WEBVTT
1
00:00:03.209 --> 00:00:06.349
Today we go to look at Bravo 2-0, the SAS
2
00:00:06.410 --> 00:00:10.759
mission that became a mystery. In January 1991, the Persian
3
00:00:10.779 --> 00:00:13.939
Gulf War, eight British SAS soldiers were flown deep into
4
00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:18.039
western Iraq on a classified recon mission. Their assignment involves
5
00:00:18.100 --> 00:00:23.059
monitoring Iraqi military activity and potentially disrupting enemy operations. They're
6
00:00:23.100 --> 00:00:27.500
among Britain's most highly trained soldiers, selected for their endurance, initiative,
7
00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:31.519
and ability to survive behind enemy lines. Their patrol call
8
00:00:31.559 --> 00:00:35.049
sign is Bravo 2-0. Within days, the mission will collapse.
9
00:00:35.689 --> 00:00:39.229
Three soldiers will die. Four will be captured. Only one
10
00:00:39.250 --> 00:00:42.719
will escape across the desert to Syria. But the story
11
00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:46.759
of Bravo 2-0 will become controversial for another reason. More
12
00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:49.700
than a decade later, investigators will begin questioning whether some
13
00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:53.200
of the most dramatic battles described by the survivors actually happened.
14
00:00:54.659 --> 00:00:58.130
On January 22, 1991, the patrol is inserted into Iraq
15
00:00:58.149 --> 00:01:01.530
by helicopter. Led by Sergeant Andy McNabb, the eight soldiers
16
00:01:01.609 --> 00:01:06.430
carried weapons, communications equipment, food, water, and heavy backpacks. Their
17
00:01:06.450 --> 00:01:09.750
mission takes them into territory where Iraqi military movements and
18
00:01:09.790 --> 00:01:13.109
Scud missile operations are of particular interest to coalition forces.
19
00:01:13.989 --> 00:01:17.349
The soldiers establish a concealed position near a transportation route.
20
00:01:18.209 --> 00:01:19.189
Then something goes wrong.
21
00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:22.920
According to McNabb's account, a young shepherd discovered the patrol
22
00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:27.219
and runs away, potentially alerting Iraqi forces. The soldiers prepare
23
00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:30.439
to withdraw, but this apparently straightforward explanation will later become
24
00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:32.400
one of the operation's first mysteries.
25
00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:37.379
Mystery number one. Who did discover the SAS patrol?
26
00:01:38.019 --> 00:01:42.620
In 2001, former SAS reservist and desert explorer Michael Asher
27
00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:43.239
travels to.
28
00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:45.140
Iraq to investigate the mission.
29
00:01:45.459 --> 00:01:48.079
He interviews local residents, examines the terrain, and attempts to
30
00:01:48.099 --> 00:01:52.790
reconstruct the patrol's movements. His findings challenged the familiar Shepard story.
31
00:01:53.049 --> 00:01:55.530
According to local witnesses interviewed by Asher, the young Shepard
32
00:01:55.569 --> 00:01:58.469
had not actually spotted the soldiers. Instead, they claimed a
33
00:01:58.489 --> 00:02:02.599
man operating a bulldozer discovered the patrol. The difference matters
34
00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:05.680
because the circumstances of the discovery could change our understanding
35
00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:10.180
of how that mission became compromised. Was the patrol exposed
36
00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:12.840
to an unavoidable encounter with a civilian, or did its
37
00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:17.370
location and movements contribute to its discovery? Asher's witnesses offered
38
00:02:17.409 --> 00:02:20.629
an alternative account, but the recollections were also recorded years.
39
00:02:20.509 --> 00:02:21.129
After the event.
40
00:02:21.710 --> 00:02:25.710
And as anybody knows, memories are not that reliable. Neither
41
00:02:25.949 --> 00:02:29.379
version should automatically be treated as conclusive. What about the
42
00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:34.639
second mystery? In McNabb's best-selling book, Bravo 2-0, the patrol
43
00:02:34.659 --> 00:02:38.800
encounters Iraqi forces during its withdrawal. The account describes intense
44
00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:44.919
fighting involving soldiers, military vehicles, and heavy weapons. The story
45
00:02:44.979 --> 00:02:48.039
contributes to the patrol's reputation as a small group of
46
00:02:48.099 --> 00:02:52.979
elite soldiers fighting against overwhelming opposition. But Asher's investigation produces
47
00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:56.789
a very different interpretation. After interviewing Iraqi witnesses and examining
48
00:02:56.810 --> 00:02:59.610
the reported battlefield, he argues that the scale of the fighting.
49
00:02:59.370 --> 00:03:01.090
Was substantially exaggerated.
