level. The jungle was very thick. It was getting on for 1.00 pm and I could see the level of patrolling was slowly dropping off, so I caught Stuart’s eye to indicate a lengthy stop, and pointed to an area that I considered suitable for the stop and defendable in the event of enemy surprise. Stuart passed this down the line, I informed John, and we moved in and occupied the position.
One by one we removed the small packages of food from our trouser pockets and ate. We’d had a long morning, so I told the blokes to brew up if they wanted to. Everyone took turns at preparing their brews and a feed so, at any given time, all five heads were not looking down rather than towards the perimeter. We sat in this spot for about 40 minutes when I decided to give each member a quick brief as to what we would be doing for the afternoon and to update the rendezvous points. We were going to continue in a north-westerly direction to a position about 300 metres away on a bit of high ground. I hoped to be in this night lay-up position by 4.00 pm.
One at a time we stood, checked our personal space and moved off. The jungle was thick and the patrolling was slow. It becomes very tiring when you have to bend over to get your pack under overhanging branches and through thick jungle, and when soldiers become tired they tend to make more noise. But this was just one of those occasions that separates regular soldiers from the SAS. This sort of patrolling requires extra discipline, strength, vigilance and concentration on the area surrounding each member. An SAS soldier would never forgive himself if he made the noise that gave the patrol’s position away.
We continued on, but by now I knew we weren’t going to reach the desired night lay-up position so, at 3.45, I started to look for a suitable location to hide the patrol for the night. To my half-right, I spotted a thick piece of ground on a slight rise. The area was covered in thick secondary growth and measured about 25 x 25 metres. I indicated the area to the patrol and we moved in. The growth was very thick and we had to struggle to get on top of the rise which was a little clearer and suitable for occupation. As the patrol members occupied their various positions, I inspected the surrounds and confirmed that no-one could sneak up on us through this growth. Normally I would send the blokes out some distance to check a piece of ground that we hadn’t covered for dead ground and anything unusual, but in this area they would make more noise doing the check and that would defeat the purpose. We stood for five minutes and listened to the noises around us and had a good look at the surrounding area. I then sat down and the whole patrol followed. This action was standard operating procedure in the patrol. I figured it was better to make the noise of sitting down once, not five times. Again, we went through the eating process of one bloke preparing at a time, then each of the blokes cleared an area for sleeping. The sleeping area was wide enough to accommodate a sleeping mat which, when unfolded, was long enough to keep the hips and the shoulders off the ground, and a sleeping bag. The area was cleared only of twigs and anything that would make excess noise when compressed.
With the nightly routine almost complete, the patrol sat quietly and finished off the last of the brews while scanning the perimeter with their eyes. I moved around to each of them and asked how they were going, told them what I had in mind for the following day and what the rendezvous points were for the evening. When visibility diminished and the sun was all but gone, I told each bloke to lay out his bedding. Each patrol member had his pack rigged so that, while facing the perimeter, he could unbuckle, reach into a compartment and withdraw his bedding. So, at this stage, each man still had his webbing on, his weapon on his lap and only one compartment of his pack open. This meant that, in the event of a contact, he would, at
One by one we removed the small packages of food from our trouser pockets and ate. We’d had a long morning, so I told the blokes to brew up if they wanted to. Everyone took turns at preparing their brews and a feed so, at any given time, all five heads were not looking down rather than towards the perimeter. We sat in this spot for about 40 minutes when I decided to give each member a quick brief as to what we would be doing for the afternoon and to update the rendezvous points. We were going to continue in a north-westerly direction to a position about 300 metres away on a bit of high ground. I hoped to be in this night lay-up position by 4.00 pm.
One at a time we stood, checked our personal space and moved off. The jungle was thick and the patrolling was slow. It becomes very tiring when you have to bend over to get your pack under overhanging branches and through thick jungle, and when soldiers become tired they tend to make more noise. But this was just one of those occasions that separates regular soldiers from the SAS. This sort of patrolling requires extra discipline, strength, vigilance and concentration on the area surrounding each member. An SAS soldier would never forgive himself if he made the noise that gave the patrol’s position away.
We continued on, but by now I knew we weren’t going to reach the desired night lay-up position so, at 3.45, I started to look for a suitable location to hide the patrol for the night. To my half-right, I spotted a thick piece of ground on a slight rise. The area was covered in thick secondary growth and measured about 25 x 25 metres. I indicated the area to the patrol and we moved in. The growth was very thick and we had to struggle to get on top of the rise which was a little clearer and suitable for occupation. As the patrol members occupied their various positions, I inspected the surrounds and confirmed that no-one could sneak up on us through this growth. Normally I would send the blokes out some distance to check a piece of ground that we hadn’t covered for dead ground and anything unusual, but in this area they would make more noise doing the check and that would defeat the purpose. We stood for five minutes and listened to the noises around us and had a good look at the surrounding area. I then sat down and the whole patrol followed. This action was standard operating procedure in the patrol. I figured it was better to make the noise of sitting down once, not five times. Again, we went through the eating process of one bloke preparing at a time, then each of the blokes cleared an area for sleeping. The sleeping area was wide enough to accommodate a sleeping mat which, when unfolded, was long enough to keep the hips and the shoulders off the ground, and a sleeping bag. The area was cleared only of twigs and anything that would make excess noise when compressed.
With the nightly routine almost complete, the patrol sat quietly and finished off the last of the brews while scanning the perimeter with their eyes. I moved around to each of them and asked how they were going, told them what I had in mind for the following day and what the rendezvous points were for the evening. When visibility diminished and the sun was all but gone, I told each bloke to lay out his bedding. Each patrol member had his pack rigged so that, while facing the perimeter, he could unbuckle, reach into a compartment and withdraw his bedding. So, at this stage, each man still had his webbing on, his weapon on his lap and only one compartment of his pack open. This meant that, in the event of a contact, he would, at
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