Two soldiers in a hedge

Two SAS soldiers hiding in a South Armagh hedge had endured much. But when a farmer began pouring petrol over the vegetation, soaking their camouflage uniforms and running down their faces, they faced a new…

“We're sitting there and his petrol was running down our faces. It's all over us and we're thinking, this is going to get quite ugly.”

What an OP really was

An observation post, or OP, was the SAS's unglamorous work in Northern Ireland. Two exhausted soldiers would hide in a wet hedge for days, staring through binoculars at a farmhouse, recording who arrived, left, and…

“Not black-clad men abseiling through windows or dramatic gun battles, but two exhausted men, buried inside a wet hedge, staring through binoculars at a farmhouse and trying desperately not to be discovered.”

Building profiles of suspects

The soldiers were building up profiles of suspects, looking for patterns of life that might indicate militant activity and sources of finance for violent groups like the Irish Republican Army.

Minimal equipment, maximum silence

Their equipment was basic: binoculars, notebook and radio. The radio was barely used, only a couple of clicks at predetermined intervals as proof of life to the operations room. Otherwise, silence.

Days of sleep deprivation

Observation posts could take days and stretch to weeks of sleep deprivation and indignity. Winter brought cold, mud and water. Men got trench foot. Discovery, known as compromise, could be fatal or worse.

The indignity of confinement

Once hidden, soldiers could not wander off for fear of being found, shot or giving away their position. Men urinated into lemonade bottles and defecated into plastic bags while sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the hedge.

“It wasn't for the shy and retiring.”

A single sound could end it

The real danger was a single movement, sound or piece of bad luck that revealed the hedge was occupied.A dog could end an operation.

“If the dogs found you, then it was game over.”

Capture was the worst fear

Death in a bomb blast or bullets was preferable to capture. SAS operators most feared being abducted, knowing that days or weeks of torture and interrogation would be followed by murder and an unknown grave.

“You knew you could live with being shot and blown up. But if you were abducted, there was no good ending coming to you.”

The farmer grows suspicious

The SAS team did not know if the farmer they were watching was in the IRA.But he was deeply suspicious of being watched.

The hedge catches fire

On the third day the farmer emerged with jerry cans and began splashing petrol over the hedgerow.The soldiers radioed a warning.Then a boy with the farmer struck a match and threw it into the hedge.

“Bang! The whole thing literally is exploding in a matter of a few seconds.”

Running from the inferno

The hidden OP had become an inferno.The two heavily armed, smoke-blackened men erupted from the hedge that had appeared empty seconds earlier, shouting like banshees.

“Everything out there is a gamble. On that day, we called it correctly, but equally, we could have called it another way.”