Soldier Five
A little OT.
What's the main difference between Soldier Five and Bravo Two Zero?Anyone knows?
Really amazing movie,by the way.
Soldier five is a good, well written account of Bravo Two zero from the eyes of another patrol member.
Out of the survivors, the only person who now hasn't come out to talk about it in one way or another is the one known as "Dinger".
Either way Soldier Five is a good book!
These men died defending their country. Send flowers to their bitches and ho's.
Yea,I have got both Bravo Two Zero movie and book,which written by Mcnab,and became really curious about what happened to BTZ patrol.I know some opinions offered by Chris Ryan,and wanta know other patrol members' story.Such as why the patrol had to split and so on...in case I can't get Soldier Five in a short time.
Btw,it's said that some book was written with "Dinger"'s help,is it Soldier Five?
yeah dinger helped a bit with soldier five,but he hasn't ever given an interview or written a book himself while the rest of the survivors have.
These men died defending their country. Send flowers to their bitches and ho's.
Well,as much as I respect them for being professional soldiers,they didn't die defending their country.How sad it was.
So what does Soldier Five tell?Why the patrol had to split,weather or quarrel?
Technically they died for their country because they were serving their country.
They were true heroes.
Either way Soldier Five just shows it froma different perspective...and it is told very well...just read it...its good!
Live every day like its your last...one day you'll be right!
Well... Soldier Five is the most honest and believable account i think. Not only because Dinger helped with it (and from the character build up in all the other books he wouldn't let any BS get through), but because of the struggle Mike Coburn had getting the book released. It must have been true or else why would he have had such a fight on his hands? He only wrote it because he was angry at the other two books which either bigged stuff up or played stuff down.
I think Chris Ryan is a money grabbing big head. I have read some of his book but not all, and he seemed to say a lot that he was right when everyone else was wrong. He was unfair to Vince and kept slipping in below the belt remarks about McNabb. I can't believe a guy that is so damning of his comrades.
McNabbs book i'm sure played up some of the events, but it is a good book which i believe is mostly true but had to be compromised a little bit to get it past the censor. There was no big money tree for SAS books at the time he wrote it either, so i believe he wrote it for his own reasons.
Michael Asher is a TWAT. His book is bollocks and contradicts itself and his acting when he discovered these 'shocking new truths' about the patrol in his t.v programme was stomach wrenching. None of his claims are proven or justified.
Soldier Five just rang true to me, in the same way that The One That Got Away just didn't. But when i looked further into it, it had the most fact based information too, because of the reasons i stated above.
"Kevlar is for pussies"
Arr,thanks so much,I do appreciate the information above.
Is alias "Mike Coburn" the role "Mark" in Bravo two zero movie?I read User Comments here(IMDB) that in Austrilia "Bravo two zero" is forbidden,or at that time(1999) it was.So perhaps it might be the censorship was tighter there for someone in SAS to get a book released like that.
yeah in the film Bravo Two Zero
Mark - Mike Coburn, though in the film they suggest that "Mark" is an aussie while Mike Coburn in real life was actually from New Zealand, and served with the New Zealand SAS for five years before joining the British SAS.
Also the guy they call "Stan" was acutally in real life originally from Rhodesia, (the name given to Zimbabwe before they changed the name.) Rhodesia was british owned, but they then gained legal independence in 1980 and changed their name to "Zimbabwe", and "southern Rhodesia" became Zambia.
Anyway Stan moved to England, and became a doctor but his one wish was to join the SAS, and he finally got there.
Either way most other things are right in the film, though i have spotted a few errors.
Live every day like its your last...one day you'll be right!
Coburn is Australian. He was in 1CDO before attending selection for UKSF (which Australians can do).
The father of an oppo of mine was in the SAS in the eighties. He knew Dinger. He actually babysitted my mate a few times (he's the one who introduced him to beer, heh). Dinger left the SAS in 1999, actually.
Ryan is the guy writing most bollocks, in my opinion. His other fictionbooks have plots that are over-creative. McNab is more down to earth and makes up believable stories. I haven't been in the SAS, personally, but I have oppos that have been in there. (SBS would kick their arses anyway :))
He actually babysitted my mate a few times
lol i wonder what kind of babysitter he would be? Just sitting there, watching tv, smoking and drinking.
