Damien Lewis

Paperback 660 pages
(May 26, 2005)
Publisher: Arrow
ISBN: 0099466422

Operation Certain Death

Synopsis

In 1999 the British SAS pulled off what many consider to be their greatest mission of all time. A group of rebels in the West African country of Sierra Leone had taken 11 British soldiers hostage. The British soldiers had been on peacekeeping operations. The rebels were a famously brutal group – called The West Side Boys - known for amputating the limbs of civilians for fun and forcing children to become rebel fighters. Over the proceeding 17-day ordeal, the British hostages – two of whom were just 17 years old – were subjected to a living nightmare in the rebels’ jungle base. This became an archetypal story of Africa’s heart of darkness. As the British military tried to negotiate, the rebels’ horrific excesses culminated in children’s heads being paraded on poles before the hostages. Finally, the British SAS and SBS were called in to mount a rescue operation. A combined force of some 75 SAS and SBS soldiers were sent in to assault a heavily defended rebel base occupied by 1,000 enemy. This is a story of how they flew into target in a lightning assault, and succeeded in their mission against all odds. The story is a modern day tale of hostages and heroes, an epic of soul-shattering confrontations.

Officially called Operation Barras, but known to the men on the ground as Operation Certain Death, it was a joint operation between the Paras, the SBS, the Navy and the RAF, but spearheaded by the SAS. Because of the traditional secrecy surrounding Special Forces operations this story has never before been told, but it is one the men themselves wanted telling. This book is that story in their own words. It is the single most daring Special Forces rescue mission since World War Two.

The West Side Boys wore pink shades, shower caps, fluorescent wigs and sported voodoo charms. They believed these make them invulnerable to bullets – an impression re-enforced by ganja, heroine, crack cocaine and gallons of sweet palm wine. They terrified the local inhabitants by dressing up in monkey skins and abducting children for rape, torture and mutilation. They worshipped torture and killing. Their motto was: “What makes the grass grow? Blood. Blood. Blood.” In 1999 a 12-man patrol of Royal Irish Rangers were captured and held hostage by The West Side Boys. They were held prisoner in a fortified jungle hideaway, defended by 1000 heavily armed rebel soldiers. The hostage taking was the first stage in the rebels’ planned Operation Kill British – a campaign or murder and torture of British soldiers to force the British military to abandon Sierra Leone to the rebels. Then, in Operation Kill All Your Family, the rebels would have seized power in an orgy of violence and terror.

Operation Barras, the code name for the mission to rescue the British hostages, involved a combined force of 100 Paras, 25 members of the Special Boat Squadron, helicopters from the Navy and RAF and, spearheading the operation, a 50-strong squadron of the SAS. Extensive interviews with the survivors and participants of Operation Barras have produced this blow-by-blow account, in which Damien Lewis recounts the sights, the smells, and the soul-shattering confrontations. Against amazing odds the hostages were rescued. And rather than succeeding in Operation Kill British and Kill All Your Family, the rebels were annihilated – so bringing an end to ten years of Africa’s most brutal civil war. This is the story of the rescue mission of the century in Africa’s heart of darkness.

Story Update

Since writing his book I have discovered that US forces played a significant role in planning and executing of the assault. How and why? They did so because this was far from simply a hostage incident of concern to the British government. It had far-reaching and frightening consequences. The rebels were originally trained and funded by Colonel Gadaffi’s Libya. When that source of support had evaporated they had turned to the world’s foremost terror network - Al Qaeda – for support. The Sierra Leone rebels and Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda made natural bedfellows. Sierra Leone happens to be rich in diamonds. And prior to the 9/11 terror attacks, Al Qaeda was desperate to liquidate its cash into untraceable assets. Diamonds offered the perfect commodity for them to do so.

