The One That Got Away (1995 book) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

'The One That Got Away' is a 1995 book written under the pseudonym 'Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan

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

' concerning the SAS patrol Bravo Two Zero

Bravo Two Zero

Bravo Two Zero was the call sign of an eight-man British Army SAS patrol, deployed into Iraq during the First Gulf War in January 1991. According to one patrol member's account, the patrol were given the task of "gathering intelligence;.....

, which was dropped behind enemy lines 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....

in 1991. The author was a member of the patrol and tells of his 8 day escape on foot to the Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

n border.

Controversy

The content of the book was heavily criticised by fellow Bravo Two Zero
Bravo Two Zero
Bravo Two Zero was the call sign of an eight-man British Army SAS patrol, deployed into Iraq during the First Gulf War in January 1991. According to one patrol member's account, the patrol were given the task of "gathering intelligence;.....

patrol members Mike Coburn and Malcolm MacGown in Coburn's Soldier Five
Soldier Five
Soldier Five - The Real Truth About the Bravo Two Zero Mission is the third book about the Bravo Two Zero mission during the Gulf War to have been written by a member of the eight-man patrol involved....

(2004, ISBN 1-84018-907-X), written specifically in response to this book.

Despite the book describing Ryan's single handed attack on two Iraqi 'Land-Rover type' vehicles, and killing two Iraqi soldiers with a knife, the SAS's Regimental Sergeant Major
Regimental Sergeant Major
Regimental Sergeant Major is an appointment held by warrant officers class 1 in the British Army, the British Royal Marines and in the armies of many Commonwealth nations, including Australia and New Zealand; and by chief warrant officers in the Canadian Forces...

at the time of the patrol, and fellow Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

veteran, Peter Ratcliffe
Peter Ratcliffe
Major Peter Ratcliffe DCM is an author and former member of the Special Air Service .Peter Ratcliffe came originally from Salford, Greater Manchester. As a boy, he joined the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment before and eventually going on to pass the SAS selection course...

stated that, at the Regimental debrief, "[Ryan] made no mention at all of encountering enemy troops on his trek.".

Coburn, along with patrol members 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...

and Ian Pring all wrote letters to deceased patrol member Vince Phillips' family subsequent to the release of this book. Coburn wrote: "At no time throughout the patrol did Vince display the actions portrayed... ...On the contrary, the very fact that he was on patrol disputes [Ryan's] version of events, otherwise he would never have been allowed to deploy across the border." Pring described the book as "a pack of lies" writing: "Vince DID NOT compromise the patrol or behave in the manner portrayed."

Michael Asher
Michael Asher (explorer)
Michael Asher is an author, historian, deep ecologist, and notable desert explorer who has covered more than 30,000 miles on foot and camel. He spent three years living with a traditional nomadic tribe in the Sudan.-Biography:...

's investigative book, "The Real Bravo Two Zero" (2003, ISBN 0304365548.) also criticised Ryan's portrayal of Phillips. Asher found that many of the negative attributes Ryan had described, did not correspond with the evidence, nor the other patrol member's accounts.

Concerning the TV adaptation of Ryan's book, McNab further wrote in a letter to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

in 1996, "It is a pity that [Ryan] chose to cheapen his own achievement and the reputations of the regiment and of comrades who would have sacrificed their lives for his, had the situation demanded, by denigrating those of others."

Ratcliffe said of the book (and of Bravo Two Zero
Bravo Two Zero (1993 book)
Bravo Two Zero is a 1993 book written under the pseudonym 'Andy McNab'. The book recounts the story of an SAS patrol behind enemy lines in Iraq, in 1991, which was led by the author.-Controversy:...

(1993)), "[It is] insensitive on [Ryan's] and [McNab's] parts to hide behind pseudonyms when they named their dead colleagues in their books, in deliberate contravention of the Regiment's traditions.".

Coburn also commented on the book: "The portrayal of Vince Phillips was a despicable betrayal of what happened. Revelations became more and more outrageous, culminating in a book and film that saw him portrayed in an unfair and undignified manner.".

Controversy

See also