Into Vietnam. Shaun Clarke

visitors, boss,’ Shagger said, ushering the three men from 22 SAS into the office. He introduced them to Lieutenant-Colonel Rex Durnford, who was blue-eyed, red-haired, suntanned and looked a lot younger than his thirty-nine years. Tipping his chair back and stretching his legs, the CO waved a hand at the scattering of chairs in front of the desk and said, ‘Please be seated, gentlemen.’

      Durnford smiled brightly and said, ‘Well, gentlemen, far be it from me to make you feel unwelcome – and I appreciate that you’re only doing your jobs – but I do think I’m going to have trouble explaining to my men why they should need to be advised by the British SAS.’

      ‘We’re not so much advisers as observers,’ Callaghan replied. ‘It’s therefore felt that the advice could flow both ways.’

      ‘Not sure what you mean by that.’

      ‘One of the reasons we’ve been sent here is that we have particularly good knowledge of counter-insurgency operations and jungle survival in particular.’

      ‘We were in Malaya as well.’

      ‘Not like us, as I’m sure you know.’

      ‘Nothing you did that we didn’t do,’ Shagger put in, though with no trace of anger – more like a man just setting the record straight.

      ‘Granted,’ Callaghan said. ‘But you didn’t do it as much. Nor did you do it in such a wide variety of locations. The war here isn’t like the war in Malaya. It’s not like Borneo either. It’s like a little bit of both – the VC live a nomadic life and know the jungle well – but apart from that it’s not the same thing. Therefore certain of your superiors in Canberra believe that no matter what your experiences in Malaya and Borneo, you can learn a lot from what we picked up, not only there, but also in places like Oman and the Yemen.’

      ‘I dispute that,’ Shagger said.

      ‘You do. Canberra doesn’t. And the orders to send us three here came all the way to Hereford from Canberra.’

      ‘You’re asking us to take advice regarding a war we’re already involved in,’ countered Shagger. ‘You haven’t been involved. You don’t know what goes on here. With all due respect, sir, it’s us who should be advising you. That’s the root of the hard feelings.’

      Callaghan smiled. He was pleased to note that although the Australian SAS were not related to the British, they certainly appeared to have adopted at least one of the lessons of Hereford. Sergeant Bannerman, whether he knew about Chinese parliaments or not, obviously felt at ease speaking his mind in front of his CO. Callaghan liked him for that and knew, from the expression on their faces, that Jimbo and Dead-eye felt the same.