The One That Got Away: The legendary true story of an SAS man alone behind enemy lines

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This was an incredible book! I heard of the legend of Bravo Two Zero; I had watched numerous episodes of "Hunting Chris Ryan" on the Television, but until I had read this gripping book, I had no comprehension about the incredible mental, and physical challenges that the author had undergone during his record-breaking Escape and Evasion across Iraq to the relative "safety" of Syria. Indeed, some of the most memorable sections of the book occur during the authors' arrival in "friendly" territory.

a b Manger, Warren (27 August 2014). "SAS hero Chris Ryan: I drank radioactive water in Iraq, which meant I'd never have children". Daily Mirror . Retrieved 31 December 2016. After the publication of fellow patrol member Andy McNab's Bravo Two Zero in 1993, Ryan published his own account of his experiences during the Bravo Two Zero mission in 1995, entitled The One That Got Away. Ryan was born in Rowlands Gill in County Durham. After attending Hookergate School, he enrolled in the British Army at the age of 16. Ryan's cousin was a member of the reservist 23 SAS Regiment and invited Ryan to come up and "see what it's like to be in the army". [3] :85 Ryan did this nearly every weekend, almost passing selection several times, but was too young to do 'test week'. When he was old enough, he passed selection into 23 SAS. Shortly after that he began selection for the regular 22 SAS Regiment and joined 'B' Squadron as a medic. Needing a parent regiment, Ryan and a soldier who had joined 22 SAS from the Royal Navy, spent eight weeks with the Parachute Regiment before returning to 'B' Squadron. [3] :100–102

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The book can be split into four broad sections. The patrol up to when it split, the portion with Ryan, Stan, and Vince, the solo E&E, and 'misc' bits scattered throughout the latter parts. Some of the misc stuff is filler anecdotes about training and other missions after Bravo Two Zero, and the book doesn't really benefit from it, but nor does it detract too much. The parts detailing the patrol up to the split are quite different from what I remember from McNab's book and it would be interesting to do a real side-by-side comparison. The group E&E parts are tense and gripping, the three men were in a really bad way physically and mentally, and that creates an unnerving atmosphere as you wonder what's going to go wrong next. The solo E&E part was mixed. On the one hand it felt a little like a foregone conclusion because you know he gets out, on the other there was plenty of interesting little encounters. I must say I was expecting a little more in the way of actual survival skills being demonstrated but it seems Ryan made it out on sheer strength of will. There were a few occasions I was thinking "Why didn't he [kill the goat, search the bodies, etc]" and the explanation can only be his not thinking straight due to fatigue, or surrounding circumstances making those courses of action impossible. Suffice to say, it's no SAS Survival Guide!

Ratcliffe said of the book (and of Bravo Two Zero), "[It is] insensitive on [Ryan's] and [McNab's] parts to hide behind pseudonyms when they named their dead colleagues in their books, in deliberate contravention of the Regiment's traditions.". [8]During the Gulf War, Chris was the only member of an eight-man team to escape from Iraq, of which three colleagues were killed and four captured. It was the longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS. The One That Got Away is the 1996 ITV dramatization of Chris Ryan's 1995 account of the Bravo Two Zero mission from the first Gulf War directed by Paul Greengrass ( The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone). His book was released after Andy McNab's book, but his movie came out three years before the BBC's dramatization of Bravo Two Zero, both of which were filmed in South Africa using the same armorers. The book and film were highly critical of McNab's leadership before and during the mission. Both Ryan and McNab were criticized for publishing the real names of the three troopers who perished while themselves still hiding behind pseudonyms. A third book about the mission by "Mike Coburn" ("Mark" in the film) was published in 2004, despite opposition from the British government.

Looking at the cover of the edition I bought, I think you'd be forgiven if you initally judged Chris Ryan to be a bit egocentric, because it bears the tagline "The real hero of Bravo Two Zero". Being published two years after Andy McNab's account of his experience in the same mission I translated that as "Do you know how difficult it is to escape from Iraq when there's a war on? Those other guys just sat there and people hit them!". Whether or not Ryan himself was responsible for the final cover, I don't know, but I thought it was tactless.Coburn also commented on the book: "The portrayal of Vince Phillips was a despicable betrayal of what happened. Revelations became more and more outrageous, culminating in a book and film that saw him portrayed in an unfair and undignified manner.". [9]