BRAVO TWO ZERO BECOMES LEGEND
BOOKS AND TELEVISION ADAPTATIONS HAVE BROUGHT BRAVO TWO ZERO FAME – AND ADDITIONAL SCRUTINY
In addition to Mcnab’s (Mitchell) 1993 book Bravo Two Zero and Ryan’s (Armstrong) 1995 work The One That Got Away, Peter Ratcliffe, the SAS regimental sergeant major at the time of the operation, wrote Eye Of The Storm in 2000, a memoir that also introduces contradictory information about the abortive mission. In 2001, former SAS Trooper Michael Asher travelled to Iraq and conducted numerous interviews with witnesses while retracing the Bravo Two Zero patrol route. His book, The Real Bravo Two Zero, which is largely at odds with the accounts of Mcnab and Ryan, was published the following year. Trooper Mike ‘Kiwi’ Coburn also wrote a book, Soldier Five, published in 2004.
“I wanted to portray events as they really happened,” Coburn said in reference to other accounts of the mission, in particular labelling some of what Mcnab and Ryan wrote as fiction. “You can’t have all this rubbish out there.” The Ministry of Defence failed in its attempt to suppress Coburn’s book but has received all of the proceeds from its sales.
The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have all produced documentaries based on the accounts of the SAS survivors of Bravo Two Zero and those who subsequently sought to shed light on the events.