All language subtitles for Black.Ops.S01E06.Operation.Certain.Death.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-NTb_track3_[eng]

Narrator:
A drug-crazed murderous warlord

has captured
11 peace-keeping soldiers.

[ Grunts ]

He was
a paranoid schizophrenic --

mad, basically.

Narrator:
An elite special forces unit
is mobilized.

Dozier: These guys are united
in the ability to

just keep going
when the going is hellish.

Narrator:
A daring and dangerous plan
is drawn up.

The odds were against us,
totally.

Narrator:
As executions are threatened,

the special forces
explode into action.

They are outnumbered
five to one,

they are outgunned
with heavy artillery,

and their enemy
believes in black magic.

Now on "black ops,"

go behind the scenes
on a mission so dangerous,

they call it
"operation certain death."

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

August 2000, Sierra Leone,

a small war-torn nation
on the west African coast.

[ Gunshots ]

For almost a decade,

a loose alliance
of murderous rebel gangs

has been fighting
for control of the country.

Their leaders are driven by
the prospect of fabulous wealth.

This is the world center of

the trade
in illegal blood diamonds.

Blood diamonds had become an
extraordinarily important factor

in the violence
which was going on.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

Narrator: There are daily raids
on undefended rural villages.

The rebels often
take all the children away,

turning them into
child soldiers.

Those left behind were
often punished by amputation.

They would chop arms off

short-sleeve
or long-sleeve style.

So, short-sleeve
was above the elbow.

Long-sleeve was below the elbow.

The aim of doing so

was to spread terror
across the country

in some strange way
to prove their power.

Narrator: One of the
most brutal of these gangs

is a group of
about 1,000 fighters

known as the West Side boys.

Lewis: The West Side boys --

drugs and alcohol,

that's how they
fueled their war.

Hoon: They were
rounding up local women,

and there's little doubt that
sex and drugs

featured quite prominently in
their behavior and activities.

So they were
a dangerous group of people

simply because
they were totally unpredictable.

Lewis:
If that wasn't bad enough,

they had this belief
that voodoo would protect them

to such an extent
it would make them bulletproof.

Narrator: One man who served

nearly two years
with the West Side boys

is 26-year-old black Zorro.

He was recruited by the rebels,
age just 14,

and rose to become
a trusted junior officer.

[ Speaking indistinctly ]

Interpreter: Well, we used to
smoke plenty of marijuana,

and as for drink,

we had lots of homemade
strong alcohol called hard wine.

Cocaine was sometimes available,

but heroin
was all over the place.

If you went to the jungle
at that time,

you would find everybody
high on heroin.

I was often high all day.

The drugs made me feel strong
and ready for battle.

As soon as I took them,
I was ready for any fight.

Narrator: To save Sierra Leone
from total collapse,

a global coalition
intervenes with military force.

British troops, in particular,

play a leading role
in keeping the peace

and in training the local army
to stand on its own.

Hoon:
We were demonstrating a wider
commitment of the Western world

to what, at the time,
was a struggling democracy

in a very poor part of Africa.

So I think that was
an important symbolic value

in our intervention.

Narrator:
On a quiet Friday afternoon,

11 military training advisers

from britain's
royal Irish regiment

set out on a routine patrol.

At this junction,

their commander,
major Alan Marshall,

decides to
turn down a dirt road,

leading into the jungle.

He is heading straight into

the heart of
the West Side boys' territory.

Interpreter: I don't know
why they left the main road

and came into our territory.

It was a no-go zone
for anybody except us.

Lewis:
The unofficial reason may be

that he was actually there
with a mission

to try and scope out
what their forces were like,

how powerful they were,

what weapons
they were armed with,

and what they would be like
as a fighting force

to come up against.

Narrator:
The British don't realize
they've already been spotted

by West Side boys' scouts
hiding in the forest.

Interpreter:
We saw them as a major threat.

They came to our camp
without authorization.

We didn't know their intentions,

and we thought
they were here to spy on us,

so we couldn't just
let them leave.

Lewis:
They reached the riverside,

where one side of the rebel base
is situated,

and immediately
that they get there...

[ Gunfire ]

...they're surrounded by
what can only be described as

a seething, screaming mob
of West Side boys.

