Cannock Chase Staffordshire

 

Lat = 52 degrees, 46.3 minutes North

Long = 2 degrees, 0.6 minutes West

 

Thursday 17th march 1988

 

Cannock Chase is the largest surviving area of lowland heathland in the Midlands. Lowland heath is an internationally scarce and threatened wildlife habitat. The Chase also has extensive areas of forest and woodland along with areas of designed parkland, sand and gravel quarrying in total twenty-six square miles (six thousand, eight hundred and eighty hectares).

The Chase and its associated animal and plant communities are part of an historic landscape dating back thousands of years. Wild deer still roam the Chase and are probably descended from the original herd introduced in Norman times for hunting purposes.

A shadow fell over a stone that had been turned; the figure knelt down and examined the stone, “no more than 15 minutes and heading northeast.” He exclaimed.

Manny Gall Stood up and took a drink from his canteen, the eleven men stood around him as the rain hammered down through the canopy of trees above them.

Manny stood all of five feet five inches in height he was the smallest of the OSC team, his complexion gave away his native heritage jet-black hair and very dark brown eyes he was built like a whippet, lean and sinewy.

Manny’s skills as a tracker were infamous earning him a place on the original selection of members for training.

They had been tracking their quarry for thirty-five minutes and each spore that Manny located brought them closer, Manny walked forward a few yards and found a boot print.

Manny’s great grandfather was named white feather of the Lakota Sioux, whom had arrived in England in 1887.

It is hard to imagine One hundred Native Americans living in 19th century Salford Manchester. However, it happened when Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show came to town. Led by the legendary American army scout Buffalo Bill, a 200-strong travelling company comprising 97 Native Americans, 180 broncos and 18 buffalo set up camp on the freezing banks of the River Irwell in November 1887.

They performed nightly to packed crowds in what was the biggest indoor arena ever constructed in Western Europe, Sioux warriors and their cowboy counterparts would recreate classic gun slinging scenes from the Wild West, or performing daring acts of horsemanship.

It all took place in what is now Salford Quays two years before the canals were even built! It was so popular the show stayed for five whole months before rolling out of town on its European tour. Many of the Sioux were veterans of the Battle of Little Big Horn; Custer’s last stand and joined the show in Europe while on the run from the US Cavalry.

An Indian named Black Elk and some others including Manny’s great, great grandfather were left behind when the show left town without them. White feather had been seeing a local girl that resulted in Manny’s grandfather.

White feather settled in Manchester and died at the beginning of the First World War fighting in France.

Like his father before him, at the age of 6 years he had been sent back to the homelands in North Dakota from Manchester to learn the tribal skills.

Five years ago at the age of eighteen he had returned to his home in Manchester and had immediately joined the Army.

Back at his tribal home; much emphasis had been placed on tracking techniques for predator and prey; these skills can be transposed to track humans some call it an art of pursuing.

In this case, the team were pursuing a group of six whom had carried out a staged raid on a minister’s car abducting the minister leaving his bodyguards dead.

Strayker whom had been enjoying every minute of this boy’s own stuff was playing the minister.

Manny had learnt to read and follow the signs any species leaves behind when being pursued.

Sign or spoor falls into two main categories ground and aerial spoor.

Examples of ground spoor are footprints, disturbed earth, overturned rocks; aerial spoor is found above ground in the form of trampled grass, broken bushes, broken cobwebs etc. Experienced trackers track with their head up looking about ten feet in front of them and walk to the side of the spoor so as not obliterate it.

When spoor is located they are studied to learn at least three things; approximate number in the group, age of the spoor and direction of travel, Manny had already detected what is called confirmed spoor within two hundred yards of the ambush site.

Confirmed spoor is an actual footprint or boot print so the rule is to start with confirmed spoor, Manny had memorised the characteristics of the boots tread pattern and size at the ambush site so as not to become confused at a later point if he was to encounter a different set of tracks.

The units leader Colin Bishop, Eagle five spoke, “let’s move double time; Manny take point.”

The unit melted away into the canopy of trees.

One and half miles away Strayker had been feigning a an ankle injury in an effort to slow the six kidnappers down, a voice from behind him together with a push made him stumble, “come on move it and you can stop sandbagging it; with the phony injury.”

The kidnappers were from the Royal Green jacket regiment who were the first to wear green uniform as camouflage rather than red; their motto is ‘Swift and Bold’.

They were attempting to make it to prearranged rendezvous point for extraction by helicopter with their prisoner.

They were aware that they were being pursued; however, they had no idea of the tenacity and skills of their pursuers.

Strayker deliberately put one of his boots down in a muddy patch, he knew that the lead tracker would be Manny and he had been leaving him good boot prints, these were the confirmed spoors Manny had been tracking.

What he was not aware of was that his rescuers had overtaken them and were now in front waiting in ambush.

Manny had lead the team to within a few hundred yards of the kidnappers, Colin Bishop had then split the unit into two groups that had run parallel to Strayker allowing them to now be deploy for the ambush.

