Close Quarter Battle (CQB) training is undertaken by an unusual group calling itself the CTT or Combat Training Team. The CTT group has two centres near London where it trains people in the art of silent killing and similar accomplishments. It poses as a commercial organisation, but its two centres at Fort Pilgrim and at Pinewood are both owned by the Property Services Agency, Whitehall’s accommodation bureau.
The CTT’s valuable services are available only to serving members of Her Majesty’s forces, including MI5 and MI6, and to non-national serving soldiers. They have trained Irish, Belgian and other continental ‘special forces’.
CTT instructors/talent scouts include Lucien Ott, one of the older hands, a Frenchman who served with the para-commandos at Dien Bien Phu, Bo Munthe, a Swede experienced in many sunny climes, and Jan De Jong. The other instructors are all ‘former’ British military, almost all from the SAS, although a few are ex-Marine Commandos. (The Phoenix (Dublin) 30th March 1984)
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The SAS trained 50 Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) men to ‘kill on sight’. The squad is known as Echo Four Alpha (or E4A), sometimes working within special support units. Constable John Robinson, acquitted of the murder of Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) member Seamus Grew was a member of an 11-strong special support unit, operating from Police Headquarters in Knock. In fact he was part of a group attached to both the Criminal Division and the Special Branch (or E Division), E4 being that section of the Branch which, as Robinson did, operates in the field. E4 Assault was trained by the permanent Counter Revolutionary Group (CRW) of 22 SAS in Hereford. The six week course uses the ‘keeni-meeni’ methods learned in Aden. It takes place in the SAS’s close quarter battle house or ‘killing house’, where ‘yellow card’ restrictions do not apply. (Sunday News 8th April 1984)
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Tommy Palmer, who died on the M1 motorway near Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 1983 was named at the time as a corporal in the Royal Engineers. In fact he was a trooper in C Squadron of the SAS. He and an SAS colleague were travelling in a ‘Q’ car during a mission when it mounted a motorway embankment.
Palmer was given a gallantry award for his part in the Iranian Embassy siege. He gave evidence at the inquest of how he and his commander, Capt. Jeremy Phipps, shot Makki Hanoun Ali after the Iraqi guerilla had surrendered. Palmer (31) spent much of his ten years of SAS service in Northern Ireland. He is the third of the nine-man SAS squad in the siege to die in Ireland. One was killed in Derry by the Provos, another falling victim to a ‘remote’ radio bomb in South Armagh. The latter was Sgt. Leslie Barker (34). The Daily Telegraph (24th November 1981) claimed Barker was in the Royal Engineers and had died in a parachute accident. (The Phoenix 4th March 1983)
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Is there any truth to the claim (in Black Flag February 1983) that “we now know that one SAS member died and one was seriously injured. (In the Iranian Embassy siege). The injured man was identified in hospital by the only combatant who survived the assault. The SAS member who died was shot point-blank in the head and the SAS were able to achieve a cover-up about the fatality as the person in question was a foreign mercenary (Polynesian) with no traceable connections.”
The man behind the establishment of the counter-terrorist force used in the siege, Major-General Peter De La Billiere (51), recently became Military Commissioner and Commander, British Forces Falklands Islands. He commanded the SAS from 1977 to 1983. (Times 9th July 1984)
Only thirty minutes after the shooting at the Libyan Embassy two Close Quarter Battle (CQB) teams were placed on alert at SAS headquarters. One was on standby and the other travelled to RAF Northolt, 12 miles north of London in two unmarked civilian vans. (Guardian 28th April 1984) A Brigadier attended the emergency meetings in the Cabinet Office, while another SAS officer in civilian clothes watched the square within the blue screens. The units never moved.
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SAS Sightings Around The World
Anyone see confirmation of SAS in El Salvador, and the Golan Heights during the last Israeli-Arab conflict? Did the SAS reach Grenada? On 21st October 1983 Tom Adams, Prime Minister of Barbados, through Giles Bullard, the British High Commissioner in Bridgetown, specifically requested the dispatch of an SAS team to rescue Sir Paul Scoon, the Governor General of Grenada. A report on BBC television’s ‘Newsnight’, a few days after the invasion, said that the SAS were close by but stood down when the Americans decided to invade.
