The Longest Kill: The Story of Maverick 41, One of the World's Greatest Snipers by Craig Harrison

Author:Craig Harrison [Harrison, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK
Published: 2015-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

Days turned into weeks, and once again the monotony and boredom started to become a killer. We did a few small ops with the SF lads but nothing big. Eddy and I decided that we should hit the gym – we might as well do something to keep us entertained.

The first challenge was getting there. You had to run over a small bridge and people tended to shoot at you from both sides. Once there, though, my jaw dropped. I had heard of spit and sawdust, but this really took the piss. The punchbag had bullet holes in it. The spinning bike’s front wheel was buckled. Eddy sat down at the rowing machine and took a pull; the bar came off and he flew off the back, still sitting on the seat. I think we actually burnt more calories running over the bridge. We gave up.

Eventually, we were told that we’d be moving to another operating base, hitching a ride on one of the constant convoys moving troops and supplies from location to location. We would be travelling down a road nicknamed Champagne Glass due to its shape. In normal circumstances, it would take about twenty minutes to walk down this road, but it would take us about two hours to drive it, due to all the contacts with the enemy.

We headed off in a Warrior and, yet again, the top hatches were open. At least this time it cooled us down. An hour into the journey, we hit an IED. We were really lucky to survive. There was an explosion and the vehicle rocked with the blast, which was so loud it left us with ringing ears. Fortunately, the only damage we’d suffered – as far as we could tell, at least – was a lost track. Thinking fast, the crew in the vehicle behind drove into the back of us and then pushed us out of the danger zone.

Within minutes, though, I felt a jolt as an RPG round slammed into the side of us. I could smell smoke and then see flames as they curled over the top of the open hatches. Looking out of the top hatch, I saw that a box of rations on one of the outside storage bins had caught fire. I pried it free with a shovel before clambering back in.

We had to be shoved all the way to the base, the machine guns on the turrets firing pretty much the whole way. It was a nightmare urban environment, with buildings everywhere for the enemy to hide in.

Once inside the base, a large walled compound, we tried to get out – but the rear door of our vehicle was now fucked. We had to clamber out of the hatches. Outside, we could see that two road wheels were gone and the sprockets had been ripped out. The vehicle that pushed us was peppered with bullet strike marks.

These lads did this move every month. Fuck that.

We headed into the ops room for a briefing, meeting up with some lads from B Squadron and a sniper pair from the Guards.

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