After our lot were pulled out from Suez we were informed that should the cease fire break down then we would be parachuted into Ismailia to take the Egyptian Barracks there. My job on this attack was to go forward with the engineers and as soon as they had blown the wire I was to charge through the gap in the wire with a handful of other soldiers and hurl hand grenades in all directions to keep the Egyptians heads down while the rest of the Battalion made it's advance from its safe position. Now I can't say that I fancied this job one bit, but If I didn't do it then some else would have to and what makes me that more important than the next chap. I will admit I breathed a sigh of relief when we were stood down.
This again brings up the question could I have refused to these orders as they put my life at greater risk than the rest of men and would they have accepted that at a Court Martial, some how I don't think so.
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Bring 'our lads' home?
Call me old fashioned, but I was a Royal Marine in the days when instant and willing obedience to all orders was the norm. If people start to question the orders of their superior officers, the whole shebang falls apart, which fact is why mutiny is so harshly treated. Having said that, ill treatment of prisoners, or civilians and such like acts should be treated as illegal acts, and any officer , commissioned or non who condones or instigates such acts, would certainly be questioned by me. But, I would never query an order relative to actual active service, unless it was something like a wrong map reference or some such idiocy to which officers are often prone.
Aye Owdun.
Aye Owdun.
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GreyWing
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mutiny for personal saftey over that of your mates is one that thankfully I've not heard of in the british forces, and rightfully so, apart from ptsd issues.
Tab ... totally agree with what you were prepared to do, and hopefully I would have been able to do the same, I say I would sat here and fully expect I would have if I had been there, but that's no substitue for doing it.
But what would you have done if you were one of those SAS section commanders tasked with landing on the argy base with a crackpot plan on exit and no real military objective other than getting the argies to defend there mainland bases better. Would you have taken your men to certain death or capture for a stupid idea from a politician that had seen too much rambo. I say those 4 or 5 SAS guys that stood up for there 40 -50 men were more courages than those that said nothing,
question is, do you mutiny your men by saying nothing or mutiny the politicians?
I'm really not trying to push for mutiny from anyone, just trying to express like Owdun has done, about questioning officers directives on immoral acts or silly acts that endangers lives for no reason, the thing that makes the british forces great is that we do question things and but we also know when to shut up and that is 99% of the time. I honestly don't think we are so different on our point of views,
Tab ... totally agree with what you were prepared to do, and hopefully I would have been able to do the same, I say I would sat here and fully expect I would have if I had been there, but that's no substitue for doing it.
But what would you have done if you were one of those SAS section commanders tasked with landing on the argy base with a crackpot plan on exit and no real military objective other than getting the argies to defend there mainland bases better. Would you have taken your men to certain death or capture for a stupid idea from a politician that had seen too much rambo. I say those 4 or 5 SAS guys that stood up for there 40 -50 men were more courages than those that said nothing,
question is, do you mutiny your men by saying nothing or mutiny the politicians?
I'm really not trying to push for mutiny from anyone, just trying to express like Owdun has done, about questioning officers directives on immoral acts or silly acts that endangers lives for no reason, the thing that makes the british forces great is that we do question things and but we also know when to shut up and that is 99% of the time. I honestly don't think we are so different on our point of views,
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Alfa
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From the little I have read about the proposed SAS raid during the Falklands War the guys who questioned the decision didn't exactly mutiny. According to what I know when told of the operation they simply remarked that it was a suicide mission (or something like that but I'm sure you understand what I mean) to which Sir Peter de la Billière reacted with fury and RTU'd them without question.
I also think, again from what I've read obviously, that the SAS are far more used to commenting on their operations than the regular forces (chinese parliament and all that) and so probably never thought their comments would be taken so seriously as to be considered mutinous or even as insobordination.
If I've got my facts wrong then I appologise in advance as I have only read about the subject in passing when referred to in other books.
I also think, again from what I've read obviously, that the SAS are far more used to commenting on their operations than the regular forces (chinese parliament and all that) and so probably never thought their comments would be taken so seriously as to be considered mutinous or even as insobordination.
If I've got my facts wrong then I appologise in advance as I have only read about the subject in passing when referred to in other books.
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going grey!
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GreyWing
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Alfa
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Personally as bad as the politicians are there's no way I'd rather see the monarchy back in charge, I mean if you think Tony Blair is an idiot imagine what it'd be like if Prince Charles & Camilla were making all the decisions, with Prince Andrew as Foreign Scretary (well he travels enough doesn't he) and of course with all his business experience I'm sure Prince Edward would make a fantastic chancellor 
