Soldier N: Gambian Bluff

Book excerpt: At the end of July 1981, world heads of state gathered in London for the wedding of Price Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Among those present was President Jawara of the Gambia, whose absence was exploited by Marxist rebels to overthrow him. Rightly fearing armed intervention from neighbouring Senegal, the new revolutionary council seized hostages including one of the President's wives and several of his children and emptied the prisons in a desperate search for allies in the coming struggle. In the first couple of days, as opposing factions of the Gambian police force wrestled for control, many of the released prisoners succumbed to the temptation to settle old scores, and almost two thousand Gambians lost their lives. In tourist beach hotels several hundred Europeans waited and feared the worst. Only one group of men was considered capable of stabilising the situation the legendary Special Air Service the SAS! So, at Jawara's request, three men of SAS 22 Regiment were sent into this cauldron, supposedly to advise the President and his Senegalese allies. But within days, circumstances and the men's bravado turned them into the spearhead of the counter-revolution, heavily embroiled in both the pursuit of heavily armed criminals and the dangerously delicate business of rescuing hostages. Soldier N SAS: The Gambian Bluff is the electrifying story of how, against all the odds, these three highly skilled soldiers defeated the rebels and restored President Jawara to power.