Originally Posted by SUNRAY_MINOR

There was a fair bit of bad feeling that a lot of money was being made out of something that went wrong plus the other books were lifting the lid on the SAS and seen as bad form.

The nub of it in a nutshell.
The fact that B20 had been cleared was overlooked, and then the feeling that if they took umbrage with a Sergeant then Generals were not to be given a pass either. Again DLB's book had been cleared through the same channels and then the net was cast wider, retroactively, to include soldiers like Peter Mac whose book told of his service in the 1960s.
It showed the ire of the WO mafia that controlled the 'heritage' and who determined who was PNG and who was not.
I don't believe General Jeapes nor 'Lofty" were similarly sanctioned.

I was interested to read from the obit you cite of your former Boss breaking with the Regimental NDA:
"After the Gulf War came a flood of books relating personal experiences. Massey, never afraid to break with tradition, felt compelled to give what he referred to as "an historic truth" of events. In 1996, in a BBC documentary, he related the role of the SAS at length with pride and spoke of several acts of courage by Special Forces in Iraq. "Our Gulf activities show what can be achieved by a few hundred highly committed, very determined men, who focus themselves on their responsibilities to other people." To go so public was a bold and courageous move and had been a difficult decision and one typical of Andy Massey. It earned the rancour of the regiment which he loved so much."

Mind you, I cannot see him taking a penny for that interview. It's a pity he never wrote of his time, as he comes across as an interesting, innovative and thoughtful soldier.

Originally Posted by beagleboy

A bit of a footnote to the 'authors' of said books. Now I know I could be drawing a long bow, but post WW2 there was a plethora of autobiographical and biographical accounts of 'derring do', boys-own stuff of 'them', LRDG, Popski, COPPS, Chindits et al, I reckon the only lot that didn't were Jedburgh Teams, and no nastygrams were sent to the authors along the lines of 'don't darken our doorstep again'.
Yeah, I know different concept of ops blah, blah, blah, but still it is the same bunch of lads isn't it?

A point well made, but money and associated 'silhouetted' celebrity status have changed things.

Originally Posted by caged_steel

Yeah av just started 7 troop just wanted to know what others thought about his books

I like The fiction books , Seven troop I thought was a interesting book , Until I was speaking to a person on another social network site whose friend was a dependant of one of the soldiers who had PTSD and other events occurred . This particular family was deeply upset by what was wrote in the book . So it makes one think , is it morally right to write about other people's heartache life in books . I personally don't think this was the authors intention but may be the people in these books and their family's should be consulted first .

There's some good reading here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sta...t_10_02_02.txt

TAYLOR: However, we can reveal that some messages were received back at base,
and we know what
they said because we've seen a copy of an SAS daily record or log written up in
the Gulf, and we can further
reveal from the log that the first message was received on Thursday 24th January,
the second full day of the
mission, and it was quite clear. B Squadron, northern MSR group - that's Bravo
Two Zero - reported that
they had been compromised and requested ex-filtration as soon as possible.
There was no ambiguity about
the message, the patrol was in deep trouble. Nevertheless no rescue was
launched. Although the patrol had
received no conformation of their messages, they hoped that one or two might
have got through. Having
survived the fire fight and evaded the enemy, they headed for a previously
agreed rendezvous point
expecting a rescue helicopter.

Filmed 1995

Brigadier ANDREW MASSEY
Gulf Commander, UK Special Forces
We first heard that Bravo Two Zero was in trouble when we got a garbled radio
message. We really didn't
know what had gone wrong, we had to interpret it.

PETER TAYOR
However, we understand that SAS intelligence officers at UK headquarters near
High Wickam did hear
Bravo Two Zero calling for help on the satellite link several times. They also
overheard a conversation
between Brigadier Massey and the SAS Colonel who was the patrol's commanding
officer in the Gulf.
They were discussing possible air support for a rescue. Massey, we understand,
described such military
backup as "a bit premature" to the astonishment of some of those at High Wickham
who had no doubt the
patrol was in serious trouble. What they may not have known was that mounting a
rescue was potentially
embarrassing.

MASSEY: We had to look after ourselves. General de la Billiere stressed this
and General Schwarzkopf
stressed that again, but he winked as he said it and I knew he'd give us help if
we needed it.

B20 was a fuck up.

RIP Bob, the barbies in bristol were awesome.

The SAS Regt should hang their heads in shame the way lads from support company 40 Commando were treated the day of Bobs funeral, no, the SAS should hang their heads in shame for the whole fuck up of Bravo two zero. Fucking amateurs, supposed to be super duper soldiers? The people in charge of that patrol need to take a hard look at themselves.

Fair play to him/her. The books may not quite up to Jane Austen's standards, but they sell.

While we're picking on him here, he's probably attempting to crowbar another million quid into his trouser so he can go out for a nice lunch. Wish I could do it. Better than working for a living.

There was another thread on here some time ago, I think, satirising his novels.

Mr McNabb has a facebook page, we should test its him be asking the colour of the boathouse

Originally Posted by polar69

Mr McNabb has a facebook page, we should test its him be asking the colour of the boathouse

It's a bit like Godwin's Law. How long does it take a poster on arse to the mention the word "boathouse"?

And today's lucky winner is polar69. Congratulations polar69! Where you from? Ha ha. Are the family here tonight? Well look at what you've won. A speedboat! And a holiday in Saudi Arabia. And now the weather.

Dont think he writes the books himself , too many technical inaccuracies , and no I cant recall any but next time I read his stuff I`ll post some.

Originally Posted by beagleboy

A bit of a footnote to the 'authors' of said books. Now I know I could be drawing a long bow, but post WW2 there was a plethora of autobiographical and biographical accounts of 'derring do', boys-own stuff of 'them', LRDG, Popski, COPPS, Chindits et al, I reckon the only lot that didn't were Jedburgh Teams, and no nastygrams were sent to the authors along the lines of 'don't darken our doorstep again'.

Yeah, I know different concept of ops blah, blah, blah, but still it is the same bunch of lads isn't it?

I'll add to that - 'We Died With Our Boots Clean' was written by Kenneth McAlpine and published in 2009. He goes on to describe his various actions as a commando in ww2. Some of the pretty shocking stuff he admits to a) getting a group together to try and kill his arsehole of a sergeant in combat b) someone knifing their Para officer's parachute to kill him on the way down. c) lining up a group of men in a concentration camp with a view to massacring them all due to the treatment of the inmates.

Brilliant book - but also pretty shocking stuff. War crime material if anything. He was never done for it either. Also somebody mentioned something about Andy Mcnab shit talking Vince, I believe that was actually Chris Ryan, not Andy, who went on to publically denounce Chris' book for the harshness of the comments.

Originally Posted by beagleboy

*touches nose with forefinger, eyes dart left right and left again, arches left eyebrow, clears throat*

Says in a low voice barely audible to the most discerning "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."

"in Hertford, ****ford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly happen". Just don't mention Hereford cos them gets upset...

Shit.