Narrator: Heavily outnumbered,
and with no means of escape,

the soldiers
are forced to surrender.

It's very clear very quickly

that this is not
a friendly situation.

Narrator: The well-trained,
well-armed British

are taken prisoner by

this crazed mob
of drugged-out jungle gangsters.

[ Grunts ]

Interpreter:
We arrested the soldiers

to get attention from
the international community.

We wanted to
stop hiding in the jungle,

and we thought we could use them
to get what we wanted.

Narrator:
The 11 British soldiers

are beaten,

stripped of their valuables,

and taken off to
a stinking jungle hut.

[ Bell chiming ]

At ministry of defence
headquarters in London,

news of the missing soldiers
reaches britain's chief general.

We weren't sure just how serious
it was to start with.

I knew about the West Side boys.

I'd been to Sierra Leone.

I'd been briefed about them.

But I wasn't quite sure
what they would do.

Narrator: General Guthrie
and defence secretary hoon

convene a crisis meeting

in their situation room
deep in the basement.

Guthrie: Problem was --

how were we going to
get these people

who'd been kidnapped,
who were in tremendous danger,

from either being
tortured, killed,

or split up around Sierra Leone?

So there was
a real urgency about this.

Lewis: They knew nothing.
They had no intelligence.

They had no eyes
on the rebel base.

They didn't know
the rebel numbers.

They didn't know
what weaponry they had.

And most worryingly of all,

they didn't know
whether the British soldiers

would get killed
in the rescue operation.

Narrator: The British
are haunted by the memory of

another disastrous
hostage crisis in Africa

seven years earlier.

This was the infamous
black hawk down incident.

18 American servicemen
were killed

when their helicopters
were shot down by a rocket

and their bodies paraded through

the streets of
mogadishu, Somalia.

Obviously, reports
are going to the prime minister.

He would be briefed.

Guthrie:
And I remember him saying,
"well, this is very dangerous."

I said, "yes, very dangerous."

"Are people
likely to be killed?"

I said, "almost certainly."

Narrator: Terrified of the
fallout from a failed rescue,

the British government
decides to

try and negotiate
for the hostages' release.

Hoon:
My instinct was always that

British soldiers
could not be taken prisoner

without us taking clear action
to release them.

At the same time,
I recognized that

that could come
through negotiation.

Narrator: If negotiations fail,

there will be no choice but to
take the hostages back by force.

[ Shouting, gunshots ]

Narrator: Deep in the jungles of
a war-torn African country,

a group of 1,000
drug-crazed rebel fighters,

the West Side boys...

Have taken
11 British soldiers hostage.

These soldiers are part of

an international
peace-keeping effort

to end Sierra Leone's
decade-long civil war.

But while out
on a routine patrol,

they drove straight into

the heart of
West Side boys' territory

and were captured.

[ Grunts ]

I was perfectly content
for negotiations to be begun,

but, I have to say,
in the background, as well,

we were always preparing
to take military action

to release them.

Narrator:
Three days into the crisis,

a team of specialist negotiators
from Scotland yard

arrive in Africa.

They will try to peacefully
secure the hostages' release.

Leading the talks
on the rebels' side

is their commander,
a 24-year-old warlord

calling himself

"brigadier general"
foday kallay.

[ Gunfire ]

Lewis: Kallay was
paranoid schizophrenic.

He was certainly very paranoid
and very deluded.

Interpreter: Foday kallay was
the best commander we had.

He was a skilled soldier,
and he led from the front.

Lewis: He was so deluded,
to the extent that he believed

his rebel group
had the power to, for example,

force the British
out of Sierra Leone.

Interpreter: Everybody knew that

when he gave orders
you had to follow them

because he took responsibility
for all his soldiers.

Narrator: At his first meeting
with the negotiators,

kallay makes
a rambling series of demands.

These range from simply

wanting an amnesty
for the West Side boys

to outrageously insisting
all British leave the country.

Most insanely of all,

kallay himself wants to be named
president of Sierra Leone.

Morrison: In some cases,

it will quite apparent
from the early situation

that the prospect of
a successful negotiated solution

with the victims
coming out unharmed is low.

Narrator: The negotiators are
walking a dangerous tightrope.

