Bravo Two-Zero (Paperback)

A definite page turner. I read it going to work, coming from work, and even at work (when no colleagues were watching). But my job, being a human-computer interaction specialist, is *very* boring compared to the work of the SAS, the British Special Forces. Although I don't think I would want to trade places.

The book cover of my version of Bravo Two Zero was somewhat misleading. It cited the British premier John Major saying it was the SAS who destroyed the SCUD missile sites in the Gulf War, and it cited the American General Norman Schwarzkopf saying that the SAS were the eyes of the allied forces deep in enemy territory. So I expected the book to show a very successful commando mission in Iraq. Other SAS missions were a great success, but in the Bravo Two Zero mission much went wrong...

That doesn't make the operation of the main team of 8 soldiers less heroic, not at all. The gun fights in which the team were heavily outnumbered but in which they still wreaked havoc, the distances they had to walk causing their feet almost to fall of, the hypothermia, hunger and thirst they suffered: all was very impressive. And, probably worst of all, the extensive torturing some had to go through when they were caught, but which they still survived, makes those British soldiers truly admirable men. It much surprised me that, at the same time, they remained very humane during their stay, not killing one single Iraqi civilian even when that might have significantly improved their chances of survival.

What did surprise me however, were the extremely shallow emotional lives these SAS commandos seemed to have. For McNab, the main character of the book, the army clearly had a higher priority than his wife and family, he killed without much afterthought, and he and his buddies almost constantly laughed in the face of death. At the beginning of the book I suspected this behaviour to be partly macho talk, but at the end of the book, especially after the surviving SAS members return to England and had their army psychologist conclude they did not sustain *any* psychological damage, I started to believe that maybe these guys are indeed of a special brand. Anyway, they should receive gratitude for risking their lives.

From here on the book is almost unrelievedly TENSE. I felt sick reading it, especially as McNab makes sure that the book is written in such a way that you can't help but identify and empathise with the team, McNab especially. You REALLY don't want them to get caught, even though you read each page knowing that this is exactly what happens. To get caught when he does, and after such huge feats of endurance, stamina and bravery was just too cruel. Halfway through the inevitable occurs though, and this is where my 'problem' with the book begins. The last 150 pages consist pretty much of McNab getting dragged in and out of various interrogation rooms and getting tortured, mentally as well as physically, in the most harrowing, sickening manner imaginable. And it goes on and on, day after day, sometimes with only a few hours between 'beastings'. He's sat in a chair and beaten to a pulp; kicked; beaten with a wooden pole; burnt with a red-hot spoon pressed into running sores; has cigarettes stubbed out on his neck by laughing Iraqi soldiers; beaten again; kicked again with steel-capped boots in the head, face; his eardrums burst; teeth are smashed; he's forced to clear an Iraqi toilet out with his hands and then ordered to lick the excrement from his fingers. The litany of brutality seems never ending. I don't think I'm especially faint-hearted but I found reading McNab's account tough.

There is no 'pleasure' to be gained from the book. But still I could not put it down. The atmosphere and reality of intimidation, pain, utter brutality, fear, degradation, humiliation, physical injury, inhumane treatment and sheer cruelty is so vividly evoked that after I'd finished the book it left me feeling like I had a ball of metal in my stomach. I was glad to close the book, but part of me didn't want it to finish. An EXTRA-ordinary book relating an experience that no ordinary person is likely to ever encounter in their entire lives. I found it truly, genuinely shocking. By the time the torture starts you can't help but LIKE McNab, which makes what happens to him even harder to read about. Sometimes you find it hard to believe that such things actually happened because what DOES happen is beyond the experience of most people. It's hard to get your head around it. How could anyone suffer such prolonged attacks and beatings and survive? I've heard that there has been a conflicting account of this ill-fated mission from another Bravo Two Zero team member: Chris Ryan, but only McNab knows what went on in those interrogation rooms and so must be given the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps part of me just doesn't want to admit that people are capable of actions of such sustained cruelty and barbarity.

In summary, this is an account of tremendous human courage and survival, but the two things that will stay with me the most are the tenacity of McNab's mental strength to mentally survive the experience and the bewildering horror of the torture he is subjected to. Don't read this lightly or take it with you on holiday to read on the beach. It deserves more respect. This book is harrowing but I thank McNab for sharing his experiences and demonstrating that the even though the body can be punished, the human spirit can remain indomitable. He certainly gets my admiration and respect, along with the other team members who made it back to Britain alive.