In the months immediately prior to 9/11 illicit diamond production in Sierra Leone increased 6-fold, as the rebels sold hundreds of millions of dollars of stones to Al Qaeda operatives. By the time the British SAS were sent into the jungle, the rebels were vowing to “do a Somalia” on British forces – a reference to the disastrous US military operation epitomised in the book and then movie Black Hawk Down. And so the British SAS were joined by members of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Delta Force, to help plan, strategise and execute the assault on the rebel base. US forces provided key satellite imagery, intelligence and computer modelling to enable the assault. And US operators went in on the mission itself, to assist their British brothers-in-arms to defeat the rebel and terrorist threat. In this world of bullyboy terrorism, this is the type of compelling, untold story that the world’s public needs to know about – how the elite of Britain (and America’s) forces went into action to defeat that terrorist threat.

Where Are They Now

Rebel leader Foday Kallay: Kallay awaits trial by the newly established United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone, which is trying several key suspects for war crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s ten year bloody civil war.

Rebel commander Colonel Savage: Colonel Savage was captured during Operation Barass and held in Padembe Road prison, in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, along with Foday Kallay and Colonel Bombblast. He awaits trial by the UN Special Court.

RUF rebel leader Foday Sankoh: Sankoh was arrested on the 17th May 2000, by Sierra Leonean forces under the command of Sierra Leone’s Inspector General of Police. Amazingly, that man was Keith Biddle, a British police officer who had run the police force in Sierra Leone for many years. Immediately upon his arrest, Sankoh was placed on board an RAF Chinook and spirited out to Lungi Airport, whereupon he was taken into custody at an ‘undisclosed location’. “We prepared a number of locations around the country that we can rotate him through,” remarked Biddle, following Sankoh’s arrest. “He’s a very high profile prisoner. There’s a lot of people who would like to get hold of him for a variety of reasons. So we have to make sure we can ensure his safety and security. There’s tremendous evidence being gathered by a team of very, very skilled and dedicated detectives from Sierra Leone alone, to prepare the case against Mr. Sankoh.” The ex-leader of the RUF was then indicted by the UN Special Court to stand trial for charges of crimes against humanity. But by the time the UN Court was ready to hear the case, Donald Harding, it’s medical officer, reported that Foday Sankoh was very ill. His health was so bad that he was; “Incapable of walking, talking or feeding himself.” At the initial hearing the bearded rebel leader turned up in a wheelchair and when asked how he pleaded, he was unable to answer. His wife, Mamma Fatou Sankoh, issued pleas to the world’s media. “My husband is accused of committing crimes against humanity,” she said, “but now to allow him just to whither away and die, where is the humanity in that?” Foday Sankoh died of natural causes in 2004 before he was able to stand trial.

Rebel leader Johnny Paul Koroma: the UN Special Court in Sierra Leone had indicted Johnny Paul Koroma, the ex-Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), for war crimes. But in June 2003, the UN Special Court received unconfirmed rumours that J. P. Koroma was dead, killed in Liberia, where he had fled to in an attempt to avoid UN jurisdiction. He was reportedly training 3,000 fighters for Liberia’s President Charles Taylor, to be used either to further Taylor’s war aims in Liberia itself or in Sierra Leone. Liberia’s President Charles Taylor and J. P. Koroma were amongst nine people who have been indicted by the Special Court for bearing greatest responsibility for atrocities committed during Sierra Leone’s 1991-2001 civil war.

Charles Taylor: On the 4th June, 2003, the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone announced the indictment of Charles Taylor, at that time still President of Liberia. The UN indictment cited Charles Taylor’s role in fuelling the civil war in Sierra Leone by diamond smuggling. At the time, Taylor’s reaction was to dismiss the UN indictment, and to demand that it be lifted “for the sake of peace” in Liberia and the wider region. But unscrupulous diamond traders had kept Taylor in money and arms, at least until the UN slapped a ban on the trade in Liberian diamonds. Dishonest and corrupt timber dealers then stepped in to take their place, buying up Liberia’s tropical forests, cutting them down and shipping them to overseas markets. The UN Special Court is presently seeking to try Charles Taylor for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone.

