Bravo two zero by Andy McNab Read Free Book Online Page B

missile."
        "What about the flight information that has to be installed into the rockets?" Chris said.
        The more we thought about it, the more sense it made to do a hands-on attack to destroy the control center in the middle of the vehicle.
        "We could just put a charge in there which would fuck things up nice without any problems to us," Vince suggested. "The TEL must be protected against the rocket blast-enough to stop our charge affecting the missile."
        We knew what to attack, but how would we do it? We finally decided that when we saw a Scud being launched, which shouldn't be too difficult given the billiard-table terrain, we would take a bearing and find it.
        Hopefully if the landlines were destroyed there would not be any launches anyway.
        We knew the vulnerable points. We knew there would be no problems, finding the Scuds. We would go to the area, pinpoint the launch site, and put in a CTR (close target recce) to find out how many troops there were, how many launchers were left, and where the stags were. In a typical CTR, we'd probably find the Scud, then move back and stop at an FRY (final RV) about a mile away, depending on the ground. From there, four blokes would go and carry out a 360degree recce of the position itself, looking for vulnerable points.
        Two of us would then go in as far as we had to in order to complete the information. Then we'd withdraw to the FRY. I'd have to give a quick brief for that CTR-how we were going to do it, how we were going to get there, what direction we were going to come back in, what the recognition signal was as we came back into the FRY. You always come back in exactly the same direction you left from, to cut down confusion.
        My normal recognition signal was to walk in with both arms outstretched in a crucifix position, my weapon in my right hand. Different patrols use different signs. The aim is to cut out the noise of a challenge and be easily ID'd. FRVs have to be somewhere easily identifiable and defendable, because navigating back to them in pitch darkness is not as easy as it sounds. Back at the FRY, I'd mentally prepare a quick set of orders for the attack and then tell everybody what was "on target."
        Until we actually got on the ground, we would work on the assumption that we'd have at least three "points of contact": i.e." we'd kill the surveyor, control-center commander, and operators. This would normally be done with silenced weapons. A man will always drop if you put a round into his body T-the imaginary line from one temple running across the eyebrows to the other temple and from that line down the center of the face from the bridge of the nose to the base of the sternum. Pop in a round anywhere along the T, and your man will always go down. It must be done from close up, almost right on top of him. You go from a "rolling start line" and just keep going until he turns round; then you must be quick. You cannot hesitate. It's all down to pure speed, aggression, and surprise.
        So much for the theory. Vince had brought a silenced weapon with him from the UK, but another squadron had come and begged it off him for a specific task and there were none left. D Squadron had got to Saudi before us, and down at the stores there had been a nasty outbreak of Shiny Kit Syndrome. They had snaffled everything in sight, and there was no point in us going and asking them nicely if we could please have our ball back. They'd only say they needed it-and probably they did. In the absence of silenced weapons we'd probably have to use our fighting knives-weapons resembling the famous Second World War commando dagger-if we wanted the attack to remain covert for as long as possible.
        A fire-support base consisting of four men would be positioned, and then the other four would move out and infiltrate the Scud area. We'd take out the surveyor, then the characters sleeping or sitting in the TEL.
        Then