Operation Barras: Jungle Rescue: The SAS Hostage Raid in Sierra Leone, 2000
Paperback
Series: Sas: A History of the Regiment, Book 3
General Military HistoryBritish History
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 8 2026
Pages: 250
Weight: 0.75
Height: 0.53 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Operation Barras: Jungle Rescue is the true story of a dawn raid that turned a jungle camp into a battlefield-and brought British hostages home alive.
Sierra Leone, 2000: a civil war fuelled by collapse, corruption, and armed groups that thrive on fear. In the Occra Hills, the West Side Boys aren't a regular army-they're a drug-fired militia with roadblocks, stolen uniforms, and a taste for theatre and cruelty. When a Royal Irish Regiment patrol and their Sierra Leone Army liaison officer, Lt Musa Bangura, blunder into a checkpoint, the rules change instantly. One moment it's a routine movement in a messy war; the next it's captivity-beatings, intimidation, and the slow realisation that the jungle belongs to the men with guns.
OP BAS
OP BAS
Diplomacy buys time-but not safety. And when it becomes clear the remaining captives could be executed or moved deeper inland, Britain makes a decision that can't be walked back: get our boys out.
What follows is Operation Barras-a high-risk hostage rescue that trades silence for shock: Chinooks at first light, fast-ropes into the camp, and violence delivered with speed and discipline. While the SAS hits Gberi Bana, 1 PARA slams into Magbeni to stop reinforcements. The outcome becomes the kind of sentence that writes its own headline: hostages rescued, no helicopters shot down, one British soldier killed-a triumph with an asterisk, and a reminder that success always has a price.
OP BAS
OP BAS
Written with thriller pacing and grounded detail, this is a real-world Special Forces mission told as a gripping, scene-driven narrative-from the first trap closing in the hills to the final lift-out under fire.
Inside you'll find:
The war-torn backdrop that made groups like the West Side Boys possible
The capture, captivity, and the psychological warfare of negotiations
The recce work, planning, and the combined-package assault (UKSF + elite infantry)
A minute-by-minute raid sequence-then the sober accounting afterwards
Also from
Mitchell, Gary
Victory at Sea: The Story of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz: The Admiral Who Defeated Japan
Mitchell, Gary
Paperback
The Māori Art of War - A Journey through Indigenous Weapons: Te Whakairo o Nga Hoa Riri
Mitchell, Gary
Paperback
Pebble Island: Operation Prelim: The SAS Night Raid That Hit First in the Falklands War
Mitchell, Gary
Paperback
Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of the Soviet Union and the Gamble That Lost the War
Mitchell, Gary
Paperback
Red Baron: The Dogfights, the Flying Circus, and the Last Hunt of Manfred von Richthofen
Mitchell, Gary
Paperback
The White Death: Simo Häyhä - The World's Deadliest Sniper and the 100 Days That Held Finland
Mitchell, Gary
Paperback
Also in
General Military History
Viking Warrior Operations Manual: The Life, Equipment, Weapons and Fighting Tactics of the Vikings
Konstam, Angus
Hardcover
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill
Candice Millard
Hardcover
The Last Full Measure: An American Family and How the United States Brought Home the Dead of World War II
Clarke, Kim
Hardcover
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780
Atkinson, Rick
Hardcover
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
The Two Swords of Christ: Five Centuries of War Between Islam and the Warrior Monks of Christendom
Ibrahim, Raymond
Hardcover
Band on the Run: Xenophon and the First Great Mercenary Army's Epic Escape from Persia
O'Connell, Robert L.
Hardcover
From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition.....
Maier, Pauline
Paperback
While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East
Bohbot, Amir
Katz, Yaakov
Hardcover
The Old Breed... the Complete Story Revealed: A Father, a Son, and How WWII in the Pacific Shaped Their Lives
Sledge, W. Henry
Hardcover
Two World Wars and Hitler: Who Was Responsible?: Anglo-American Money, Foreign Agents and Geopolitics
O'Dowd, John
MacGregor, Jim
Paperback
American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed Into the Lands and Imaginations of America
Whittock, Martyn
Hardcover
KJV, Pew Bible, Large Print, Hardcover, Burgundy, Red Letter Edition (Large Print Edition)
Thomas Nelson
Hardcover
NKJV, Value Thinline Bible, Large Print, Imitation Leather, Burgundy, Red Letter Edition (Large Print Edition)
Thomas Nelson
Hardcover
Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great
Kousser, Rachel
Paperback
Wrecked: The Edmund Fitzgerald and the Sinking of the American Economy
Nelson, Thomas M.