Kallay's demands
can never be met,

but the team must
make him believe they might.

The hope is that
as long as he keeps talking,

the hostages will be kept alive.

Morrison: Clearly, they didn't
wish to kill them at the outset

and they saw some value in them,

and that's why
they kept them alive.

So that was the good news.

The bad news in this situation

is the unpredictability
and the volatility,

so in the blink of an eye,
you can move from

a situation where you have

stable, well-treated hostages

to them being killed.

Narrator: To confirm that the
hostages are being well-treated,

the negotiators insist on
meeting with major Marshall,

the patrol leader, in person.

Kallay agrees.

It's a decision
he will come to regret.

Lewis: Major Marshall,
the man who was in charge of

the British patrol
that had been captured --

he recognized in these meetings

an opportunity to pass over
some vital intelligence

in a clandestine fashion
to the British side.

The people
who have been abducted here

were professional
military people.

They foresaw, you know,
where this was going.

What he had done is,
during the various walkabouts

that the rebels had
proudly given them of the base,

saying, "there is
our anti-aircraft weapons,

and there are our mortars,"
and these kind of things --

during those walkabouts,
major Marshall had noted down

every single defense
that he could see.

Back in their room,

where they were locked in
in captivity,

he had drawn up a detailed map
of the rebel base,

mapping out all the positions
and all their strengths.

And he'd taken
that piece of paper,

rolled it up very tightly,

and poked it inside a pen lid.

Narrator:
When major Marshall meets

one of the men
from Scotland yard,

they shake hands...

And make a secret exchange.

If kallay
spots what they are doing,

it will be a disaster.

But incredibly,

the negotiator manages to
put the object in his pocket

without being noticed.

Morrison:
I wouldn't characterize these as

a highly professional
group of hostage takers.

The fact that
they allowed that handshake

allowed
the exchange of intelligence.

That was not a shrewd move
on their part.

Narrator: It's an unexpected,
but crucial breakthrough.

At last, the British have
some intelligence

to begin
planning a rescue mission.

And there is only one group

that has the skills
to carry it out --

britain's legendary
special-forces unit...

...the s.A.S.

They are the pioneers
in the art of black ops,

with a history stretching back
as far as world war ii.

Dozier: The s.A.S., the British
special air services --

they are
the special-operations force

that we modeled all of
our special-operations after.

They set the model
for the rest of us to follow.

Narrator: Through the years,

they have constantly
adapted and improved,

playing a crucial role in
every major British conflict.

From the streets
of northern Ireland

to the polar wastes
of the Falkland Islands

to the deserts of Iraq,

the s.A.S. Are famous for

being ready to fight
in any environment

and to carry out their missions
with absolute secrecy.

Go! Go, go, go!

Small unit,
just a few hundred people,

the elite of the elite.

They have to go through
a brutal entry course

to prove that they measure up.

It washes the majority of
the applicants out.

Narrator:
Those that make it through

the notoriously difficult
selection course

are honored by having
the s.A.S. Wings and dagger

pinned, or badged,
to their army berets.

I joined the army
to be a soldier

and take up the duties
that that includes.

And as a badge member
of the s.A.S.,

that is about as pure as
the driven snow as you can get

in terms of soldiery.

Narrator: The s.A.S.
Have two particular specialties.

One is
storming difficult targets.

In London, in 1980,

they famously
rescued 19 hostages...

[ Woman screaming ]

...breaking a terrorist siege
of the iranian embassy.

They don't have
all the special gear

that the Americans have.

What the s.A.S. Guys
will tell you is, "yes.

What we lack in gear, we have to
make up for in skills."

Narrator: Their other
great skill is jungle warfare.

[ Soldiers yelling
indistinctly ]

Jungle warfare is,
in many people's eyes,

one of the purest forms
of fighting.

You've got to really get attuned
in with your surroundings.

There's no open spaces.
It's closed in.

It's a tight environment.

It's always on top of you.

Narrator:
Now the unit is preparing to

put both of these specialties
into practice

and start planning
an audacious rescue

using the smuggled map.

The crisis has been dragging on
for almost seven days,

but the negotiators continue to

try and seek
a peaceful settlement.

