CHAPTER 71
GREG HAS TAKEN TIME to review Nielsen's reports, needed to analyze victims first before proceeding and focus on the second "victim", Major Midleton, she had been married to the current Prime Minister Noah Hughes and was the mother of two boys, an impeccable record, a hero in combat, she had never failed to comply with any superior's determination and was successful in all missions, was number one in her class and was the most decorated woman in the nation.
He sipped some of the tea, he had heard of the famous English tea but had never tasted it.
— It's a delicacy found only in England.
— I wonder why.
Greg analyzed Charlene Midleton's missions and there had been many tortures of innocents and hundreds of deaths in the name of the Kingdom since it formed in 1980:
1980 : The Royal Marines increased their counter-terrorist capability with the creation of the Commachio Company in Scotland. It included a Special Boat Section and the name 5th SBS was given to this sub-unit.
1982 / Falklands— Malvinas Islands: In April 1982, Argentina took the Falklands Islands by storm. Immediately Sections 2, 3 and 6 of the SBS were sent to the South Atlantic with a small tactical headquarters, 84 men, under the command of Major Jonathan Thomson. The 2nd SBS was the first unit of the small task force to retake the South Georgia Islands, a small group of islands close to the Falklands Islands or Falklands that was also occupied by the Argentines. All SBS units were used in reconnaissance and observation over the Islands for three weeks before the main landings. The SBS teams carried out reconnaissance of the most favorable points for landing troops.
When the British landed in San Carlos Bay on May 21, SBS was on the beach to guide them inland. With the help of naval artillery, an SBS detachment with an SAS mortar team put out of action an Argentine position near the invasion area, killing or capturing about 25 enemies.
In one such operation, during a sudden attack against an enemy OP, the team was inadvertently diverted into an area patrolled by the SAS. Sergeant "Kiwi" Hunt, was killed during "friendly fire" in the brief firefight that followed. He was the only SBS member to die during the conflict.
1990 to 1991 / Iraq: An SBS squadron was deployed to the Gulf in 1990 to 1991, as part of Operation Shield and Desert Storm, during the Gulf War. They were parts of a British special forces contingent, which was made up of the 22nd SAS, under the command of Brigadier Andrew Massey. The Special Vessel Service (SBS) has conducted only one operation behind Iraqi lines that is known to date.
On the night of January 22, 1991, 36 SBS operators, three US Special Forces men and a USAF combat controller were flown in by two Chinook helicopters about 40 miles from Baghdad. Their mission, led by an SBS Lieutenant, was to destroy a fiber-optic cable junction believed to be part of the command and control system for Iraq's Scud missile batteries. The men were heavily armed and were carrying around 400 pounds of explosives. The junction was found and a part of the mesh was removed for analysis at the rear. The target was destroyed and after 90 minutes the entire team was withdrawn.
the operation grabbed one of the cable route markers and presented it to General Schwarzkopf on his return. SBS operators using Sea Kings helicopters retook the British embassy in Kuwait City at the end of the war, although as the retaking of the US embassy by special troops, also transported by helicopter, was not necessary. After the Gulf War the SBS was also used to support British Customs actions, mainly in intercepting drug smugglers. SBS operators descend from a Sea King helicopter during the resumption mission of the British Embassy in Kuwait.
1993 to 1999: Some SBS patrols went to Bosnia in 1993, and an entire squadron was installed in 1995-1996, as part of the NATO force that took control of the area. During the bombings of Kosovo and Serbia in 1999, a small team was joined by the 42nd Commando of the Royal Marines aboard the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean in the Adriatic Sea. Also in 1999 SBS operated in East Timor. Thirty men from the SBS were among the first troops to land at Dili airport, along with elements of the Australian and New Zealand SAS.
2001 / Afghanistan: The Western world was shaken by the terrorist attacks on September 11 in the USA, after identifying the culprits and where they were installed, the response was quick. Those responsible for the attack belonged to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, which had its training camps located in Afghanistan, which was dominated by the Taliban militia that protected Osama Bin Laden's organization. Less than 24 hours after the US attacks, a spy satellite was flying over Osama Bin Laden's strongholds in the mountains of Afghanistan.
72 hours later, special forces from the United States and England were on their way to this country, according to military sources. Two SAS units departed from Brize Norton Air Force Base, possibly in American Lockheed C-130 Hercules cargo planes carrying Little Bird helicopters that would transport them into Afghanistan. SAS officers began digging up records of ex-soldiers who had served with the mujahideen during their war against the Soviet Union.
The Royal Air Force's (RAF) stealth planes, three surveillance and communications Nimrods belonging to 51 Squadron, normally hidden in a base within a base-in Waddington, Lincolnshire, took off at night, departing for the Afghan skies. An SBS operator stands guard at a position in Afghanistan.
2003 / Iraq: The SBS was also called upon to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq that led to the downfall of Saddam Hussein. SBS men operated alongside the SAS, SASR and US special forces, with Kurdish forces in the North or with Shia communities in southern Iraq.
At the beginning of the conflict, SBS men were involved in preparations for an amphibious assault on the Al-Faw Peninsula, near the port of Umm Qasr. Then teams were deployed in northern Iraq to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage missions.