Andrew Higgins - With the SAS and other animals : a vets war : the story of a young veterinary officer, seconded to the Special Air Service Regiment for six months during covert operations in the Arabian Gulf in 1974

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Dedication

For Nicola.

First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Andrew Higgins, 2011

ISBN 978-1-84884-486-5
ePub ISBN: 9781844682423
PRC ISBN: 9781844682430

The right of Andrew Higgins to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission from the Publisher in writing.

Typeset by Concept, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
Printed and bound in England by CPI, UK.

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation,
Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe Local History,
Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper,
Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail:
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Contents

Preface

This book has been waiting in note form for over thirty-five years. The encouragement of my patient wife Nicola and my impatient children, Ben, Amelia, Joanna and Venetia, made me finally start writing an account of my experiences in Oman in 1974, based on a journal that I had the sense to keep at the time. Once the manuscript was in first draft, the book seemed to take on a life of its own and reopened friendships that had long since faded. Sadly, some of the people mentioned in the book have died. Several of them had a major impact on my life at the time Oliver Graham-Jones, Roy and Elizabeth Ansell, Mac Maclean, John Clarke, Tony Brunton, Philip and Laura Romans, Brigadier Jack Fletcher, Brigadier Harry Orr, General Sir John Akehurst and General Sir Tim Creasey. I hope in a way this book can serve as a small tribute to them.

Encouraging yet down to earth comments on the manuscript came from Paddy King-Fretts, my Squadron Commander in Dhofar and a published author himself. Scott Moffat and Chuck Pringle had many constructive views that helped me a lot. Thanks too to those friends and family members who offered to read the text and made valuable suggestions. All remaining errors are my fault alone, so please can I say sorry in advance where I have got it wrong?

My aim in writing the book was threefold: firstly to try and craft an interesting story about a remarkable part of my life as a young and rather impressionable man endeavouring to adapt to highly unusual and certainly very unexpected circumstances; secondly, I wanted to recount something of the veterinary professions contribution to a serious conflict in the ever sensitive Middle East; finally, I thought it would be interesting to look at the SAS in the 1970s through the eyes of an outsider privileged to work with the most professional, dedicated and skilled soldiers in the world. During their five month Dhofar tour in 1974, A Squadron lost two men killed in action (Captain Simon Garthwaite and Lance-Corporal Curly Kent) and several were wounded. There were also decorations one Distinguished Campaign Medal, two Military Medals and three were Mentioned in Dispatches. They were an amazing group of men to be with.

I would also like to acknowledge the work of my six predecessors as Operation Storms BATT Vets: Tony Horne, Brian Thompson, Geoffrey Durrant, John Clemenger, Bill McLaren and of course the redoubtable Scott Moffat, my predecessor, mentor and guide. All were serving RAVC Veterinary Officers and I trod carefully in their footsteps benefitting from the solid foundations they had laid in the previous four years.

To my delight, Richard Dannatt agreed to write the Foreword the importance of heart and minds has always been close to his own heart, not least during his challenging years as Chief of the General Staff. Lord Dannatt, who is now Constable of the Tower of London, is a Founder Patron of Help for Heroes (www.helpforheroes.org.uk), the charity that ensures injured servicemen never feel neglected or rejected by the people of the United Kingdom. The charity will benefit by the sale of every copy of this book.

Finally, I offer my thanks to David Thurlow for critically reading the draft and for his editing talents, and to Blair Wallace for his help with the photographs and for skilfully extracting some of them from ancient Super-8 film. I am greatly indebted to the superb team at Pen & Sword, particularly Pamela Covey, Matt Jones, Jon Wilkinson and Noel Sadler, for their help at all stages of the production process, and to Henry Wilson not only for his faith in the book but also for the inspired title and for his unfailing courtesy, humour, patience and guidance.

I have tried to limit the amount of abbreviations, but they seem to be an inescapable part of the British armys way of life. Hopefully the glossary will help and also provide a few often used Arabic expressions.

I do hope you enjoy this gentle stroll through a small, but unique period of history.

Andrew Higgins

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

June 2011

Foreword

By General The Lord Dannatt

GCB, CBE, MC, DL

Chief of the General Staff 20062009

The key to winning any counter-insurgency campaign is the support of the local population and, to me, Hearts and Minds describes how to gain the trust, confidence and respect of people caught up in a conflict by pragmatic and psychological means. Without local support, insurgents will become increasingly isolated as supplies, shelter and secrecy diminish. The process is usually a long one, and not without risk as the rebels may inflict appalling brutality in their struggle to regain influence and control over a previously compliant community.

The concept is not new. General Sir Gerald Templar, when Director of Operations during the Malaya Emergency, said in 1952: The answer lies not in pouring more troops into the jungle, but in the hearts and minds of the Malayan people. Even earlier, President John Quincy Adams in 1818 writing about the American Revolution commented:

The Revolution was effected before the War commenced... (and) was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.

In warfare, the aim of all psychological operations (or PSYOPS) is to influence the perceptions, attitudes and behaviour of targeted groups in order to gain political or military objectives. Today the main vehicle is the media television, radio, newspapers but on the ground, often in areas where communications are limited, other more basic methods are needed. These might include the scattering of leaflets by air, use of posters, and the deployment of extension teams trained to penetrate the population in order to demonstrate tangible and sustainable benefits and to influence basic perceptions. Depending on the circumstances, the desired outcome may be any number of needs, such as the provision of food, water, housing, medicine, religious freedom and, of course, weapons. However, the overriding necessity in any successful Hearts and Minds campaign is the establishment of ongoing political stability and reliability.

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