Major Peter Ratcliffe DCM

Distinguished Conduct Medal

The Distinguished Conduct Medal was an extremely high level award for bravery. It was a second level military decoration awarded to other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to non-commissioned personnel of other Commonwealth countries.The medal was instituted in 1854, during the Crimean...

 is an author and former member of the Special Air Service

Special Air Service

Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...

 (SAS).

Peter Ratcliffe came originally from Salford, Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

. As a boy, he joined the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment

1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment

The First Battalion, The Parachute Regiment is a battalion sized formation of the British Army's Parachute Regiment and subordinate unit within 16th Air Assault Brigade, but is permanently attached to the Special Forces Support Group....

 (1 PARA) before and eventually going on to pass the SAS selection course. Upon joining the regiment, he was posted to 18 (Mobility) Troop D Squadron.

During his time in the SAS he was to deploy into a number of theatre and operations including the Dhofar Rebellion

Dhofar Rebellion

The Dhofar Rebellion was launched in the province of Dhofar against the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, which had British support, from 1962 to 1976. It ended with the defeat of the rebels, but the state of Oman had to be radically reformed and modernised to cope with the campaign.-Background:In...

 in Oman

Oman

Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...

, the Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

 and Operation Granby

Operation Granby

Operation Granby was the name given to the British military operations during the Gulf War. 53,462 troops were deployed during the conflict. The total cost of operations was £2.434 billion of which at least £2.049 billion was paid for by other nations such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia; £200...

 in the Gulf. During the 1991 Gulf War, Ratcliffe was the Regimental Sergeant Major and deployed in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 to relieve the Officer Commanding A Squadron (one of the few times where an enlisted man has formally relieved a commissioned officer). He subsequently led the squadron on a raid on a communication site known as "Victor Two" for which he was awarded the DCM.

After the conflict Ratcliffe was himself commissioned as an officer.

Ratcliffe appeared in books by Andy McNab

Andy McNab

Sergeant ‘Andy McNab’ DCM MM is the pseudonym of an English novelist and former SAS operative and soldier.McNab came into public prominence in 1993, when he published his account of the failed Special Air Service patrol, Bravo Two Zero for which he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in...

, Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan

Sergeant ‘Chris Ryan’ MM is the pseudonym of a former British Special Forces operative and soldier turned novelist...

, Peter 'Yorkie' Crossland and Cameron Spence.