Tony May - The SAS ‘Deniables’: Special Forces Operations, denied by the Authorities, from Vietnam to the War on Terror

Special Forces Operations, denied by the Authorities, from Vietnam to the War on Terror

Tony May

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

Frontline Books

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Tony May 2022

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ISBN 978 1 39909 630 0

eISBN 978 1 39909 631 7

Mobi ISBN 978 1 39909 631 7

The right of Tony May to be identified as 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.

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Dedication

To the Australian Special Air Service (SAS) trained specialists whose patriotism, experience and knowledge of military covert operations and generosity gave life to this body of work.

To the unnamed men and women of the Australian military and security services who in the past, present and future have and will always put themselves forward as the very silent few who perform the extraordinary with no expectation of recognition or reward, except for having done their job well with pride and passion.

* * *

Any similarities to people living or dead are purely coincidental.

Not Everyone in the 60s Wore Beads and Roman Sandals

T he routine of observe, report and get chased away from targets was a day-to-day affair. The small team had gotten smaller as there were no replacements and no time to train new personnel. The best tool was a simple compass and regular updating of maps and charts of the areas they had been through. The countryside was littered with unmarked villages both friendly and hostile.

All were considered as hostile and sources of intelligence leaks to the Viet Cong, whom the team were certain knew of their existence.

The mission wasnt finished with just the small targets being taken out, so they continued to search for more transport trails until they uncovered another huge stockpile of munitions. It seemed the opposition had reacted to the last attack, resulting in what was now a huge stockpile of weapons bunched up with nothing going over the Vietnamese border but instead creating a pile-up just five miles inside Cambodia in a valley that had cliffs on each side and a small stream trickling through it.

The SAS team found an ideal spot to set up camp on one of the hill tops with almost perfect cover from aerial surveillance. The enemy below didnt know they were being observed from a vantage point that allowed the SAS a fairly clear view along the valley.

The cache was fairly large and growing, and there were both Viet Cong and Cambodian personnel bivouacked on all sides. They shared this intelligence coup with the Americans via their contact in Saigon. The team was ordered to sit tight and observe when the stockpile looked like it was moving out of the valley and heading towards the border into Vietnam. Within two days the munitions began to move east, a trickle at first until there was more coordination of personnel. Spider notified DIO in Saigon, who several hours later advised that the Americans were marshalling a helicopter gunship attack.

It was mid-afternoon, the sky a little hazy but no rain, and the SAS soldiers could make out the head of the line of people carting heavy boxes by hand, on backs and on bicycles. The line had begun to reach the end of the valley and started working its way up an incline before reaching the Vietnamese border.

Then the team of warriors heard the clack of helicopter rotors, when a dozen helicopters breached the top of the rise where the transporters of munitions began to scatter. Too fucking late! The rockets and machine guns began a constant hammering of the ground and through the valley.

The helicopters turned back into the valley and carried out their strafing runs more meticulously by picking out individual targets. By this time the enemy soldiers among the transport labourers had begun return fire using automatic weapons.

This caused the helicopters to break formation and it appeared that they had lost control of the situation and had to regroup.

That decision brought several helicopters right over the top of their position. One of them opened fire with their belly gunner and killed five Australian SAS warriors, who did not return fire.

The SAS teams radioman was on the high frequency radio phone talking to the helicopter flight leader at the time and supporting the mopping up when they were hit. He immediately shouted into the mouthpiece Cease fire, cease fire, we are friendlies. You just hit us. We have casualties, call off your stupid fucking choppers.

Before he could say another word, Major Spider snatched the phone from the radiomans hand and disconnected. His troops were livid; they threatened to use missiles in future to bring down the helicopters.

As the commander on the ground, Major Spider utilised his trained psychologist prowess and by pulling rank he convinced the troop to calm down, that they would deal with this bat-shit crazy matter in a civilised manner. This was no easy task as he was as pissed off as they were.

Brute approached the major with Stocky and Doc close at his heels. Major Spider was aware that these warriors were in shock, the look on their paled faces was one of anger in their deadly, venomous, staring eyes.

God fuck me to tears major, I tell ya if I ever get my hands on anyone of those fucking murdering cluster fuck Yanks, I will tear their fucking heads off and piss down their ever-loving motherfucking throats.

I hear you Sergeant, but not here, not now, our day will come. Right now, we have casualties that need our attention.

Major Spider saluted Brute and all three warriors returned the salute.

The major knew Brute wasnt kidding and he also knew the big man was capable of doing exactly what he stated.

The bodies of the SAS warriors had been shredded by the multiple wounds from the 50-calibre helicopter weapons. They stripped the remains of any identifying materials and buried them in shallow graves which were located by compass readings and they marked the positions on their maps and charts. The team retreated from the scene leaving the Americans to finish what they had started. The only option was to head back to the landing areas and bug out of Cambodia by trusty Caribou aircraft.