Kallay is now asking for
something more reasonable --

some medicine for his camp

and a satellite telephone
so he can call the media

and announce his grievances
to the world.

The British quickly agree

if they can
have some hostages in return.

Morrison: That was a major,
major negotiating success.

Five hostages were released

in exchange for
a satellite phone and medicines.

Now, that was
a win-win situation

because, one, it is worthwhile

having effective
and good communications

with the hostile elements,

two, medicines are a good idea,

particularly
if they're gonna be used

to treat
any of your individuals,

and, three, it provides
an intelligence opportunity.

Narrator: It's a masterstroke

which will change
the course of the operation.

Almost half of the men
are now free.

What's more,

the British can use the signal
from the satellite phone

to pinpoint
kallay's secret hideout.

Unknown to him,

or anyone
outside a select inner circle,

a task force
has arrived in Sierra Leone

to begin secret preparations
for a rescue.

It consists of about 300 men.

Most are from britain's
front-line airborne force,

the parachute regiment,

known to all in the British army
as simply "the paras."

But they are merely there
as support troops.

The rescue itself
will be handled by

a 50-strong team from
the elite special air service,

the s.A.S.,

and about 20 colleagues

from the British royal Navy's
own special-forces unit,

the s.B.S.,
or special boat service.

To avoid arousing any suspicion,

their mission is given
an innocuous code name --

operation barras.

Hoon: I've often asked,
how on earth did britain choose

these rather curious names
for its operation

in contrast to the United States

that talks about
operation freedom

and has rather dramatic names
for their military activities?

And the answer is, I'm afraid,

rather prosaic
and probably very British,

which is that
we allow a computer

to generate randomly names

that are then,
provided they're appropriate,

allocated accordingly.

Narrator: With the tacit support
of the Sierra Leone government,

the men of operation barras
establish a covert base

just outside the capital.

It wasn't until that we moved
forward into Sierra Leone itself

that the focus
starts coming down.

And then you start thinking,
"right, this is gonna happen."

Your kit's being packed

as to what you want to
take in with you.

You're beginning to
get a bit more intelligence.

Briefing boards are going up.

We need to be ready for it.

Narrator:
The s.A.S. Start gathering
as much intelligence as they can

about the rebels
and their jungle hideout.

Their preferred plan is

to send a small team upriver
at night in s.B.S. Boats.

Moving in total darkness
and total silence,

the rescue team can
secretly enter the rebel camp,

sneak into the hostage hut,

and quickly escape
with the prisoners --

hopefully
without a shot being fired.

As the troops
wait for the green light,

they begin
rehearsing for their mission.

Campion: There was a floor plan
built of the village

so that you knew
roughly how far you had to go,

what your limits
of your particular arcs were

and that sort of stuff --

an arc being

where you can fire
and where you can't fire.

At the height of battle,
it could become quite confusing

as to who's where
and who's doing what.

This...

Narrator: But there's still

no permission
to mount the rescue.

The final go can only come from

defence secretary Geoff hoon
in London.

The fate of the
six remaining British hostages

hangs in the balance.

If a bargain cannot be struck
for their lives,

there will be an epic battle
to free them.

[ Gunfire ]

Narrator: Deep in
the jungles of Sierra Leone,

six British soldiers
remain hostages

of an African gang
known as the West Side boys.

Fueled by drugs and voodoo,

these rebels are notorious for
their brutal methods --

looting...

Amputations...

Rape...

And murder,

even on children.

At the head of
this thousand-strong force

is foday kallay,

a drunken maniac
with delusions of grandeur.

[ Speaking indistinctly ]

Interpreter:
The brits were cocky.

We would give them orders,
and they would say, "no.

We won't accept your command."

They were extremely stubborn,
actually.

Sometimes we would talk to them,

tell them what to do,

and they would ignore us.

They really did not
make life easy for themselves.

Sometimes kallay would have to
slap them around a bit

to make them understand.

He would shake them up
and hit them hard.

He had to treat them roughly
so they knew he was in charge.

Narrator:
Defence secretary Geoff hoon

has still not authorized
a full-scale rescue mission...

...but he has given the go-ahead

for a secretive and
highly dangerous operation.

