Surviving the storm

For 25 years he was a member of Britain's secretive SAS regiment but now Peter Ratcliffe has broken rank by laying bare its innermost workings.

He is the most senior officer to divulge the secrets of the service but what makes him stand out from the rest is that, unlike Andy McNab and Yorky Crosslands, he is the first to use his real name and be identified in photographs instead of hiding behind an alias.

His book Eye Of The Storm is a gripping read in which Peter describes ferocious and bloody fighting, horrific deaths and acts of heroism witnessed while serving in the Gulf War, the Falklands Conflict and Oman.

He gives an account of the death-defying raid he led in Iraq to blow up one of Saddam Hussein's key signalling stations - which helped him win the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

And he tells how he was sent in by helicopter to take over the command of a patrol called Alpha One Zero during the Gulf War, after it was felt that the first leader was not up to the job.

It was the first time that an SAS squadron commander had been relieved of his duties in the field. And to add to the displaced man's humiliation, Peter was not even an officer, he was a regimental sergeant-major.

It is obvious from his accounts that he was clearly highly-rated during his SAS career but three years after leaving the regiment it is a very different story.

He has infuriated his ex-employers by telling his story and may even have endangered his life by revealing his identity. Some might ask has he got a death wish?

But in the flesh Peter Ratcliffe is far from being gung-ho. Instead of being some square-jawed tough guy with a Rambo complex he is actually more a neat and wiry type, gentle and very unassuming in his manner.

At just 5ft 11ins tall, this 49-year-old man is no macho hero. He speaks with a mild and consider tongue not rash, thoughtless and impetuous like many trained by the services.

He acknowledges his ex-employers distaste at his honesty and says: "They are extremely unhappy about me writing this book.

"The price I have paid is that I have become persona non-grata. That means I am banned from going to any functions or any reunions and I am not allowed near the camp. But the thing is, I don't go back anyway. Being honest was more important to me."

Ratcliffe, a married man with two daughters aged eight and 21, also accepts that he is likely to have put himself at risk.

"You are not armed, so obviously you are vulnerable. You are vulnerable to some nutter from some organised faction coming after you but it's a chance you take. I am no more in danger now than I have been during 25 years in the SAS.

"I didn't use a pseudonym because I felt I might put someone else in danger who happened to have that name."

He adds defiantly: "I have never ever hidden behind an alias and I don't intend to do so now."

Although he doesn't say it, he may also want to score points against other SAS authors - like McNab (Bravo Two Zero), Chris Ryan and Crossland - who have all kept their real names secret.

Anger was the prime motivation which drove Ratcliffe to write his book. He feels he was misrepresented in a 1996 book called Victor Two, which was written by Crossland - a soldier who was under his command in Iraq after he took over the patrol.

He says: "Crossland's book was serialised in a newspaper for three days in October 1996 and, for two days, I was criticised very

heavily.

"I was called 'Brian the Bastard'. He stated that I had suicidal tendencies. I was going to get everybody killed. I was a lunatic. For a regimental sergeant-major I was inadequate."

At the time, Ratcliffe was still in the SAS, and he says he was assured that the matter would be looked into. But then he received a phone call from the chief of staff, who said nothing could be done about it.

Writing the book was Ratcliffe's way of "setting the record straight" by giving his version of events. He says he was a "positive" leader, rather than a lunatic.

He has no qualms about upsetting the Army, saying: "Because I received no backing when I was called 'Brian the Bastard', I felt that

loyalty works both ways and pressed ahead with it."

And he is also unafraid to take on other ex-SAS authors, by suggesting that their accounts have been exaggerated.

He states: "There is nothing in my book that isn't factual. Having been an RSM, I was a very senior man. I am not alarmist and I don't need to sensationalise.

"I don't like the regiment being put in a bad light by ex-members writing books talking about garrotting and killing hordes of enemies and pulling out fighting knives.

"There is no such thing in the British Army as a fighting knife. They are not issued and they do not exist."

But some of the episodes Peter describes are equally hair-raising - particularly the one in which his patrol was ordered to destroy one of Saddam Hussein's key signal stations directing Scud missiles.

Unfortunately, the crack team was spotted by Iraqi soldiers as they tried to make their escape after laying charges around the mast - and the gunfire began.

Ratcliffe admits he thought he was going to die and says: "I was with our explosives expert Mugger behind this concrete wall taking cover.

"And burning about five metres away was 120lbs of plastic explosives, waiting to blow in 90 seconds time.

"There were bullets flying everywhere and we didn't have much option but to leave that location or we would have been blown to smithereens."

As the men ran blindly across open ground, they heard the three charges going off. They didn't stop to watch the fireworks display.

Peter was born into a working class family in Salford and left his home for good when he was just 15. Disenchanted with life as an apprentice joiner he joined the 1st Battalion, the parachute regiment in 1970 based and trained in Hampshire.

Having passed out top of the intake he served with Para 1 in Northern Ireland, he came home after being involved in Bloody Sunday in January 1972. Later that year he applied for SAS selection, which he passed first time round.

He has served with his beloved regiment on operations in Oman, Northern Ireland, the Falklands and the Middle East, as well as on mainland Britain; he was even mentioned in Despatches for his command of an undercover patrol in the Falklands in 1982 and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his leadership during the Gulf. Commissioned in 1992, Peter left the army in 1997 as a major.

Today, Peter is "retired" and is planning to spend time travelling abroad. The prospect of causing a furore with his book doesn't worry him - not after dicing with death in the SAS.

"I'll just take it all in my stride - like I have every day of my life."