When the SAS took on the West Side Boys, there could only be one winner...

A quarter of a century after Operation Barras, the high-stakes special forces mission to rescue troops of the Royal Irish Regiment held hostage in Sierra Leone, survivors returned to the West African country to unveil a memorial to the one man who didn't make it home

- By Richard Ashmore

West Side Boys rebels in 2000, on road where Getty and party were ambushed. Former Ranger Ian Getty at memorial to Bombardier Bradley Tinnion

WITHIN seconds they were surrounded. Hundreds of men burst from the jungle on either side of the convoy of British Army Land Rovers. Behind them, a truck mounted with a heavy machine gun covered the only route of escape. This was the moment things went horribly wrong for 11 soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment who found themselves ambushed by militants in war-torn Sierra Leone.

The unit had been on a peacekeeping operation on August 25, 2000, when they turned down a track on their way to a remote village and came face-to-face with the notorious West Side Boys - infamous for lopping off the limbs of their enemies with machetes. Now hordes of the furious, hollering rebels had encircled the soldiers and were trying to fight them for their weapons. Army training in an ambush is to “react instantly” recalls Ian Getty, then a 20-year-old Ranger serving his first overseas deployment.

“One of my mates went to shoot, which is a pretty standard drill, but just at that moment, the Boss said ‘no’. That call probably saved the lives of the 11 men and their local interpreter, Musa.

But their fate was now in the hands of one of the most feared and unpredictable insurgent groups in Africa. What unfolded over the next 17 days would change the course of history for the West African nation and send shockwaves which still resonate to this day.

It was codenamed Operation Barras and, earlier this year, a memorial was unveiled to Bombardier Bradley Tinnion, 28, who was mortally wounded while taking part in the rescue.