50
00:03:01.830 --> 00:03:04.270
According to Asher, at least the patrol encountered local armed
51
00:03:04.289 --> 00:03:07.319
men and police rather than the large military formations described
52
00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:11.550
in some accounts. The controversy becomes especially pronounced over claims
53
00:03:11.569 --> 00:03:15.219
that the patrol killed large numbers of Iraqi personnel. Some
54
00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:19.639
published accounts and subsequent reporting discuss figures reaching approximately 250
55
00:03:19.639 --> 00:03:23.580
Iraqi casualties. Asher disputes those numbers and questions whether the
56
00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:27.919
available evidence supports it. McNabb and his supporters reject Asher's conclusions,
57
00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.330
questioning the reliability of Iraqi witnesses and defending the original accounts.
58
00:03:33.330 --> 00:03:36.849
A third patrol member, Mike Coburn, later publishes Soldier 5,
59
00:03:36.849 --> 00:03:40.189
offering additional details that both support and contradict elements of
60
00:03:40.210 --> 00:03:41.050
the earlier narratives.
61
00:03:42.129 --> 00:03:43.949
This is what makes the mystery more difficult.
62
00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:47.060
The disagreement is not simply between British soldiers and Iraqi
63
00:03:47.099 --> 00:03:50.599
witnesses now. Even the accounts of men who participated in
64
00:03:50.620 --> 00:03:54.879
the same mission are different. Mystery number three, the escape
65
00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:57.580
and the checkpoint. As the patrol attempts to reach Syria,
66
00:03:57.620 --> 00:04:01.210
its members become separated. Chris Ryan begins an extraordinary journey
67
00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:06.000
across the desert. He eventually reaches Syria after traveling approximately
68
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.150
180 miles under severe physical and mental stress. His survival
69
00:04:10.189 --> 00:04:13.330
is well established, but other details of the patrol's escape
70
00:04:13.389 --> 00:04:17.170
remain disputed. McNabb describes a violent encounter of an Iraqi
71
00:04:17.209 --> 00:04:21.209
checkpoint involving members of the patrol. Asher later interviews witnesses
72
00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:24.579
who offer a different version. According to those accounts, the
73
00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:27.139
soldiers abandoned a vehicle before reaching the checkpoint, and the
74
00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:29.660
dramatic confrontation described in the book did not occur in
75
00:04:29.699 --> 00:04:33.759
the same way. Once again, competing narratives create an uncomfortable question.
76
00:04:33.850 --> 00:04:36.269
How can accounts of the same event differ so much?
77
00:04:38.250 --> 00:04:41.529
Combat creates conditions that can interfere with accurate recollections.
78
00:04:41.589 --> 00:04:43.970
Extreme stress, exhaustion, sleep deprivation.
79
00:04:43.990 --> 00:04:48.250
A soldier may remember a threat vividly while misjudging its duration, distance,
80
00:04:48.310 --> 00:04:52.060
or scale. And different participants may observe different portions of
81
00:04:52.100 --> 00:04:57.699
the same encounter. Memory distortion cannot automatically explain every discrepancy here,
82
00:04:57.740 --> 00:05:01.569
and conflicting testimony does not establish deliberate deception either. In
83
00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:06.720
Bravo 2-0, another complication emerges. The survivors' stories become commercially
84
00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:10.819
successful books. Once an event becomes a public legend, later
85
00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:15.319
interpretations can be influenced by established narratives, audience expectations. That
86
00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:17.800
does not prove fabrication, by the way, folks. It just
87
00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:23.000
makes independent verification especially important. Beyond the controversy, the human
88
00:05:23.060 --> 00:05:26.759
consequences remain undeniable. Three patrol members did die. Four were
89
00:05:26.790 --> 00:05:30.350
captured and later released. Chris Ryan survives his escape to Syria.
90
00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:35.800
The soldiers faced exposure, isolation, uncertainty, and the possibility of death.
91
00:05:37.220 --> 00:05:39.600
Bravo 2-0 remains one of the most debated special op
92
00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:42.480
missions of the modern era. Was the patrol discovered by
93
00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:45.959
a shepherd or a bulldozer crew? How extensive were the firefights?
94
00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:49.939
How many Iraqi personnel were killed? The historical record provided
95
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.750
some answers, but not a complete agreement. Perhaps the most
96
00:05:52.790 --> 00:05:58.069
important lesson is that military history must distinguish between documented events,
97
00:05:58.189 --> 00:06:01.689
eyewitness testimony, and the stories that develop afterward. The legend
98
00:06:01.790 --> 00:06:04.990
of Bravo 2.0 is about courage, survival, and sacrifice. The
99
00:06:05.029 --> 00:06:07.949
mystery of it is about evidence, memory, and the difficulty
100
00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:13.019
of reconstructing. The most difficult battlefield to understand sometimes is
101
00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:15.819
the one people remember differently.
