Panorama has been given unprecedented access to military operations in the Borcestershire area of operations. In tonight's programme we follow 14 Platoon of the Royal Wessex Rangers, as the Army and security services hunt the killers of what has become known in the papers as the "Bloody Cross Massacre".
14 Platoon were inserted into the countryside by helicopter five days go. Part of a battalion sized net tightening around the suspected insurgents. The men of 14 platoon, the oldest private 22 years of age, and most veterans of The Troubles, have been living rough and sleeping when they can in hedgerows or the cover of a stone wall.
It's a daily routine of setting up observation posts, random snap vehicle checks on unsuspecting motorists and the painstaking searching outlying farm buildings and other potential hiding places where their prey may have gone to ground. But the 14 Platoon remain cheerful and eager to bring the killers of their fellow soldiers to justice.
At 19:04hrs on Tuesday evening they are tired, dirty and down to their last KitKat. Unaware that painstaking intelligence work has pinpointed the location of the terrorists. In No. 3 Section, Private Hooper 18, has spotted a glimpse of movement and a possible light at an abandoned cottage. Our camera team joined Corporal Gavin Taylor as he takes a closer look....
Corporal Taylor quietly whispers to us "It's them!"and gives a thumbs up hand signal to his men.
CRACK! CRACK! Muffled shouts. CRACK!
"CONTACT! Gun Group, 100 metres - house doorway - bursts, FIRE!"........
Tomorrow night's game is No Stone Unturned. No.3 Section have rumbled the Clash Action Front ASU hiding out in Ravendale Cottage. The rest of 14 Platoon are hoofing it as fast as they can to the loc. Have they closed the net on Alan Tate?
Cheers
Mark
ON NO! Leg it boys!
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