Sam Bockarie: the former Commanding Officer of the RUF military, Sam Bockarie was killed in uncertain circumstances in Liberia. Whilst some claim he was killed whilst trying to re-enter Liberia from C’ote D’ivoire and resisting arrest, other maintain that he was killed in an argument he had with Liberia’s then President Charles Taylor. Sam Bockarie had also fled to Liberia to avoid the UN Special Court’s powers, and he had also been training and fighting with Liberia’s rebels. Sam Bockarie was one of the key figures involved in the RUF’s diamond deals with Al Qaeda terrorists.

Corporal Mousa Bangura went on to train with British Forces in Sierra Leone and graduated to the officer training college in Ghana. He is now a Captain in the Sierra Leone Army (SLA). On the 19th November 2000, Royal Irish Rangers Major Martial wrote to Corporal Bagura. His words sum up what the rest of the captured patrol member felt for their Sierra Leonean colleague. “I know that you feel that, as the liaison officer, you should have done more to prevent our capture. This is simply not true. Your behaviour before, during and after our ordeal was exemplary in every aspect of the word. We all hold you in great self esteem and have nothing but feelings of admiration for your courage and steadfastness. Your efforts on the first two nights of our capture undoubtedly saved our lives. Your advice to me throughout our detention was absolutely vital and, in an indirect way, was instrumental in our rescue. We owe you our lives – it’s a simple as that.”

Major Martial: the Major was reportedly removed from the Royal Irish Regiment and sent back to Northern Ireland, where he is believed to be still serving with the British Army. In the spring of 2003, during the Second Gulf War, Major Marshal was spotted by a number of the Royal Irish Regiment soldiers in Iraq, in the thick of things again. In his letter to Corporal Mousa Bangura, the Major wrote: “I would like to reassure you that I have been fairly treated by the Army and only the press has been cruel. I have thought several times about speaking myself, but to do so now would be to dishonour the sacrifice of Brad Tinnion and those who were wounded. I’m sure it would also open up the rest of the patrol to further press hounding and would in the end produce little at great cost.”

The Story Behind The Story

Six years ago I was shooting a news report in the war zone in Sudan, Africa, and my cameraman at the time just happened to be an ex-SAS soldier. Sudan’s is Africa’s longest running civil war and some 2 million people have been killed. It was good to have this ex-SAS soldier with me. Since leaving The Regiment, he had become an excellent TV cameraman – the skills of soldier and war cameraman are often overlapping (cool under fire, methodical, brave, risk taking, good at keeping his camera loaded and his kit clean and operational in all conditions). We were in Sudan for a week only, but we got talking over the fire one evening whilst camped in the bush. The conversation led to Sierra Leone and Operation Barass in particular – the British military mission to rescue the eleven Royal Irish soldiers held hostage by a group of brutal Sierra Leonean rebels.

I was aware of the story of the hostage taking and subsequent rescue, from all the press reports at the time. But none of these had so much as touched the surface of the story. As my SAS mate talked it became increasingly clear to me that this was an extraordinary tale of a dramatic hostage crisis, and of the unique military rescue operation that followed. I was captivated by the riveting tale of the horror of capture that emerged and the powerful story that surrounded it. This was a modern day tale of heroism in action where warfare still was defined by raw soldiering on the ground. It seemed to me that this was a story that had to be told. As I went about researching the story in greater detail, I realised how little of it had ever appeared in the press. The literary sources that I could draw on were very limited. But luck was with me in that there were many human sources that I could approach to help me tell the tale.

