SAS: Storm Front: The Storming Bestseller from the Author of Harrier

The courage of those involved in the main action should be remembered and is indeed remarkable. This book tells the story of British support for Oman including the overthrow of the leader who kept the country locked into the past, supporting instead his son. Fighting communist inspired and trained rebel groups - who probably had a point under the old ruler - the British were able to defeat vastly superior numbers with a small force. Oman has, as a result, improved in terms of education, health and equality immensely. But the thrust of this book is the military action and as such it is a page turner with the outcome never certain.

Rowland White seems to specialize in histories of partly forgotten conflicts of the late Cold War period. I read his phenomenal 'Phoenix Squadron' (a 1972 gunboat diplomacy act using Buccaneers operating off HMS Ark Royal to dissuade the Guatemalans from invading Belize) with his most famous book ('Vulcan 607' - about Vulcans bombing Port Stanley Airport in 1982) still on my list. Storm Front is the story of a rebellion in early 1970s Oman, which the British managed to stall. In fact, the British fighting there at the time were mostly 'seconded to' the Omani armed forces, and officially no longer employed by the British. They were trying to protect Oman from a communist-inspired insurrection (supported from commie Yemen); as such they propped up the fledgling regime of Sultan Qaboos, who had just forced his elderly and un-dynamic father to abdicate - a coup that relied heavily on 'seconded' British personnel.As I had come to expect from White, Storm Front is comprehensive. In line with White's personal passion for military aviation, it details the exploits of 'ex-RAF' (seconded) pilots flying small BAC Strikemasters (dropping some 500 lb bombs on rebels & machine-gunning them), ugly but useful Short Skyvans to deliver supplies to shockingly short runways (many of them with the end perching over deep ravines) and of course Vietnam-style Hueys (actually Italian license-built AB205s) for all & sundry jobs. This is not to say that the adventures of the 'grunts' go unnoticed: a lot of Storm Front is dedicated to the heroics of especially the SAS Regiment. In fact, the dramatic peak of the book is the battle of 9 (!) SAS soldiers who defended a seaside village (and themselves, not to forget) against some 400 rebels (armed with mortars and machine guns, not with spears, mind you!), with the Strikemasters desperately trying to protect the hard-pressed SAS contingent. I won't give away the ending of this battle, obviously. What I can say (because we all know) is that those British expats managed to contain the rebellion; the open Yemeni meddling in Omani affairs prompted other neighbors (Iran notably) to pitch in on behalf of Sultan Qaboos, and as we all know, he is still in charge.In my humble opinion, Storm Front was not as good as Phoenix Squadron. This is highly subjective though; I am just more into naval and aerial warfare (and just love the combination of the two) than into fighting on the ground. Objectively, all of Mr. White's work is extremely good; it is packed with action and useful facts (did you know that the puny Strikemaster carried a heavier bomb load than the very first version of the B-17?), a true joy to the connoisseur. Also, his work is timely as it documents the experiences of people fighting in the 1970s and 1980s - this is so long ago now that a lot of the senior personnel must be close to their deathbeds. All in all, 4 stars for this one.

This is an excellent book despite being a little disjointed in places, particularly at the start. It provided a very detailed historical context but I would have preferred this as a concise chapter at the start to set the scene. Some of the details could have been consigned to notes in an appendix. Without any experience as a pilot, some of the detail of how helicopters were quickly manoeuvred out of harms way went straight over my head. If you want an easier, faster-paced but less detailed account you might want to consider  SAS Operation Storm: Nine men against four hundred  by Roger Cole (who fought at the Battle of Mirbat) and Richard Belfield. One thing that has struck me about all accounts of this battle I have read is what a liability the 25-pound gun turned out to be; the SAS would have been better off with another GPMG. If the Adoo (enemy) had controlled it, it could have been turned and fired at the BATT house, killing all the SAS soldiers inside or destroying their sanctuary. The battle would have been lost and the outcome of the Oman Civil War might have been very different. This danger of the gun falling into Adoo hands was surely not lost on Labalaba who had the presence of mind to race across exposed ground to reach it; for a while he was helped but, for over an hour, he fired the gun single-handedly. He was eventually killed and surely deserves a posthumous Victoria Cross. SAS Operation Storm: Nine men against four hundred

This is the third Rowland White Title I've read and I find his style very readable. All of his titles (Vulcan 607, Phoenix Squadron & Storm Front) deal with actions that hardly made the headlines at the time and in the case of Vulcan 607 were widely sneered at by the media. Rowland's books show the effort and dedication put into these actions by those involved and how resourcefulness and dogged determination triumphed when official backing and support could in some areas have been stronger. These titles deal with the real dangers of operating on the edge. Not much "Wizz Bang" in the first two titles because the real challenge and danger lie in the mounting and flying of the operations at all. Storm Front details an action involving men from the RAF and SAS which was unknown to me and may seem insignificant compared to the massive coverage of the Vietnam War at that time. It also has a tale of heroism which should have earned a VC (IMO) that went unrecognised. But no spoilers.... if you enjoyed Rowland's other titles this will not disappoint.

Rowland White covers the situation on the Omani side of the Arabian Peninsular from the time the British pulled out of Aden, turning what was the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Yemen over to Marxists who had been backed in their struggle for independence by the Peoples’ Republic of China.He explains how Oman, which while being pro-British was ruled by the aged and eccentric Sultan Said bin Taimur, appeared to be yet another easy target for the Peoples’ Republic of China to stir-up political unrest and overthrow the Sultan using insurgents backed by forces from South Yemen.White details Britain’s clandestine involvement in the overthrow of the Sultan by his son – Qaboos bin Said, in basically a bloodless coup which resulted in the old Sultan ending his days in a private suite at London’s Dorchester Hotel, along with his extended entourage.The Omani insurgents and their Yemeni allies along with the Peoples’ Republic of China then stepped-up their campaign to overthrow young Sultan Qaboos, who in turn turned to Britain for support. This was secretly provided by the British Government with ex-officers of the RAF transferring to the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force, and members of the British Army to the Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces as trainers, as well as the SAS training irregular Omani forces in Dhofar, the area adjoining Southern Yemen.The book relates the heroic activity of the few SAS and the supportive Sultan of Oman’s Air Force who miraculously lead Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces irregular troops to overcome vastly superior numbers of insurgents and thus winning the day for Sultan Qaboos bin Said who through good governance can now boast of a country with a very high standard of living for its citizens.Well worth a read!