THE OPERATION.

WE were back onboard the submarine after three nights ashore, travelling by night and lying up by day. The sensors had been successfully laid though the end of the operation had been stressful.

After paddling ashore, we had unloaded our equipment and hidden the folbot by sinking well below the low water mark. We had reached our operational area just before dawn and laid up for the day, making sure that we were well-concealed.

That night we crept out of hiding and began to lay the sensors alongside all of the roads. Back undercover, we slept in turns with one of us keeping watch. When night, fell we began skiing back to the coast.

Things were going well, too well. Something had to go wrong. Murphy had to put his oar in. It happened. There was a six man patrol of Russian Border Guards, part of the KGB, with a dog approaching us. We went to ground and prepared to take them out.

Jock would shoot the sergeant at the rear and begin to work forward. I would drop the officer, wireless operator and the third man. Then we would both aim at the dog.

I was ready to give the fire orders when Jock tapped my shoulder and pointed down the hillside. The rest of their company was down there Two men could deal with six from cover, but 60 to two were just too heavy odds, even for Royal Marines.

We snuggled deeper into the snow and waited for them to pass us.  Then we headed out, but the dog began to bay. He had caught our scent. We moved faster and a nightmare race to the coast began.

We reached a copse and passed half way through it before leaving the trail by leaping sidewards into the undergrowth, using our ski sticks to give us extra height. We disappeared into cover again and watched the Russians hurtle past us.

Once they were gone, we yomped through the undergrowth and climbed a small crag before putting our skis back on. We had gained some valuable time.

We had travelled some distance when we heard the hound baying again. They were back on our trail.

Disaster! Jock had fallen and he was groaning.  He had dislocated his shoulder. There was no way that I was going to carry the ape’s bergen. I sat next to him and placed my foot in his armpit. Grasping his wrist, I jerked his shoulder back into place. I knew that it was against all modern first aid principles, but this a desperate situation and it needed drastic measures.

Jock got back onto his skis and shouldered her bergen. We set off skiing as we had never skied before. We were keeping ahead of them.

Then came calamity number two. I went over, When I stood up my knee had swelled alarmingly. I had knocked my cartilage out. Still pain does not exist, it has no memory. Pain is only weaknesses coming out.

We set off again but we were now moving more slowly. They began to gain on us, though we were still some distance ahead of them We finally reached the bluff overlooking the beach.

Scrambling down the gully, jock went first then I placed a claymore mine with a tripwire before leapfrogging past Jock. He laid his first claymore. We repeated the process until all three claymores were in position.

The first claymore went off as we reached the beach, closely followed by the second. There where no cries. The third one exploded and there were shouts and moans and the dog was yelping.

We dashed over the beach, dropping our equipment as we went. It was Czechoslovakian, so there was no connection with our country. We recovered our canoe and began paddling out to sea as the remaining guards reached the beach and began to fire after us.

I was using a torch to signal out to sea and the submarine surfaced.. It remained with only the conning tower showing. Sailors threw ropes down to us and Jock scrambled up the side. I ripped holes in the canoe with my Fairbairn Sykes knife and kicked it underwater before scrambling up the conning tower.

As soon as we were inboard, the submarine submerged and we were on our way back to Faslane.

The sensors that we had laid would give NATO prior warning of any Soviet advance. Science, inventiveness, courage, training and ability would make the difference against their overwhelming numbers