Apart from the hostages themselves – the 11 men of the Royal Irish Rangers and one from the Sierra Leonean Army - who were the perfect eyewitnesses, there was an abundance of other military sources; the men of the Parachute Regiment, the RAF and the Army and Navy helicopter pilots, to name but a few. I travelled to Sierra Leone on two occasions to research the book, and on the second visit I travelled to the site of the West Side Boys rebel bases at Gberi Bana and Magbeni. The rebel bases had been re-colonised by refugees of Sierra Leon’s civil war. At first they looked like ‘normal’ African villages, with kids and chickens running down the main street and washing hanging from the trees. But closer inspection showed the ground still littered with spent bullet cases and buildings peppered with gunfire. In the bush were the mangled remains of the rebel vehicles, blown up by the British forces when they attacked. One wrecked UN vehicle had been turned into a makeshift washing line (see Photo Gallery). Some of the villagers remembered the West Side Boys, and my Sierra Leonean guide told me that he suspected some of them were ex-rebels themselves.

Sierra Leone is a beautiful country marred by a brutal and mindless civil war. I was able to meet and interview surviving rebel hostages in Sierra Leone, and some of the ex-rebels themselves. On one afternoon two of the (hopefully) ex-rebel West Side Boys turned up in my hotel room. As I served them beer on the balcony I suddenly realised that I was alone with two rebels who until recently had been drugged and brutal killers. They showed little remorse for what they had done – indeed, they still seemed to consider killing and maiming to be the things in life that they did best. They told me that the rebel’s motto was this: “What makes the grass grow? Blood! Blood! Blood!” They also told me that the mission to capture the British soldiers had been code-named ‘Operation Kill British’ by the rebels. If the SAS and related forces hadn’t gone in to rescue the hostages and destroy the rebel base, the rebels had plans for far more murder and mayhem. Fascinating stuff, but I was more than glad to get these two guys out of my hotel room.

I also talked to Sierra Leonean Army sources and the community of so-called mercenaries, who played such a significant role over the years in Sierra Leone’s fortunes, and had their own parts to play in the British military operation. Over the space of the two years it took to research and write the book, I spoke to dozens of sources. This is the tale that emerged. On the 25th August 1999, 11 members of the Royal Irish Rangers were taken hostage by a renegade African militia called the West Side Boys. Just days later, 50-odd members of D-squadron SAS, together with their SBS colleagues and the men of the Parachute Regiment, embarked on a mission to Sierra Leone to rescue them. The hostage crisis lasted seventeen terrible days, during which the British prisoners would suffer unimaginable horror and terror at the hands of their captors. The operation to rescue them would end up requiring a total of 200 British soldiers to go into action, supported by RAF helicopters, Royal Naval ships, UN forces and mercenaries. It would be the single biggest, most daring British Special Forces rescue operation since World War Two, and would end up being a very highly decorated mission.

The book that I have written explores what lead British military command to contemplate a daring, untried rescue operation that risked serious casualties and every chance of catastrophic failure. It examines the political manoeuvring behind the scenes, which lead to Tony Blair giving the go-ahead for a lightning assault on a notoriously battle-hardened and brutal African militia. And it investigates how a vastly outnumbered British assault force succeeded in assaulting a highly fortified jungle hideout and wiping out the West Side Boys. For many reasons - which are explored in the Epilogue to the book - I believe that this is an important and timely story, with very real relevance to the increasingly insecure world we live in today. I spent a considerable amount of time talking with the soldiers portrayed in this story, and I hope I have got inside the mindsets of these men. Because British Special Forces operations are shrouded by secrecy, I had to change the names of those soldiers involved and some of the dates and other details. However - and as soldiers from the mission have verified (see reviews on this site, for example) - the book constitutes an entirely accurate portrayal of the hostage ordeal and the rescue mission that followed

I greatly enjoyed writing this book – although to do so I had to journey myself into the heart of darkness that was Sierra Leone’s terrible civil war. For several months I ‘lived’ the story, which means that I had to put myself into the mindset and the situations of the British hostages, rescuers and rebels alike. Whilst walking the streets of my hometown during the period of writing I often felt myself to be in Sierra Leone. But without such an intensity, without so closely relating to all the characters in the story, it is impossible to write a book which is so raw, intense and real to life.

Maps, Graphics & Documents

None yet available

Images

Including images from Operation Barras itself - the training and the assault - from Sierra Leone during and after the civil war, and from the rebel bases of the West Side Boys as they are today.

