billiere, a former SAS commander, only persusaded Schwarzkopf to permit the SAS in theatre on the understanding the US would not be called upon to rescue them).

Most revealing of all is the long legal battle Coburn had to fight with the Ministry of Defence to get the book published, and this is covered in part here. The trial revealed severeal interesting things about the patrol and the earlier books.… (mais)