I was watching CNN, heard about this failed mission, Bravo Two Zero during the last Iraqi War 12 years ago, read the book and just saw the movie which you can now catch on cable.

The book was excellent. I wouldn't say it was a great movie but was fairly accurate to the book - looks like a low budget film, but it was pretty interesting.

Anyway, it is a true story of a group of British Special Forces behind enemy lines in Iraq during the Gulf War. Eight went in and only five came out.

Andy McNab, was the team commander and author of the book.

Bravo Two Zero is the code name of this group of eight SAS commandos who infiltrate northern Iraq with the mission to locate and destroy SCUD missiles. There was one mishap after another and ultimately, they are landed in the middle of nowhere. They have useless communications gear, heavy backpacks full of of equipment, and Iraqi troops all around them. They are quickly discovered and thus begins their odyssy - trying to get to the Syrian border close to 200 miles away.

The reason I was interested in this was because on the news, they were talking to an American pilot who said he heard chatter on the radio coming from this group looking for help but wasn't sure if it was a fake and because of the no-communication command, couldn't respond or go back around looking for them.

Again, if you catch the movie, I wouldn't say it resembled Black Hawk Down in overall feel just because it was low budget but was good nonetheless. Definitely read the book if you are interested in learning more about this.

GR8Voyager

I can't remember if it was the history channel or the discovery channel, but one of them had a really good documentary about this subject. It included interviews with all of the survivors and used a mix of still photos of the men and re-enactments to tell the tale. I'm pretty sure it was the history channel, now that I think about it. It was on a while ago, but it's one to look out for if you haven't seen it.

Hi

I read the book a while back. Not bad, gripping story, but he needs a ghost writer badly!!!

I think one of the other survivors wrote a book too, and the stories differ. I'm not sure on the details.

Cheers
Andy

The movie version of Bravo Two Zero was designed fot TV, no it wasn't done like a major movie and sometimes this works well. However, and this is where the doubts enter, B2Z,is presented as a factual acound of the activities of an SAS unit during GW1. Certainly there are consistencies, the units which were given the impossible task of tracking down Scud launchers in the Iraqi western desert, were given poor intelligence,inadequate equipment and logistical support. Up to here, MacNab's story corresponds to everything else we know.
Unfortunately several books were published by other members of MacNab's squadron all giving a widely differing account of what really happened and casting doubts on the honest of MacNab. So what I'm saying is that interesting though it is, B2Z, shouldn't be taken as the last word on an fairly murky story. British special forces do not tend to publicize their operations... Jim