Podair, Jerald
Paperback
Targeted: Beirut: The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror
Scott, James M.
Carr, Jack
Paperback
The Shortest History of War: From Hunter-Gatherers to Nuclear Superpowers - A Retelling for Our Times
Dyer, Gwynne
Paperback
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
Singh, Simon
Paperback
The Men Who Lost America: British Command during the Revolutionary War and the Preservation of the Empire
O'Shaughnessy, Andrew J.
Paperback
The Histories (Royal Collector's Edition) (Annotated) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Herodotus
Hardcover
The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade
Bauer, Susan Wise
Hardcover
Targeted: Beirut: The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror
Carr, Jack
Scott, James M.
Hardcover
The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence
Duval, Lauren
Hardcover
A Brief History of China: Dynasty, Revolution and Transformation: From the Middle Kingdom to the People's Republic
Clements, Jonathan
Paperback
KJV, Pew Bible, Large Print, Hardcover, Blue, Red Letter Edition (Large Print Edition)
Thomas Nelson
Hardcover
Navy SEAL's Guide to Surviving Invasions, Civil War, and World War III
Melton, H. Keith
Emerson, Clint
Paperback
Toward Combined Arms Warfare: A Survey of 20th-Century Tactics, Doctrine, and Organization
House, Jonathan M.
Paperback
American Biography: A History of the United States as Told Through the Lives of Ninety-Four Americans
Schweikart, Larry
Paperback
Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers
Witton, Edward
Paperback
The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery (Updated E
Beyer, Rick
Sayles, Elizabeth
Hardcover
The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons: Three Kings and a History of Britain at the Dawn of the Viking Age
Adams, Max
Hardcover
Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
Platt, Stephen R.
Paperback
Insignia of the Waffen-SS: Cuff Titles, Collar Tabs, Shoulder Boards & Badges
Michaelis, Rolf
Hardcover
By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire
Worthington, Ian
Paperback
Black Soldiers, White Laws: The Tragedy of the 24th Infantry in 1917 Houston
Haymond, John A.
Hardcover
Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah's War Against America
Burton, Fred
Katz, Samuel M.
Paperback
American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed Into the Lands and Imaginations of America
Whittock, Martyn
Paperback
The Sacred Band: Three Hundred Theban Lovers and the Last Days of Greek Freedom
Romm, James
Paperback
Érase Una Vez Tenochtitlán: Entre Dioses Y Tlatoanis / Once Upon a Time in Tenochtitlán: Among Gods and Tlatoanis
Rosas, Alejandro
Paperback
The Prince (Royal Collector's Edition) (Annotated) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Machiavelli, Niccolò
Hardcover
The Other Trench: The WW1 Diary and Photos of a German Officer
Cross, Philipp
Pfeifer, Alexander
Paperback
Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great
Kousser, Rachel
Hardcover
Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500
Wilson, Peter H.
Paperback
Il Fior di Battaglia by Fiore dei Liberi Facsimile: With translation by Guy Windsor
Windsor, Guy
Hardcover
Map Reading And Land Navigation - FM 3-25.26 US Army Field Manual FM 21-26 (2001 Civilian Reference Edition): Unabridged Manual On Map Use, ... Releas
Us Department of the Army
Paperback
John Stark of Rogers' Rangers: a Famous Ranger and His Associates During the French & Indian War: The Life of General John Stark of New Hampshire by H
Moore, Howard Parker
Stark, Caleb
Paperback
The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq
Hanson, Victor Davis
Paperback
Foundational Description of the Art of Fencing: The 1570 Treatise of Joachim Meyer (Reading Edition)
Meyer, Joachim
Paperback
America's Hidden Heroes: The History and Evolution of U.S. Navy Frogmen and SEALs
Hawkins, Tom
Paperback