Every member of OSC was a highly trained sniper and six of the unit was now training their British Army L96 sniper rifles towards the direction of their quarry, Colin Bishop’s plan was simple but had no margin for error; on a single command six shots would be unleashed on the six kidnappers, at that moment Strayker with his kidnappers appeared in the small opening that had been chosen as the killing zone.

Colin Bishop primed the snipers using their built in helmet two-way radios, “ready.” Each sniper flicked on the laser sight and six targets were now showing red dots.

“Fire!” The triggers were squeezed and instantly each of the kidnappers had a light illuminate and a buzzer sounded from an electrical pack strapped to them.

Strayker said, “You’re all dead men.”

The six green jackets stood motionless trying to comprehend how they had been out smarted. “Shit; how did they overtake us?” One of them muttered.

Strayker walked over to the man whom had just spoken, “what’s your name son?” “Sergeant Joe Walker,” he replied.

“You guys are good so don’t take it to heart; your pursuers are probably the best military unit in the world today.”

“May I ask whom out foxed us?”

“You can ask son; but I can’t tell you, there’s a chopper waiting for you at the R.V. it will take you back to base with a forty-eight hour R&R pass.”

The Green jackets moved off into the woods; once they were out of sight Chris Bishop approached Strayker, “we will escort you back to the extraction zone sir; where your driver is waiting.”

The unit had emerged from their cover and were standing around Strayker and Bishop, Strayker picked out Manny, “I’m glad you’re on our side Manny and that goes to the rest of you, now let’s see who can keep up with this old dog?”

Strayker turned, “double time it,” he barked.

Bishop and his unit smiled and fell in behind Strayker.

Twenty minutes later they arrived at the extraction zone, Strayker had barely broken into a sweat; his driver was waiting together with two choppers. He watched Bishop and the unit load up into their transport and then jumped into his car just as the choppers dusted off.

He spoke to his driver, “any messages for me Edwards?”

“No sir,” he replied. The driver engaged drive in the automatic gearbox on the dark blue twenty-four-valve three-liter Vauxhall Senator and smoothly moved the car onto the nearby road.

“ETA London two hours sir.”

“Thank you Edwards time for a bit of shut eye.”

Ten minutes later Edwards turned out of the last of the roads leading from Cannock chase onto the A34.

The road had light traffic on it and Edwards was soon up to the speed limit of Sixty miles per hour, an object appeared behind the Vauxhall that was unnoticed by Edwards, this was because the object was fifty-feet above ground in the form of a Westland Scout AH MK 1, the occupants were Clarke and Booth, “This is going to be a walk in the park,” Booth shouted over the roar of the rotors.

Clarke had opened the nearside door and had connected himself to a safety lanyard to prevent being thrown out.

He was sitting behind a tripod mounted Browning M2.50 calibre (12.7mm) Machine Gun, Maximum effective range 2000 meters with a cyclic rate of fire 550 rounds per minute.

Clarke checked the belt feed and cocked the weapon, both his hands returned to the two rear handles and drew down aim on the vehicle below, “hold her steady,” he shouted.

Squeezing the trigger a hail of bullets streaked across to the target vehicle raking the nearside boot and roof.

Strayker immediately woke up from his nap, just then Edwards selected sports mode and kicked down the accelerator pedal, launching the Vauxhall from sixty miles per hour to one hundred miles per hour in a matter of seconds.

“Sir can you locate them?”

Strayker turned around to the rear window, it was not until he looked up that he saw helicopter. “Got them, it’s a Westland Scout AH MK 1 now about a quarter of a mile away.

The burst of speed from the Vauxhall had caught Booth and Clarke by surprise; Booth was now increasing the helicopters speed to close the gap.

Clarke continued to fire controlled short burst at the Vauxhall, strafing the road and hitting two civilian motors.

“Clarke you fucking idiot; your targeting civilian cars.”

“Fuck you Booth; its Collateral damage’ now get me closer.”

Strayker turned back to Edwards, “You stow the equipment Johnson gave us Edwards?”

“Yes sir; it’s in the boot.”

“Right you know what to do on the next pass over.”

“Leave it with me put your belt on sir.”

Strayker reached over to the in car phone and placed a call.

Civilian vehicles were pulling over at the road and the occupants were exiting their vehicles taking cover wherever they could.

Edwards noticed a dual carriageway a hundred yards away, the car was taking hits but they were still only superficial.

“On my mark Edwards,” Strayker shouted.

Booth had the Westland at an angle and thirty feet from the ground affording Clarke a good target acquisition, Clarke squeezed the trigger again the rounds hit the rear boot lid and the rear screen shattered.

“Now; Edwards,” Strayker shouted.

One-hundred miles per hour to zero in under five-seconds, the all-round disc brakes with antilock braking system brought the Vauxhall to a lightning stop.

Strayker was out the car in a moment just as the Westland overshot them.

