Mills - Sniper one: on scope and under siege with a sniper team in Iraq

Praise for Sniper One

"A gritty, speedball run... strong, cohesive, and complete... it plugs the reader straight into the blood and guts of the action."

The Times (UK)

"A highly charged, action-filled, adrenalin-pumped, page-turning read that, frankly, knocks the socks off all previous British accounts in this genre."

Sunday Telegraph (UK)

"Full-on graphic detail... you can practically taste the dust and the cordite.... Quite simply, this is one of the best firsthand accounts of combat in the Second Gulf War that I've ever read."

Daily Express (UK)

"The most vivid account ever of total combat on Iraq's front-line."

The Sun (UK)

SNIPER ONE

On Scope and Under Siege with a Sniper Team in Iraq

Sgt. Dan Mills

SNIPER ONE. Copyright 2007 by Sgt. Dan Mills. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mills, Dan, 1968

Sniper one : on scope and under siege with a sniper team in Iraq / Dan Mills.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4299-3342-1

ISBN-10: 1-4299-3342-9

1. Iraq War, 2003Personal narratives, British. 2. Mills, Dan, 1968 3. Snipers
Great BritainBiography. I. Title.

DS79.76.M475 2008
956.7044'38dc22
2008020438

First published in Great Britain as Sniper One: The Blistering True Story of a British Battle Group
Under Siege by Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Books

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Chris Rayment and Lee O'Callaghan, who didn't make it home

1. View of Al Amarah city centre from above its southern edge, over a Lynx helicopter gunner's shoulder
2. The Cimic House compound beside the River Tigris
3. Sniper Platoon, 1PWRR. Back row, left to right: H, Smudge, Des, DV, Dan, Daz, Rob, Chris, Fitz, Ben and Ads. Front row: Pikey, Longy, Oost, Sam, Harry, Redders and Louey
4. Yours truly on the look-out for enemy activity on Cimic House's roof
5. Article picturing rogue cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, pinned on the wall of Sniper Platoon's living quarters
6. A typical roof-top scene post-battle
7. Cimic House's swimming-pool
8. Louey and Daz in the rear sangar
9. An L96 sniper rifle with a SIMRAD night sight
10. The view of the OMS building from behind the wall where Dan's men first returned fire at the enemy, on 18 April
11. RPG Alley
12. View of the OMS building from the neighbouring park, a favoured launch location for enemy mortar teams
13. Major Ken Tait on his return from a fighting patrol before he was banned from going out
14. The remains of Daz's burned-out Snatch after the 18 April contact
15. The awesome AC-130 Spectre Gunship
16. Chris, me and Sgt Ian Caldwell in the driveway of Cimic House, preparing to leave on an arrest raid
17. Chris snipes and Des spots while concealed on a roof-top in downtown Al Amarah
18. Ads snipes and Oost spots early in the morning from the roof-top of Cimic House after a hard night's work
19. An F-16 drops a laser-guided bomb
20. Dale fires illume mortar rounds from Cimic House's roof his birthday treat!
21. Best buddies: Chris Mulrine and US bodyguard 'Red Rob'
22. Chris supports his L96 in a tripod on the roof of the Pink Palace
23. The platoon's accommodation block after a mortar direct hit
24. The painful bruise left on my shoulder by an AK47 round during the OPTAG patrol
25. The hole left by the bullet in my body armour
26. Pte Daniel Crucefix, who got stuck at Cimic House for three days with a piece of shrapnel the size of a credit card in his nose
27. Pte Johnson Beharry VC poses with a belt of 7.62mm, a few days before he was critically injured
28. Pte Johnson Beharry's badly shot-up Warrior the day after his first Victoria Cross action
29. Chris with an L96 and Oost with an SA80 and underslung grenade launcher outside the Pink Palace
30. Concealed sniping. Chris is Number 1 and Des is Number 2, during a raid on an enemy house
31. Heavy metal. A Challenger II Main Batde Tank from the Queen's Royal Lancers
32. Mortar-damaged roof sangar. I left with Oost just ten seconds before a round came through the roof and exploded inside it
33. A US engineers' convoy burns after its huge ambush on 1 May
34. Bored snipers watch a DVD during the July ceasefire. Left to right: Smudge, Harry, Ads, Longy and Pikey
35. Snipers in the roof-top sangar, with the 'Royal Marine' team hard at work on the right
36. The 'Royal Marine' sniper team. Buzz, left, and John, right, at work in the roof-top sangar
37. Dan receives his Mention in Despatches silver oak leaf from Brigadier Iain Cholerton, the Army's most senior offficer in Wales
38. Dan's Mention in Despatches certificate

Picture credits

Front and back cover photos of Dan: copyright Dan Charity/News International

Page 1: top and bottom, copyright Tom Newton Dunn.

Pages 2 to 5: all pictures copyright Sniper Platoon, 1PWRR, Telic 4.

Page 6: top, aviation-images.com ; bottom, Sniper Platoon, 1PWRR, Telic 4.

Page 7: top and bottom, Sniper Platoon, 1PWRR, Telic 4.

Page 8: top, Aviation-images.com ; bottom, Sniper Platoon, 1PWRR, Telic 4.

Page 9 to 16: all images on these pages copyright Sniper Platoon, 1PWRR, Telic 4.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. The publishers will be glad to rectify in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.

I would like to thank: Rowland White, for his faith, foresight, advice and enthusiasm from the word go; Tom Newton Dunn for the mountain of hard work, skill and dedication that made it all happen; and Carly Cook for her keen eye and excellent suggestions.

Sue for her unfailing support while I was in Iraq, and Sandra for her support and patience during the research and writing. Chris Mulrine and Adam Somers for when my memory began to fail me, Defence Public Relations (Army) for their honest advice, Rebekah Wade at the Sun for releasing Tom, and Mark Spicer for giving me the bug.

My daughter Elizabeth for watching over me, and my son Morgan and daughter Alexandria for giving me a reason to come home.

The men of fighting Y Company; in particular Captain Simon, Ian and Dalebert. Finally, all the chosen men of Sniper Platoon who I had the extraordinary privilege of leading and fighting alongside. Keep your heads down.

Dan Mills, January 2007

When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this. All of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world.

SNIPER ONE

18 April 2004

'Gunman top window,' screamed H.

H was the first to spot him, from his position of height as top cover on the back of Daz's Snatch Land Rover.