View Operation Certain Death Image Gallery

Readers Reviews

"My name is Andrew Hooley and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your book, Operation Certain Death. The book took me a day and a half to read, I just couldn’t put it down. PLEASE make this into a movie. It would knock the socks off Black Hawk Down. Once again, brilliant book."
- Andrew

"I have just finished reading Operation Certain Death and its one of the best books about the British Armed Forces that I’ve read. I am ex-Army myself, and I have family and friends in the SBS and the SAS, and I must say you captured every detail exceptionally well, it was just like being in amongst the troops. I am hoping that you’ll be looking at putting this story on the big screen in the future – are there any plans?"
- Tim

"I have just read Operation Certain Death by Damien Lewis. I bought the book for my son to read on holiday but I ended up reading it myself. I could not put it down, and I went through many different emotions as I read it. I think it is a fantastic book and a fitting tribute to the men involved. What they achieved should never be forgotten and by writing this book Damien Lewis has made sure of that. I feel privileged to have been given the chance to read about these brave men thanks to Damien Lewis."
- Vicki

"I have just finished reading your book and found it a most enjoyable read, I especially loved the story of the CB-MRE bomb. That part had me in stitches. I used to be in the RAF and I got the book for father’s day from my three-month-old son!"
- Trys

"I enjoyed Operation Certain Death very much and I think your writing is awesome. Will you be writing more military books because Operation Certain Death is wonderful in every aspect. Thanks."
- Jordan

"My dad is a big fan of your book, Operation Certain Death and he is looking for pictures and maps on your website but cannot find them. Can you recommend where you keep more pictures and maps on your website please."
- Lucinda, 10 years old

More readers reviews of Operation Certain Death from Amazon.co.uk >>>

Soldiers and military figures on Operation Certain Death:

“When reading this book I felt like I was there, back in that rebel base again, facing the same horrors and nightmares as we did then. This book is an accurate, detailed and frightening recreation of the 17-day ordeal that we went through, and of the actions of the heroic British soldiers who came to rescue us.”
- Royal Irish Rangers Corporal Ally McClean, one of the rescued British hostages.

“Every one of us has felt that rush of adrenaline at the moment of going into raw combat, the fear monster tearing at your soul, the bond of brotherhood with your mates. Lewis’s book recreates that sense of going into action like no other book about special forces that I have ever read.”
- Mike M, SAS

“A riveting account of events. A story of courage, professionalism and high drama, which has previously remained untold. I was unable to put it down.”
- Michael Grunberg, Sandline

“I was fully gripped by this book and read it in short snatches whenever I could grab a moment. It really is very dramatic in the human sense and realistic in military detail, so the mental images are crystal clear in my mind.”
- Lieutenant Colonel Justin Holt, 40 Commando Royal Marines

“What the rebels did to us during our captivity is terrifying and this book tells the story of our capture and torture in all its terrifying detail. I owe a debt to the British military for rescuing us – and this book is a fitting tribute to those soldiers who risked all to do so.”
- Captain Mousa Bangura, the Sierra Leonean soldier held hostage alongside the 11 British soldiers.

“Damien Lewis’s superb account of the Special Air Service in action shows our Brit brothers-in-arms at their best. Operation Certain Death is a must for every special operations library.”
- L.H. ‘Bucky’ Burruss, Green Berets and Delta Force

“As a lucky soldier that was on that mission I waited for the books to appear. And I was not let down! Lewis’s book is a great read and the details of every line are damned near what happened. You will not be disappointed.”
- Amazon.co.uk review by a member of the assault force.

Media & Press

What a story! As good as any thriller I have ever read. This really is the low down.
- Frederick Forsyth

It takes a special kind of writer to get behind the eyes and inside the mind, hearts and brains of warriors, showing what makes them adapt, overcome and ultimately prevail. Operation Certain Death is evocative proof that Damien Lewis had joined this select company.
- John Weisman, New York Times bestselling author of SOAR: A Black Ops Mission, Jack in the Box: A Shadow War Thriller and Direct Action.