A four-man
s.A.S. Surveillance team

stealthily enters the jungle.

Their job is to provide
more detailed intelligence

about conditions
in the rebel base.

In the first place,

they had to be inserted
around the village --

actually meant that some of them
spent several days in swamp,

crawling through some of
the most unpleasant conditions

I think anyone could face.

Narrator: Moving and operating
in total silence

and advancing
just a few feet each hour.

The men slowly approach
rebel territory,

looking for a concealed position

where they can see
but not be seen.

Lewis: That team was tasked with

setting up
an observation post, an o.P.

An o.P. -- It's like a grave dug
in the jungle floor.

Dozier: They know how to quietly
get into a scene if necessary,

whether it's marching into
a jungle invisibly

and sitting
in an observation post

under a tarp for three weeks,

staring at a target --

nobody knows they're there.

That's what they do.

Lewis: You dig a pit,
you jump in the pit,

you cover it with vegetation,

and you lie there
for as long as it takes

to keep eyes on the base

until either the mission
is called in and it happens

or the mission's called off,
and you withdraw.

Narrator:
This kind of surveillance
is another s.A.S. Specialty,

and it takes incredible reserves
of patience and skill.

The men must eat, sleep,
and maintain their watch

for days on end,

making only
the smallest of movements.

Dozier: Throughout
the special-operations world,

they have this expression
"the quiet professionals."

And these guys,
when they're out on the mission,

that's really what they are.

Narrator: Straightaway,

they discover
three pieces of bad news.

First, the captives
are no longer in the rebel base

where they were originally
taken hostage.

They have been moved
across a wide river

to a smaller camp,
even deeper into the jungle.

Second, the original plan
for the assault along the river

will not work.

It is full of
concealed sandbanks,

and the special-forces boats
can't use it.

On top of that,
the jungle is so thick

that an approach by land
is also impossible.

The only option is a full
frontal assault by helicopter.

Campion: If we'd have sneaked up
and not fired a shot,

taken everybody down
without killing anybody,

then that would have been
the preferred option.

As it was,
it couldn't pan out that way.

We couldn't get to them.

We couldn't do it that way,
so, you know,

we had to go in
and give them a bloody nose.

Narrator: The only helicopter
up to the job

is one of the biggest
in the world...

...the twin-rotor ch-47 chinook.

But an air assault
using one of these beasts

has its own specific problems.

Hoon: Well, the obvious thing
about a helicopter

is that they are very noisy,

and the element of surprise
is lost

if the enemy can hear a
helicopter coming at a distance.

Narrator: Chinooks
can carry a huge payload,

but they're also slow,

hard to maneuver,

and easy to spot --

hence their unofficial nickname,
"the flying school bus."

Guthrie: If a chinook gets hit
and knocked out of the sky,

we have a large number
of s.A.S. People in it,

and it would be very serious.

Narrator: To make matters worse,
most of the West Side boys

remain in their main base
on the South side of the river.

They have
a battery of heavy weapons,

including
rocket-propelled grenades,

heavy machine guns,

and mortars --

any of which could easily
shoot a chinook out of the sky

or rain artillery fire down

on the hostage camp
across the river.

Any rescue mission would quickly
turn into a suicide mission.

The s.A.S. Commanders must
rethink the entire operation.

Time is running out.

Rebel leader foday kallay is
getting more and more impatient

with the
endless rounds of negotiations.

It could change
in the blink of an eye.

It was highly unpredictable,
highly volatile,

and groups like this had already
killed many times before.

Even if they were
compliant today,

you could not in any way
be assured of

the safety of the hostages
tomorrow or the day after.

Narrator: The negotiators
from Scotland yard

call kallay daily
on a satellite phone,

but with each conversation,
he becomes more unpredictable.

He is spending his days
taking drugs

and drinking heavily.

By the start of every afternoon,
he is thoroughly drunk.

Eventually, due to the lack
of electricity in his camp,

kallay's phone
runs out of battery

and goes dead.

Guthrie:
We had a message saying,

"negotiations have failed."

Narrator:
The safety of the hostages

is now at serious risk.

Interpreter: One evening,
he called us all out

and said, "we're going to
shoot one of them."

