21

OSC operational base

Hesters Copse

Hampshire

England

Lat = 51 degrees, 12.8 minutes North

Long = 0 degrees, 57.1 minutes West

Monday 11th September 1989. (Same day)

Fourteen thirty-nine hours BST

Hesters copse is the operational home of the OSC, two miles southwest of RAF Odiham Hampshire the base for joint helicopter command, currently Chinook helicopters are based there.

The base had several buildings, sleeping quarters, a mess, admin block and a secure block to detain prisoners along with an interrogation room, the largest building was on the south side the firing range, the building had been retro fitted to suppress noise along with a powerful extraction system for the fumes.

The complex also had a new Intel room linked directly to ICIS with the other remote Intel rooms in Downing Street and at OSC Headquarters in Whitehall.

Following the escape of a Russian SPETSNA prisoner from one of the detention rooms at the camp seven weeks ago; that resulted in one of the OSC men being killed, the bases security systems had been increased.

Internal security of the base was now in the hands of two military units, one from the Royal Marines and one from the Parachute regiment being rotated every six weeks.

Each detention room was now fitted with a CCTV system that was constantly monitored by GAIL’s systems.

All doors had been upgraded to blast proof specifications along with automatic locks.

Whenever a cell was to be entered it would now be done with a two-man team, every corridor and room with the exception of the interior of the cell rooms had alarm buttons.

Activating the alarm system would immediately produce an audible sound; every room’s door in the detention block including external access doors would instantaneously be locked down.

There was also a facility to induce an instant reacting sleeping gas into this area should it be required.

At this moment, the six teams of the OSC were live firing in the indoor range using a combination of their preferred weapons, the Heckler and Koch MP-5 submachine gun along with their side arms the nine-millimetre Glock-19.

Although everyman was a highly trained sniper as well, each team had a designated sniper with the position being rotated every four weeks throughout each team.

The weapon of choice for this was the Single-fire bolt action suppressed L96A1 with a ten round 7.62 NATO round magazine capable of propelling the round at three thousand feet per second, this was accompanied with the 10x42 hensoldt telescopic sights.

The teams were dressed in their unique assault camouflage uniform that had been custom-made for the unit; three colour’s had been used the base colour was dark slate grey, inter spaced with a lighter grey known as sea storm and a light blue known as blue chalk creating a disruption camouflage pattern, known as DCP.

Covering their torsos was the Personal Armour System for Ground Troops, PASGT. Pronounced pass-get. This also included a ballistic combat helmet, with an integrated communications system.

Their final piece of equipment was the advanced combat knife with a seven-inch blade with a half serrated cutting edge finished in black.

Each of the thirty-six men had been handpicked by Max and Strayker and they had been poached from the top military units, whenever an objection had been raised, the Battalion Commander would receive a phone call from the Prime Minister, over ruling the objection.

Max had been given sixteen weeks to bring the men up to speed, these men were already the best of the best.

A boot camp was built in the Black Mountains region adjacent the Brecon Beacons in Wales.

The initial training was to improve existing physical stamina and started with Tabbing it, (Tactical Advance with Bergen).

On the most difficult routes, you can imagine; if anyone has tried to walk this area they will know how physically exhausting it is.

Up at 04:00 hours starting with a seventeen-mile yomp against the clock, with sixty pounds to carry, whilst map reading. When they arrived at a rendezvous point (RV’s) they would be given a task such as stripping a foreign weapon and then reassembling it or planning a raid on a terrorist location.

This training had been inter-spaced with visits to the specially prepared killing house, the point of the Killing House is to train the operatives to enter a room and be able to assess the situation and take down any threats, and it is excellent for Close Quarter Battles training CQB.

Men from the British SAS had been seconded to assist with the training.

The Killing House is a two-story building with four rooms on each level. It is designed just like a regular building, with furniture, pictures, toilets, etc. It is also a unique building in that it has special rubber-coated walls to absorb bullets, extractor fans to clear out gun fumes and video cameras in corners to record the action in the rooms; each room has at least one metal target.

Each of the men would enhance their skills to enter a room and take out targets to his front nothing complicated at this stage.

Once he has mastered this then drills get more difficult. Multiple entries will be practised, whereby two or four men will burst into a room and clear it of targets. Once an individual has mastered working in a team, the team itself will practise clearing several rooms at a time, and then a whole floor.

As the men became more proficient, the number of targets in each room was increased. This sharpens reaction times something that is vital to the success of a real operation.

At first, there will be just one in a room, but then the instructors will put three or more in one room. In another the terrorists and hostages will be mixed together.

The OCS teams were trained to be able to identify the terrorists within a split second and take them out, however making sure they did not hit any hostages.

Max looked at his watch fourteen forty-two hours, he spoke into his Comms “all teams seize fire and stand down.”

Immediately the gunfire seized and the teams returned to the safe area at the one end of the building and began making their weapons safe, each weapons magazine was detached and the chamber cleared of any round.

Max said, “Full weapons strip down equipment checked and replenished, then hit the shower blocks, you lot smell like you have been attending a bonfire!”

Each of the men could see the grin on Max’s face and a few of them lifted their arms up and began sniffing under their armpits, a small amount of friendly banter was exchanged between them.

He was acutely aware that laughter and banter was a good remedy to minimise stress.

Max spent a moment observing them; these men had proven themselves on a number of previous occasions over the past nineteen months.

Several had paid with their lives and several others had been wounded on previous missions.

Twenty minutes later the men had completed their weapons checks and had replaced their weapons in the secure room within the firing range.

They were now standing in their groups when Max shouted, “Last one to the shower block gets to scrub my back!”

Before anyone had moved, Max was turning and legging it to the shower block, with the sounds of feet behind him and the men shouting.