SAS: Secret War in South-East Asia is the extraordinary story of the SAS’s clandestine operations in Indonesia in the 1960s. In the extract that follows Peter Dickens describes the moment of a surprise engagement in the jungle and the intuitive reaction of a highly trained soldier. “They whipped round, Richardson leaping to the front, and lay down with rifles at the ready; Allen’s face nearly touched Richardson’s bootsoles, then came Allison, and finally Condon with the precious radio. At first they could hear not voices but rustling, then a single bush waved sharply and unnaturally amid the stillness; that was followed by others, and murky figures appeared fleetingly, recognizable as human only because they moved. Finally, in screaming silence, two broke cover completely at twenty yards. Allen saw only one, through the circle of his backsight, an Indonesian with a light automatic who may have been an officer by the red patches on his lapels. He saw Allen and they both froze. Richardson was apparently aiming at the same target so Allen waited, not only to allow his commander the initiative but, more significantly, because his trigger finger was limply impotent. He had trained and trained again for this moment but, now that reality had come, it was just not real. The man stood staring, helpless because he had not raised his weapon at the first suspicion as a good jungle soldier should. As he stared, Allen could read his thoughts with absolute precision because they were on the same ultra-strung frequency as his own. At first there was a startled wide-eyed awareness of danger, followed by frantic calculation of what to do about it. Then came the realization that there was nothing to be done, nothing at all, and the eyes grew wider like a dog’s when about to be punished. Death, immediate and personal, now forced itself to the front of consciousness. Wider yet, the eyes half hoped, half pleaded that Allen would not shoot. But he would, he must, the impasse admitted of no other outcome. Death was now certain, but it was not accepted. The eyes were huge, and awful. Richardson fired, but the man remained erect and Allen thought, ‘He’s missed’ though he had not because he was engaging the other target, who did fall. The spell was broken; double-tap. Both bullets struck slightly off-centre, and what must already have been a corpse before it was enfolded by the jungle was spun and hurled backwards as though by the punch of a giant; but the eyes did not die for Allen, and never would.” SAS: Secret War in South-East Asia will be published in late 2003 and will include 16 pages of pictures taken by SAS operatives between 1963 and 1966. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 126 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com