He took major Marshall,
the British commander,

to the edge of the jungle,

made him kneel.

They put an assault rifle
to his head...

And basically
pulled the trigger.

[ Gun clicks ]

Narrator:
Kallay's rifle is empty.

But next time,
in all likelihood,

it will be loaded.

When news of this outrage
arrives in London,

Geoff hoon decides that

the time for talking
is finally over.

We were certainly receiving
very detailed information

about what was going on
inside the huts

where our men
were being held prisoner,

and I think one of the key
pieces of information I received

is that they were being
subject to mock executions.

Weapons were
being pointed at them,

apparently being fired.

[ Gunfire ]

And that kind of behavior
was totally unacceptable

as far as I was concerned.

Narrator:
Operation barras is a go.

Everyone involved in the mission

knows the odds are
stacked heavily against them.

In fact,
the mission is so dangerous,

the men on the ground have
given it their own name.

When they realized
they could go in via air,

that was when
the men of the s.A.S.,

the men who were tasked to go in
and do this hostage rescue,

coined the phrase,
the nickname for the mission,

"operation certain death."

Narrator: Assuming they even
make it to their target

without being
shot out of the sky,

the rescue force
will be outnumbered

more than five to one,

and their enemy,

who believe black magic
makes them invincible bullets,

will fight
fearlessly and recklessly.

Interpreter: In a battle,

you don't check
to see who you kill.

When I fire my weapon,
there will be many victims.

I don't know
who is dead or alive.

All I know is
when I pull the trigger,

the bullets will be
flying around each other,

and no one will be left
in front of me.

Narrator:
The men of operation barras

are assembling before dawn
to launch their attack --

a dangerous air assault on
a well-defended jungle hideout.

The mission
will be personally overseen

by general Charles Guthrie --

one-time commander
of the s.A.S.,

now overall head
of britain's armed forces.

Guthrie:
We had a very good plan,

but it was a risky plan
because in these things,

you never quite know
what the enemy are going to do.

Narrator:
Guthrie makes things plain
to his political masters.

The mission
to rescue six British hostages

is likely to
incur heavy casualties.

Hoon: General Guthrie made clear

that this operation
was not without risk,

that he could not guarantee

that we would not
lose soldiers in the process.

Narrator:
In an attempt to overcome

the staggering odds
facing the rescue team,

general Guthrie signs off on
a new strategy --

two simultaneous attacks.

First, a team of
about 50 elite s.A.S. Troops

will approach the small
jungle camp on the north bank --

gberi bana.

This is
where the captives are located,

along with rebel commander
foday kallay.

To surprise the rebels,

they will fast rope down
from the hovering choppers,

landing just feet from
the hostage hut.

Campion:
We didn't know what to expect,

so all the time that we know
where the hostages are

is the time
that we have to act in.

Because if they
take them somewhere else,

it's jungles and jungles
and jungles.

Narrator: At the same time,
the force of 150 paratroopers,

who've been waiting in reserve,

will launch the second attack.

Landing by helicopter
on the South side of the river,

they will strike at
the main rebel base, magbeni,

to distract a large force
of West Side boys there

and disable
their heavy weaponry.

The mission is planned
for dawn on September 8,

the 15th day of the crisis.

But at the very last moment,
there's a hitch.

The s.A.S. Observation team
hiding in the jungle

sends an urgent message.

Hoon: The mission
was originally planned

for first light
on a Saturday morning.

But, in fact, those who had been
literally crawling through swamp

in order to get near to the huts
and near to the village

took longer
than they had planned.

Narrator: The plan requires
the observation team

to move within a few feet
of the hostage house

to provide covering fire,

but they must move at night
at an agonizingly slow pace

to avoid being spotted.

They ask for a 24-hour delay.

Because of the time it took
to get into position,

it actually was delayed
until Sunday morning.

[ Speaking indistinctly ]

Interpreter:
The night before the attack,

everybody was out of it.

We had all been partying.

I was in my hut
taking lots of drugs

because it was raining outside.

We had no idea
what was about to happen.

Narrator: One day later,

operation certain death
finally lifts off.

They fly out to sea
and muster off the coast.

Campion: I don't think
there was a guy there

that didn't leave a letter
with one of his best mates

to give to his loved ones
should something happen.