“Didn’t expect that you bastard,” Booth muttered.

“Okay Clarke last chance,” Booth shouted. “I’m putting us right down alongside them finish the job.”

Strayker was opening a box in the boot, he looked up to see the helicopter turning round, grabbing an SA 80 assault rifle he banged a clip into it and handed it together with a spare ammo clip to Edwards, “give me some covering fire.”

Edwards ran to the driver’s open door using it as cover and knelt down and began drawing fire on the Westland.

“Nail the bastards now Clarke,” screamed Booth.

As he positioned the Westland to give Clarke a good target he looked at the target vehicle, “Oh shit; incoming!”

Clarke had also seen the vision ahead.

Strayker was now crouched down with a M72 66mm Light Anti-tank weapon commonly referred to as a LAW’s rocket.

A pre-packaged rocket with a range of up to five hundred yards, that could be fired and the launcher then thrown away.

Strayker had taken under two seconds to pull the front pin and extend the inner front tube; he flipped up the sight assemblies and pointed the weapon at the Westland helicopter, his right hand went to the trigger mechanism on the top of the outer tube, he pressed down on the trigger, “try this for size you scum.”

The rocket projectile left the launcher at four hundred and Seventy-five feet per second.

Booth had already banked away and was gaining height putting distance between them and the incoming projectile; Clarke was holding the trigger down on the M2 laying a hail of lead at the oncoming rocket.

Just as it looked that they were goners he struck lucky at least one of the fifty calibre rounds hit the rocket causing it to explode.

The helicopter began to spin as the shock wave washed over the rear tail fin; Clarke was flung back onto the floor.

Booth began desperately fighting the controls to overcome the spin.

Strayker and Edwards looked on at the distressed helicopter; several Police vehicles were arriving at the scene sirens wailing diverted their attention.

Booth finally regained control elevating the helicopter for altitude, smoke was emitting from the exhaust cowling that had been hit by shrapnel, “were out of here,” he shouted.

Clarke was dazed with blood leaking from a gash on his head.

Everyone on the ground watched as the helicopter began to disappear across Cannock chase.

A Police sergeant came over to Strayker, “everyone here okay.”

“Just damage to the car, but there are some casualties down the road,” replied Strayker.

The sergeant looked at the smoking LAW’s rocket still in Strayker’s hand and turned to Edwards whom was cradling the SA 80.

Strayker quickly notice how this would look to the Police sergeant, he turned to Edwards; “corporal put your weapon and this item back in the boot.”

“You military sir.”

Strayker reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a wallet handing it over to the Police sergeant.

The Police sergeant opened the wallet and looked at a Ministry of Defense identification card.

Major General Strayker, Operational Strike Command. Authorization level Black Alpha. The Prime minister had signed it.

“Hope you don’t mind sir; but I’ll need to verify this.”

“Not at all Sergeant; carry on.”

Just then everyone’s heads turned to the sound of rotor blades and the familiar whooping sound they admitted.

Civilians began to panic running returning to cover as two Bell 222 helicopters appeared traveling at 90 miles per hour towards the scene, the sergeant turned to Strayker with a pale look, “it’s okay sergeant their with me.”

One of the Bell’s descended touching down fifty yards from Strayker as the other hovered one-hundred feet above the scene slowly rotating, panning the area.

Six heavily armed charcoal grey clad uniforms fanned out from the Bell, Captain Colin Bishop approached Strayker and took in the bullet ridden Vauxhall, “got your call sir, glad to see you’re alright.”

Strayker looked over to the Police sergeant whom in his twelve years had never witnessed anything like this and was in a daze, he was abruptly brought back to reality by his personal radio, “sergeant Thomas come in over”.

“Go ahead control”.

“Message from the Chief constable he is on his way; allow Major General Strayker to leave and afford him anything he needs, control out.”

Both Strayker and Bishop had overheard the radio Communication, Bishop Turned to face Strayker, “I took the liberty of making a call sir.”

“Good call Bishop; give me a few minutes.” Strayker walked over to the Police sergeant, “my ID card sergeant.”

Sergeant Thomas returned the ID card to Strayker, “I’ve been told to give you any assistance you need sir.”

“All I need sergeant is to have my car transported to a secure compound at RAF Cosford for forensics that I will arrange; I’ll let you get on with your job.’

Strayker did a quick about turn and walked back to the Vauxhall, “Captain it’s time to leave; have two of the team remove the weapons and munitions from my car.”

Strayker went to the Vauxhall and punched in a number on the portable phone, several seconds later he was talking to the Prime Minister, “Mam; remember the conversation we had regarding the units potential activities within the UK?”

“I suppose this call means we have crossed that bridge,” the Prime Minister replied.

“Yes Mam.” Strayker gave the P.M. an update on the incident.

“Can you instigate the press blackout we previously discussed?”

“Leave it with me Strayker.”

“Thank you Mam.”

A few minutes later both Bell helicopters were evacuating the scene heading south.