Bravo Two Zero: The True Story of an SAS Patrol Behind Enemy Lines

Bravo Two Zero: The True Story of an SAS Patrol Behind Enemy Lines

by Andy McNab

Corgi, $116

Andy McNab, the pseudonymous writer of the Nick Stone thrillers, has a new adventure for teens out this month, Payback, set against a terrorist bombing campaign targeting British civilians. It's not great literature, that's not what McNab does, but it has the potential to lead a new crop of readers to try Bravo Two Zero, now in reissue. First published in 1993, it's McNab's story about the SAS troop, call sign Bravo Two Zero, dropped inside Iraq ahead of the first Gulf war to destroy Scud missiles and disable communications cables. The mission went wrong. Faulty reconnaissance saw them dropped next to a heavy concentration of Iraqi troops: three were killed in firefights, and four were captured, including McNab. There have been questions over the years about the veracity of McNab's recollections in Bravo Two Zero, but what critics and readers seem to like is the 'authenticity', the 'sensory realism' that capture the reality of soldiering like few others.