Interest is roused by a report in Covert Action (Winter 1983) that “a Sandhurst graduate, who sources identify as the MI6 officer on the island, claimed to Newsday (November 13th 1983) that he watched the shooting of Maurice Bishop through an 80-power telescope, and although he did not see the aftermath, estimated that at least 50 people died.”
After Grenada, Sir Phillip Goodhart MP in a letter to the Times (November 1983) called for the wider use of the SAS in protecting mini-states.
The SAS and SBS have increased their surveying of possible trouble spots throughout the world, looking at geography, sensitive areas and military installations (Times 29th December 1983) Mostly Commonwealth countries, this follows anxiety felt after the coup attempt in the Seychelles. In 1981 the SAS were active in support of the government of Sir Dawda Janara, President of Gambia, after an attempted coup.
Sri Lanka’s President, J.R. Jayewardene, hired a group of mercenaries, veterans of the SAS, to set up a paramilitary force to combat the ‘Tamil Tigers’. The five former SAS officers arrived in January from Oman to begin a year’s programme training 300 men. The mercenary group has its headquarters in the Channel Islands and also runs operations in London and Oman. (Sunday Times 24th June 1984). Mossad, Israeli Intelligence, are also involved setting up an intelligence organisation. This involved David Mantani who set up a ‘special interests section’ in the American Embassy.
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Possible ‘SAS in Vietnam’ report from Beirut that Robert Thacker (28) was shot dead leading a squad of Christians in battle. Thacker had served with the Australians in Vietnam and with the SAS in Rhodesia, as well as in Angola. (Daily Express 12th August 1976).
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Jeremy G. Barret, Managing Director of Polygraph Security Services (company details in Lobster 4), ex-SAS, describes himself as ‘a specialist on the subject of executive protection’. (Guardian 13th April 1984)
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Extended obituary and article in The Times (14th October 1983) for Capt. John Hamilton MC, who died on the Falklands. Educated at the Royal Masonic School (Motto: Hear See and Be Silent), joined the Green Howards. With the SAS he went to Cyprus, South Armagh, Belize and the French Commando school at Trier. Leader of an SAS group which climbed Mount Kenya, all now dead.
Lance Corporal Tony Swierly (27) died in the 14 man SAS attempt on Everest. Joint group leader, Warrant Officer John Stokes broke his neck. Team leader Warrant Officer Michael ‘Bronco’ Lane and ‘Brummy’ Stokes climbed the mountain in 1976. Group Medic Dr Richard Villier. (Times 9th April 1984)
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SAS honouring its founder Colonel David Stirling by naming its new barracks in Hereford after him. (Guardian 30th May 1984). Stirling was involved in the strike-breaking GB 75. He still runs Television International Enterprises which runs a security service for overseas heads of state.
Through the Property Service Agency, SAS trying to extend the 750 acre training area at Abbey Drive, Herefordshire. Commandant of SAS training area Lt. Col Maurice Tudor (Guardian 27th June 1984)
SAS and SBS carried out a joint exercise on a tanker without telling the seven man crew. The SAS/SBS showed their true role and acted as terrorists who hijacked the ship and were holding hostages. Kent police had the task of forcing them to surrender over a three day period. The crew were suitably entertained at Chattenden Barracks, near Rochester (Times 6th December 1983)
Col. John St. John Grey (49) given the Royal Marines Commando. He spent several years in the SBS in the late 1950s, and regarded as SBS expert. (Times 6th December 1983)
SBS have trained UDR patrols in Northern Ireland and England. The UDR took over patrols of the Foyle Estuary, Lough Neagh and Lough Erne from SBS in 1977. Interestingly, the SBS, who were first sent to Northern Ireland in 1969, use the Ingram machine-pistol Mac-11, besides the standard Heckler and Koch MP5. (Sunday News 27th May 1984)
Books
Just out, SBS – The Invisible Raiders, James D. Ladd (Fontana 1984). This is a straight account of the Special Boat Squadron’s history 1940-1983. Obviously better on the war years.
Also due out soon as a Fontana paper-back is Peter Dickens’ Jungle Frontier, said to be re-edited and better than the hardback.
SD