Narrator:
Two chinook helicopters

are carrying
the 50-strong s.A.S. Contingent,

followed by a third

with the first wave of
support troops from the paras.

Each s.A.S. Man is carrying
more than 80 pounds of gear,

including his body armor,

his m14 assault rifle,

and enough ammunition and
grenades for hours of fighting.

Campion: You know your job
inside out by then,

so you know
what your mate's gonna be doing.

You know where he's going
when he gets off the chopper.

You know what you're
gonna do if it doesn't
manage to go that way.

The plan's in your face now.

It's stored up here.

You know, you're just waiting
for that ramp to come down now,

and you're off.

Narrator:
After a 10-minute flight,

the helicopters are on
final approach to their targets.

Lewis:
The four-man observation team

were in contact with the pilots
and telling them,

"you can come in.
You can come in.

"There's no one moving.
There's no one moving.

It's light enough to see.
It's light enough to see."

And so
the airborne assault force

flew up to the rebel base,

using the river upon which
the rebel base was situated

to hide their progress
as they came in.

So the helicopters were
invisible to the naked eye,

but far more importantly,
you couldn't hear them

because the jungle
to either side of the river

masked the approach
of the assault.

Narrator:
At 6:30 in the morning,

the thunderous noise overhead
rouses the rebels.

Interpreter:
Early in the morning,

I stepped outside my hut,

and as I was looking around,

I heard a strange sound.

I turned to see
a huge helicopter coming in.

Then men started to drop down
from ropes onto the ground.

By now,
the helicopter was overhead,

making a huge wind.

I was scared.

Narrator:
The most urgent objective
is the hostage hut.

The entire operation hinges on
getting to the captive soldiers

before rebels get there first
and execute them.

It is now
that the observation team,

who had been
lying almost motionless

for a week in the jungle,

finally break cover --

just in time to kill the rebels
guarding the hostage hut.

Lewis: They fight their way
in there, and they scream out,

"British soldiers!
British soldiers!"

British soldiers!

Move, move, move,
move, move!

And so the hostages know

it's the friendly force
coming to rescue them

that they've been dreaming
of happening for some time.

Narrator: Across the river,

in the main rebel stronghold
of magbeni,

the support force
from the parachute regiment

is slowly
approaching their target.

Their mission is to prevent
the core group of West Side boys

interfering with the rescue.

But as soon as they
reach the edge of the base,

disaster strikes.

Very quickly, things go
really quite badly wrong.

A mortar round goes up

and lands in the tree
under which

the command element
of the parachute regiment guys

is situated.

It explodes in the tree,
so it's like an air burst.

And very, very quickly,

you've got
the whole command element

of that parachute regiment force

injured and taken out
and needing evacuating.

Narrator: The only member
of the eight-man command unit

to escape serious injury

is a young officer,
captain Danny Matthews.

[ Gunfire ]

He now finds himself

directing a major battle
for the first time.

Quickly regrouping his troops,

he orders them to eliminate
the main source of danger --

the mortar.

And they take it out.

By this time,

in the smaller jungle camp
on the north side of the river,

the rebel army
is now fighting back.

The s.A.S. Realize that
the battle on the ground

is not going according to their
carefully orchestrated plan.

Campion:
When I left the chopper,

we took fire from a direction

that we hadn't
planned to take fire from.

We all ended up stacked up
in a completely different way,

facing a completely different
part of the village

than we were going to

because we took so much fire
from behind.

Interpreter: I tried to
gather my group together

on the edge of the forest.

I took cover
behind one of the buildings.

I could see
things were getting very hot,

so we moved out.

Hoon: We knew how heavily armed
the West Side boys were.

There is little doubt, either,

that they fought
and they fought hard

once they realized
what was happening.

Narrator:
The disciplined special forces

manage to
hold the rebels at bay

long enough for the hostages

to be escorted to
the helicopter landing zone.

Campion:
You can't afford to switch off.

It would be a terrible shame
to go through the village,

rescue all the hostages,
have a marvelous day out,

and then get shot getting on
the chopper on the way out.

Narrator: The mission appears
to be on the verge of success,

when one s.A.S. Soldier is hit
by a wild spray of gunfire.

