Exclusive:
A former commando and security specialist has revealed how he witnessed an attempted infiltration operation by elite Soviet forces during the Cold War, and how the UK’s intelligence uncovered the Russians’ war plans
Cold War Russian spies buried nuclear bombs, nerve-agent capsules and assault weapons close to UK military sites during the 1980s in case of World War Three, a special forces veteran has revealed.
Undercover Kremlin operatives even made a four-man underground bunker packed with bedding, weapons and supplies in the UK to prepare for the feared global conflict, he added. He reports that more than a dozen caches were made – the biggest in Suffolk, close to RAFs Mildenhall and Lakenheath, home of American Air Force bombers and fighter jets.
The revelations come in an exclusive Mirror interview with British special forces veteran and author Duncan Falconer as he launches his latest sensational book ‘First Into Action Again’. In the book, he describes his thrilling post-special forces military life as an elite freelance security expert working on deniable operations and protecting lives in dangerous war zones.
Father of two Duncan, 68, was at 19 the youngest Special Boat Service (SBS) recruit when he was plucked from the Royal Marines to serve in the elite Royal Navy unit during the 1970s. He told us that, in the event of another world war, Moscow planned to deploy its elite “Spetsnaz” commandos off British shores by submarine or boat, to link up with the secret caches and launch attacks. They planned to use commando raids to cripple UK and US air force installations, to disrupt the West’s ability to strike against Russia.
In an exclusive interview veteran Duncan told the Daily Mirror how bungling Russian special forces were caught in the act by a team of elite SBS men shortly after the Falklands War. He was not on that mission to spy on the Russians. And he debunks the pre-Ukrainian war myth that the Russian military was ever as potent as the Kremlin wanted the western world to believe.
He recalled: “I was involved in many operations in the Cold War and I realised the smoke and mirrors game was Russia telling the world they are as powerful as America. We knew they weren’t. But nobody here wanted to tell the world because that would reduce the amount of investment in the western war machine. It was great for the West to think Russia was mad and bad and powerful.
“After the Falklands, the SBS took pole position from the SAS and a job came up for us to watch the Russians, who were infiltrating the UK. There were claims they had planted nerve gas and nukes here. So this Russian fishing boat arrived off the coast of Scotland and a team that I was not on was sent up there and set up an OP [Observation Position] watching it.
“At six o’clock in the morning, the so-called fishing crew came out on deck in white shirts and T-shirts and started doing military physical training on deck. They were Spetsnaz. They were spying and supposedly trying to lay down these weapons caches. The Russians were always obsessed with that stuff.”
Duncan is limited on what he can say about that operation but he added that, in another incident, British intelligence made a horrific discovery. He says: “An underground cache was found inside a wood near Thetford, in Suffolk, near RAF Mildenhall. Someone had buried a huge tank and kitted it out for a four-man team to live in there. There was food and sleeping accommodation, but there was also an array of weapons, including the miniature 30kg and 90kg nuclear suitcase bombs. Apparently in the Cold War there were more than 100 on America’s east coast and the idea was if we finally went to war with Russia, they would send Spetsnaz teams to use them against their relevant targets.”
Duncan, whose career led to him meeting political leaders including Palestine’s Yasser Arafat, poured scorn on Russian special forces’ preoccupation with hand-to-hand combat training. He said: “The idea of the Russian military obsession too with karate and all that physical stuff was ridiculous. Do you know how long it takes to become a competent martial artist James Bond-type? Well it takes minutes to learn how to shoot someone in the head and in UK special forces we knew this stuff was b*****ks. If you’re that close to the enemy you can punch them then you’ve messed up.”
Duncan’s 11 years in UK special forces ended when he quit in 1986. That’s where he picks up his life story in ‘First Into Action Again’, published on September 12 by Mirror Books. After leaving the SBS, he was involved for a year in deniable operations for a private security company formed by another former SBS man. The firm worked at arm’s length for British intelligence services.
One of the jobs it took on was teaching local counter-terror teams how to combat the separatist network ETA in Spain’s Basque region. He also tells how he went under cover to secure single-handedly a cruise ship against possible attack. Then he spent more than a decade in the US, working as a film writer and producer. He earned and lost a fortune in Hollywood’s cut-throat business, he says.
On his return to the UK, he helped protect lives in the world’s war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, often looking after news crews covering conflicts. In one terrifying episode, he reveals how in Iraq he miraculously survived two terrorist bombs on his hotel, the Al-Hamra, in Baghdad.
He tells how, badly dazed from the first blast, a sixth sense told him a second blast would follow the 250lb truck bomb. Duncan writes: “I started to make my way towards where I thought my weapons might be . . .I considered going outside to see if an assault was in progress. I took a step forward, resting a hand on a huge supporting pillar …A voice in my head told me to stop and take shelter. I have no other way of explaining what I did next. I put my hands to my head and rested my forehead against the pillar. I was still in a daze. The pillar was between me and the balcony.”
It was then that Duncan’s instinct proved right, as a second bomb went off, this one much larger at 3,000lbs. He said: “I’ve been close to a few bombs going off. But I’d never been so close to such a massive blast. A human body within 100 metres of a 1,000lb bomb was generally considered at risk of serious damage, even if behind cover. The sheer power that tore through my room, more than 10 times that of the first blast, should’ve sucked me along with it.”
“The science of explosions is fascinating. Although indiscriminately destructive, there can be small areas left completely untouched. I remember a picture of a soldier in a First World War trench after a bomb had fallen on him and several comrades. He was virtually unscathed, yet his fellows had all been reduced to piles of minced meat. Perhaps something like that had happened to me and I had been in one of those untouched spaces.”
“When the shockwave had spent its fury, I was left behind my pillar, unscathed but for a tiny piece of shrapnel that had burnt my groin. The threat of assault was still on my mind. I hadn’t entirely escaped the blasts – I would not be myself for weeks. A concussion perhaps. Regardless, I had to concentrate, pull myself together and get going. I stepped out from behind the pillar and picked my way over the rubble, pieces of wall and ceiling mixed in with the mashed furniture. I quickly dug through it and managed to locate my AK47. And also my pistol and holster…”
