Over in minutes: Special forces ‘textbook’ raid shows why they have fearsome track record
The operation was book.
Sixteen Unique Boat Service( SBS) Task Forces boarded the ship, some fast-roping down from Merlin and Wildcat helicopters hovering above the deck of the tanker, others rappelling up the side from inflatable ribs bobbing on the black waters below.
They had actually been dropped from a Chinook helicopter around the headland previously on Sunday afternoon, waiting on darkness to fall and the thumbs-up to go.
The SBS are based simply down the coast in Poole. These waters are their training school, they know them like the back of their hand.
Some of the SBS fast-roped from a Merlin – a strategy revealed here by a Marine. File pic: Royal Navy
Quick Google searches throw up videos of task forces scaling cross-Channel ferryboats