Still did he really leave in 1999? He was a falklands vet so he might have joined in 1981 or 82...i dunno...
still if that is true, then cool...
I'm tracking down Seven's real parents. Nobody sticks Al Bundy with unwanted kids except his wife. share
Coburn is Australian. He was in 1CDO before attending selection for UKSF (which Australians can do).
LOL!! I guess you haven't read Soldier 5 then......or perhaps Coburn was lying too...
lol coburn is a Kiwi.
He was in the New Zealand SAS before coming over here.
Going back to Dinger, when bravo two zero happend, he was 28 years old, so that means if he joined the Parachute regiment at 18 years old then he would have joined in 1980 or 1981, and he was in the Falklands as well.
Then i think he joined the SAS in the mid to late eighties.
My only regret is that I didn't drink every pub dry and sleep with every woman on the planet.
Mike Coburn is a Kiwi from New Zealand. He was in the New Zealand SAS before going to the UK to try out for the British SAS. I know that in Bravo 2 Zero 'Mark the Kiwi' was portrayed as being from Aussie, but that's just not true. Mike wrote Soldier 5 because he was appalled at the rubbish that had gone out about their failed mission and that the two that died were made scapegoats. He wanted to set the record straight. I do actually know Mike. Integrity is word that comes to mind when describing him. I certainly would not doubt his account of things.
Seems like on these movie boards everybody knows somebody, that was in movie, or somebody, that movie was about. Interesting. I hope you are right, kitten!
"I won't say a single solitary slovo unless I have my lawyer here. I know the law, you bastards"
lol yeah theres too many nerds that think its cool to bulls**t about knowing all these actors and SAS guys... get lifes peeps, no-one believes you and guess what else...
if i knew John McAleese, Andy McNab, Chris Ryan.... I WOULDNT SAY I KNEW HIM CAUSE I DOUBT IT WOULD BE APPRECIATED BY THESE GUYS!!!
Mike Coburn is a kiwi. Hence 'Mark the kiwi' in B2O and 'Soldier 5' talks about growing up in west Auckland (yes Mike is an original 'Westie'). He is not Australian in any way shape or form. He, like that other famous Aussie, Russell Crowe, was born in Auckland!
(oops didn't realise I had already replied to this thread)
Some interesting trivia...
The man that plays him in Bravo Two Zero has the same star sign. The same actor once played a character who had the same (real)surname as Mike Coburn.
I am glad you like his book.
~There is nothing worse than a kiwi being mistaken for an Aussie (lol) he he he.~
"Well,as much as I respect them for being professional soldiers,they didn't die defending their country.How sad it was."
Well, in a way, they were defending their country...
Their mission was to stop the SCUDs that were being fired at Israel. As I remember it, only conventional warheads fell on Israel, but I bet it's pretty safe to say that there were a couple of chemical and/or biological warheads ready to go as well.
Saddam was hoping to draw Israel into the war, thinking that he could then call on other Arab nations for support - ie, make it into a holy war. Just think of what might have happened if Isreal *had* joined the fight - First of all, the coalition would have fallen to pieces, and Saudi Arabia in particular would have become a lot less accomodating towards all the military forces stationed there. Second, Israel have Nukes, and they really *hate* most of their Middle Eastern neighbours. If an anthrax SCUD had landed in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, then I reckon Shamir's finger would have jumped towards the red button pretty quickly. Once the first mushroom clouds started to rise, then it'd be a very short and slippery slope until everyone else joined in the fun and the Earth was turned into a smoky lump of radioactive charcoal spinning around The Sun.
Maybe all of that is pretty far fetched, but by knocking out the SCUDs, the guys doing the work made sure it wouldn't happen.
I know for a fact that I started to feel a whole lot less nervous when the missiles stopped landing in Israel...
--Myk
Mike Coburn's book is pretty much the same as McNab's, IMO both tell an accurate account of the events - the Chris Ryan one is similar bar the complete disrespect to certain members of the patrol - other books by more senior SAS guys have different versions too, bottom line is everyone tells the story differently. One thing for sure is the Michael Asher "Real Bravo Two Zero" is utter nonsense in many respects, but interesting nonetheless.
BTW Ryan's novels are definitely "ghost written" i.e. not by him but by a true writer with his name stuck on the cover - i'd suspect McNab's are too - although they both probably put some ideas in as you can see from the storylines esp in military procedures etc.