Soldier E SAS: Sniper Fire in Belfast
By Shaun Clarke
Cox and Wyman
283 pp., $12.95
Reviewed by Catherine Brown
The publisher's notes for potential reviewers, with its bland reference to the "secretive and controversial" history of the Special Air Service in the north of Ireland, was no preparation for this book.
The back cover was more frank — "A thrilling 'factoid' adventure about the most daring soldiers in military history: the SAS!" "Most men can only dream about such adventures", the prospective reader is informed, "The SAS live them!" It should have been warning enough — but having committed myself to reviewing the book I resisted the temptation to throw it in the bin.
In this account of some SAS operations in 1976 in Ireland, there's no attempt to deny that the SAS planned deadly ambushes and assassinations of alleged Irish Republican Army volunteers — regardless of whether they were armed. It describes cross-border operations in which the SAS illegally enter the Irish republic to kidnap alleged IRA volunteers who are then taken back into the Six Counties and handed over to the Royal Ulster Constabulary. These illegal activities were officially denied by the British government.
The over-zealous Lieutenant Cranfield, responsible for an assassination south of the border and architect of a plan to wipe out an IRA active service unit (preferably while unarmed), comes under some criticism for his methods in bringing disrepute to the regiment.
"Let's face it, the SAS haven't exactly done themselves proud here so far. First, two troopers try to rob a bank in Londonderry (sic) and get six months for their troubles. Then we get a reputation as a bunch of killers as bad as the Black and Tans. Now we're arriving in force with a lot of men experienced in jungle or desert warfare, but with no Combat Training experience and no knowledge of the law when it comes to fighting a war on British territory", comments one SAS soldier.
The book leaves one with the impression that the illegal "controversial" chapter of the SAS in Ireland finished with the exit of Cranfield from the scene. However, the role of the SAS has not changed, as the 1988 assassination of three unarmed IRA volunteers in Gibraltar by the SAS shows.
Such was the international outrage through the 1980s at the British army, especially the SAS and the RUC's shoot-to-kill policy, that an inquiry was set up by the British government. John Stalker, the senior British police officer who headed the inquiry, was sacked because its findings were too damaging.
Currently, in the US courts, the defence against the extradition of an escaped Irish republican prisoner hinges on the documented evidence of the activities of the British army and judicial system in the north of Ireland. This includes the account of defence witness Oistin Mac Bride, who produced incontrovertible photographic proof that his brother had been arrested, handcuffed, beaten and then executed by the British Army's elite SAS.
I suggest giving Sniper Fire in Belfast a big miss. If you want to read a more objective account of the SAS in Ireland pick up a copy of Stalker, a personal account of the inquiry into the British Army and the RUC's shoot-to-kill policy in the 1980s.