[ Gunfire ]

Lewis:
A soldier called Brad tinnion,

who was a legend
within the s.A.S.,

was hit and seriously wounded.

Narrator: There are
several serious casualties

on one side of the river...

A dying s.A.S. Trooper
on the other side.

And although the
hostages have now been freed,

they are still
not out of danger.

The success of
operation certain death

hangs in the balance.

Narrator:
A fierce battle is raging

on two sides of a jungle river.

200 British troops are fighting
to rescue 6 soldiers

taken hostage by
the West Side boys,

a brutal African rebel militia
1,000 strong.

These guys are united
in the ability to

just keep going
when the going is hellish.

Narrator: Although the rebels

could not shoot
the British helicopters down,

they have
inflicted serious damage

on the two units fighting
their way through the jungle.

Campion: The odds were
against us, totally.

We flew into their village,
into their backyard

with two of the biggest
helicopters in the world.

By rights, I mean, if they'd
have been switched on,

they should have
smashed those choppers

straight out of the sky.

Would have been lucky
to get anybody in there.

Narrator: One of the men,
trooper Brad tinnion,

is seriously wounded.

Hoon: Tremendous efforts
were made, I know,

to save his life.

A helicopter pilot picked him up
and took him out

to a ship that we had
stationed off Sierra Leone.

Sadly, he had died

before further medical attention
could be given to him.

Narrator:
By now, all six hostages

have also been
flown out to the waiting ship.

In London, general Guthrie,

himself a former
special-forces soldier,

receives a coded message
from the field

just before appearing live
on morning TV.

We decided to attack

the place where the hostages
were being kept

at half past 6:00
this morning.

So the situation
is still very confused.

There is fighting going on,

but the first indications
are that the hostages are safe.

I don't know
what condition they are in,

but they are safe.

[ Gunfire ]

Narrator:
The hostages may be safe,

but the battle is not yet over.

Interpreter: The men
who went to join the battle

were all killed.

Many of them were
sharing their hut with me.

I lost most of my friends.

Narrator: Objective number 2
for the s.A.S.

Is the rebel leader
foday kallay.

One of the four-man fire teams

is assigned to
take down his house.

They basically
kick open the doors

and clear each of the rooms.

And in one of those rooms
is a bed, you know,

a wooden bed
with a mattress on top of it.

And they're
about to leave the room

'cause there's no one else
in there,

when someone, some smart guy
thinks to look under the bed.

And cowering underneath the bed,

not able to move,

not able to say a word

is the West Side boys' leader,
foday kallay,

the guy who was demanding that

he be made
the president of Sierra Leone.

[ Gunfire ]

Narrator: With their leader
now a prisoner himself,

the rest of the West Side boys
melt away into the forest.

Interpreter:
We had no support left,

so there was no way
we could offer resistance

in our part of the village.

All I heard was the sound
of British heavy weapons,

so I decided
the best thing to do

was escape while I could.

Black Zorro and several others

fled into the jungle

and ran as far as they could
from the battlefield.

The British
were now left standing alone.

All of the hostages
from the royal Irish regiment

made a full recovery.

Many still serve in the
British military to this day.

Foday kallay, the rebel leader,

was put on trial and
sentenced to 50 years in prison.

The other West Side boys
that survived the battle

joined
the reconciliation process

and returned to civilian life.

Today black Zorro is homeless,

living on the streets of
freetown, the capital city.

Interpreter: Well,
the West Side boys broke up,

and everybody
went their own ways.

Those that survived
have to keep surviving.

Those that were captured
have to face up to prison.

And that was the end of us.

We're finished now.

Narrator: Operation barras

had a massive impact
on Sierra Leone.

In the months that followed,

rebels all over the country
laid down their arms.

Lewis:
It sent a message to the rebels

which was clear and
could not be misinterpreted --

"if you continue
to do what you do,

"we will come after you,

"and we will hunt you down
in your rebel bases,

"wherever you are
in the jungle

"with ultimate force

and your days are numbered."

Narrator: Today Sierra Leone
is still poor,

but it is peaceful.

This one mission
brought a decisive end

to years of conflict,

and it's all due to

the skill and bravery
of the s.A.S.