When the SAS was told to rescue British soldiers in Sierra Leone, the odds were so high the top brass warned of a possible disaster. Damien Lewis reveals a true story of British courage and daring behind a rescue in the African jungle, and reveals how they triumphed. The story begins .. Nosing their inflatables up yet another vast sandbank, the SAS men gathered in the darkness. They were exhausted, soaked to the skin, covered in mud from the river and eaten alive by mosquitoes. The boat trip was clearly over. It was time to say goodbye. The inflatables disappeared into the night, leaving ten men behind. They were the advance party of one of the most hazardous mission ever undertaken by the SAS ..
- Sunday Times, February 29th and March 7th, 2004

Return to Operation Certain Death, one of the most audacious and dangerous hit and run military raids of the decade. An elite squad of shock troops stormed the guerrilla camp where fellow British soldiers were being held hostage. Tonight – the story of that ferocious firefight, the deliverance of the hostages and the heavy price paid in blood by the terrorists. This is the riveting story of how a small band of elite British soldiers fought a violent action against terrorists, which is now a text book example of how to hit the enemy harder than ever he thought possible. An intense firefight and one of the most difficult operations the SAS has ever had to pull off.
- Richard & Judy, Channel 4

Operation Certain Death: the British forces were on hostile terrain and outnumbered five to one. “There was full scale unlimited violence on sale,” commented one SAS soldier. “Everyone wanted to be part of it.” When elite British forces were sent in to the vicious heart of Sierra Leone on a rescue mission, they vowed to kill each other rather than be taken alive. Sent in to rescue 11 soldiers held hostage in the jungles of Sierra Leone, Britain’s elite Special Forces ominously nicknamed their mission “Operation Certain Death”. Flying in to assault a rebel base controlled by the infamous West Side Boys gang, they knew they were outnumbered some five to one. “We knew how cheap life was for the rebels, what they were capable of,” said an SAS fighter. “It would be a slow, agonising, horrible death.
- NUTS Magazine, Issue 37

Damien Lewis’s book reveals the horror of the kidnapping of the British soldiers in Sierra Leone in August 2000, and the lightning assault by British Special Forces to rescue them.
- Sky News, March 2004

A rollercoaster journey into the very heart of darkness, made even more chilling by the fact that this terrible tale is true.
- Gerry Ryan, RTE’s the Gerry Ryan Show

Sierra Leone, 2000. A civil war is in progress. Eleven Royal Irish Rangers – there to train the shambolic Sierra Leone army – and one Sierra Leonean soldier are captured by the main rebel group, the vicious West Side Boys. Pumped up with drugs and voodoo beliefs, and packing some serious weaponry, the West Side Boys (which includes plenty of girls) are a formidable fighting force. A rescue mission in mounted, a joint UK forces operation, spearheaded by the SAS. Nothing is spared in Lewis’s exciting and well-researched book, which means there’s plenty of graphic – but not gratuitous – violence. The UK troops are portrayed as exceptionally well trained and committed fighting men, rather than as the supermen of media hyperbole.”
- Ink Magazine, May 2004, Review: Operation Certain Death.

“Grotesque, glorious and utterly gripping.”
- Bolton Evening News

“A powerful docu-novel, which conveys the danger of the operation and courage of those who went into successfully rescue their colleagues.”
- Sunderland Echo

Excerpt

Prologue

Gaining height and circling out above the vast expanse of the harbour, the seven aircraft go into a holding pattern. It feels like an age to the men of D Squadron - poised and ready for action inside the choppers - although it can only last for a little more than ten minutes. They all know the reason for the delay: they have been listening in on the radio net to the short exchange of words between the Chinook pilot and Lassie on the ground at the rebel base. It's still too dark to hit the target. If only the fucking sunrise would get a move on, they're thinking. If only the fucking river mist would clear... Read More