1
00:00:03.209 --> 00:00:06.349
Today we go to look at Bravo 2-0, the SAS
2
00:00:06.410 --> 00:00:10.759
mission that became a mystery. In January 1991, the Persian
3
00:00:10.779 --> 00:00:13.939
Gulf War, eight British SAS soldiers were flown deep into
4
00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:18.039
western Iraq on a classified recon mission. Their assignment involves
5
00:00:18.100 --> 00:00:23.059
monitoring Iraqi military activity and potentially disrupting enemy operations. They're
6
00:00:23.100 --> 00:00:27.500
among Britain's most highly trained soldiers, selected for their endurance, initiative,
7
00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:31.519
and ability to survive behind enemy lines. Their patrol call
8
00:00:31.559 --> 00:00:35.049
sign is Bravo 2-0. Within days, the mission will collapse.
9
00:00:35.689 --> 00:00:39.229
Three soldiers will die. Four will be captured. Only one
10
00:00:39.250 --> 00:00:42.719
will escape across the desert to Syria. But the story
11
00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:46.759
of Bravo 2-0 will become controversial for another reason. More
12
00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:49.700
than a decade later, investigators will begin questioning whether some
13
00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:53.200
of the most dramatic battles described by the survivors actually happened.
14
00:00:54.659 --> 00:00:58.130
On January 22, 1991, the patrol is inserted into Iraq
15
00:00:58.149 --> 00:01:01.530
by helicopter. Led by Sergeant Andy McNabb, the eight soldiers
16
00:01:01.609 --> 00:01:06.430
carried weapons, communications equipment, food, water, and heavy backpacks. Their
17
00:01:06.450 --> 00:01:09.750
mission takes them into territory where Iraqi military movements and
18
00:01:09.790 --> 00:01:13.109
Scud missile operations are of particular interest to coalition forces.
19
00:01:13.989 --> 00:01:17.349
The soldiers establish a concealed position near a transportation route.
20
00:01:18.209 --> 00:01:19.189
Then something goes wrong.
21
00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:22.920
According to McNabb's account, a young shepherd discovered the patrol
22
00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:27.219
and runs away, potentially alerting Iraqi forces. The soldiers prepare
23
00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:30.439
to withdraw, but this apparently straightforward explanation will later become
24
00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:32.400
one of the operation's first mysteries.
25
00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:37.379
Mystery number one. Who did discover the SAS patrol?
26
00:01:38.019 --> 00:01:42.620
In 2001, former SAS reservist and desert explorer Michael Asher
27
00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:43.239
travels to.
28
00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:45.140
Iraq to investigate the mission.
29
00:01:45.459 --> 00:01:48.079
He interviews local residents, examines the terrain, and attempts to
30
00:01:48.099 --> 00:01:52.790
reconstruct the patrol's movements. His findings challenged the familiar Shepard story.
31
00:01:53.049 --> 00:01:55.530
According to local witnesses interviewed by Asher, the young Shepard
32
00:01:55.569 --> 00:01:58.469
had not actually spotted the soldiers. Instead, they claimed a
33
00:01:58.489 --> 00:02:02.599
man operating a bulldozer discovered the patrol. The difference matters
34
00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:05.680
because the circumstances of the discovery could change our understanding
35
00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:10.180
of how that mission became compromised. Was the patrol exposed
36
00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:12.840
to an unavoidable encounter with a civilian, or did its
37
00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:17.370
location and movements contribute to its discovery? Asher's witnesses offered
38
00:02:17.409 --> 00:02:20.629
an alternative account, but the recollections were also recorded years.
39
00:02:20.509 --> 00:02:21.129
After the event.
40
00:02:21.710 --> 00:02:25.710
And as anybody knows, memories are not that reliable. Neither
41
00:02:25.949 --> 00:02:29.379
version should automatically be treated as conclusive. What about the
42
00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:34.639
second mystery? In McNabb's best-selling book, Bravo 2-0, the patrol
43
00:02:34.659 --> 00:02:38.800
encounters Iraqi forces during its withdrawal. The account describes intense
44
00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:44.919
fighting involving soldiers, military vehicles, and heavy weapons. The story
45
00:02:44.979 --> 00:02:48.039
contributes to the patrol's reputation as a small group of
46
00:02:48.099 --> 00:02:52.979
elite soldiers fighting against overwhelming opposition. But Asher's investigation produces
47
00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:56.789
a very different interpretation. After interviewing Iraqi witnesses and examining
48
00:02:56.810 --> 00:02:59.610
the reported battlefield, he argues that the scale of the fighting.
49
00:02:59.370 --> 00:03:01.090
Was substantially exaggerated.
50
00:03:01.830 --> 00:03:04.270
According to Asher, at least the patrol encountered local armed
51
00:03:04.289 --> 00:03:07.319
men and police rather than the large military formations described
52
00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:11.550
in some accounts. The controversy becomes especially pronounced over claims
53
00:03:11.569 --> 00:03:15.219
that the patrol killed large numbers of Iraqi personnel. Some
54
00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:19.639
published accounts and subsequent reporting discuss figures reaching approximately 250
55
00:03:19.639 --> 00:03:23.580
Iraqi casualties. Asher disputes those numbers and questions whether the
56
00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:27.919
available evidence supports it. McNabb and his supporters reject Asher's conclusions,
57
00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.330
questioning the reliability of Iraqi witnesses and defending the original accounts.
58
00:03:33.330 --> 00:03:36.849
A third patrol member, Mike Coburn, later publishes Soldier 5,
59
00:03:36.849 --> 00:03:40.189
offering additional details that both support and contradict elements of
60
00:03:40.210 --> 00:03:41.050
the earlier narratives.
61
00:03:42.129 --> 00:03:43.949
This is what makes the mystery more difficult.
62
00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:47.060
The disagreement is not simply between British soldiers and Iraqi
63
00:03:47.099 --> 00:03:50.599
witnesses now. Even the accounts of men who participated in
64
00:03:50.620 --> 00:03:54.879
the same mission are different. Mystery number three, the escape
65
00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:57.580
and the checkpoint. As the patrol attempts to reach Syria,
66
00:03:57.620 --> 00:04:01.210
its members become separated. Chris Ryan begins an extraordinary journey
67
00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:06.000
across the desert. He eventually reaches Syria after traveling approximately
68
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.150
180 miles under severe physical and mental stress. His survival
69
00:04:10.189 --> 00:04:13.330
is well established, but other details of the patrol's escape
70
00:04:13.389 --> 00:04:17.170
remain disputed. McNabb describes a violent encounter of an Iraqi
71
00:04:17.209 --> 00:04:21.209
checkpoint involving members of the patrol. Asher later interviews witnesses
72
00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:24.579
who offer a different version. According to those accounts, the
73
00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:27.139
soldiers abandoned a vehicle before reaching the checkpoint, and the
74
00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:29.660
dramatic confrontation described in the book did not occur in
75
00:04:29.699 --> 00:04:33.759
the same way. Once again, competing narratives create an uncomfortable question.
76
00:04:33.850 --> 00:04:36.269
How can accounts of the same event differ so much?
77
00:04:38.250 --> 00:04:41.529
Combat creates conditions that can interfere with accurate recollections.
78
00:04:41.589 --> 00:04:43.970
Extreme stress, exhaustion, sleep deprivation.
79
00:04:43.990 --> 00:04:48.250
A soldier may remember a threat vividly while misjudging its duration, distance,
80
00:04:48.310 --> 00:04:52.060
or scale. And different participants may observe different portions of
81
00:04:52.100 --> 00:04:57.699
the same encounter. Memory distortion cannot automatically explain every discrepancy here,
82
00:04:57.740 --> 00:05:01.569
and conflicting testimony does not establish deliberate deception either. In
83
00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:06.720
Bravo 2-0, another complication emerges. The survivors' stories become commercially
84
00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:10.819
successful books. Once an event becomes a public legend, later
85
00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:15.319
interpretations can be influenced by established narratives, audience expectations. That
86
00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:17.800
does not prove fabrication, by the way, folks. It just
87
00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:23.000
makes independent verification especially important. Beyond the controversy, the human
88
00:05:23.060 --> 00:05:26.759
consequences remain undeniable. Three patrol members did die. Four were
89
00:05:26.790 --> 00:05:30.350
captured and later released. Chris Ryan survives his escape to Syria.
90
00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:35.800
The soldiers faced exposure, isolation, uncertainty, and the possibility of death.
91
00:05:37.220 --> 00:05:39.600
Bravo 2-0 remains one of the most debated special op
92
00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:42.480
missions of the modern era. Was the patrol discovered by
93
00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:45.959
a shepherd or a bulldozer crew? How extensive were the firefights?
94
00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:49.939
How many Iraqi personnel were killed? The historical record provided
95
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.750
some answers, but not a complete agreement. Perhaps the most
96
00:05:52.790 --> 00:05:58.069
important lesson is that military history must distinguish between documented events,
97
00:05:58.189 --> 00:06:01.689
eyewitness testimony, and the stories that develop afterward. The legend
98
00:06:01.790 --> 00:06:04.990
of Bravo 2.0 is about courage, survival, and sacrifice. The
99
00:06:05.029 --> 00:06:07.949
mystery of it is about evidence, memory, and the difficulty
100
00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:13.019
of reconstructing. The most difficult battlefield to understand sometimes is
101
00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:15.819
the one people remember differently.
