It's all about having the will to survive - Chris Ryan talks ahead of Stafford Gatehouse show

He was the only member of the eight-man Bravo Two Zero SAS team to survive and escape capture during an ill-fated mission in Iraq during the Gulf War.

Over eight days he travelled 200 miles by foot from a compromised observation point near Baghdad to the Syrian border.

It remains the longest escape and evasion in the history of the British forces.

“It’s all about being determined and having the will to survive,” he says.

“Survival instincts and techniques form part of your basic SAS training while going through selection.”

Three of his patrol died and four were captured after the patrol were discovered setting up an observational base along the Iraqi Main Supply Route between the Iraqi capital and the north west in January 1991.

“We had 17 radios on that patrol, and none of them worked,” says Chris.

“You cannot rely on technology all of the time.

“You have to get down to brass tacks.”

Stranded in the desert, with Saddam Hussein’s forces on his tracks, Chris faced a million-to-one chance of surviving.

But using what he had learnt in SAS selection and training, he pulled off the ultimate against all odds survival.

“It depends on what theatre you are in,” he said.

“You want to be in places where normal human beings do not want to go.

“You want to put yourself in a position where someone else is going to think twice before going in, such as a cave or a hole in the ground.”

And he says one of the best ways of escaping capture can actually be to stay still.

“Staying still is actually a hard skill.

“For someone not to move for 12 hours is very difficult, but if you have the willpower to do it you increase your chances of not getting captured.”

And he reveals there is a psychological aspect of escaping capture – exploiting human weakness.

“Humans have an inherent laziness at some point.

“So you need to know how to challenge human nature.

“When dog teams were deployed one thing we would do was to head for thick vegetation.

“The reason for this was because whilst the dogs may pick up a scent, the handler has to follow.

“This means putting them at risk of scratching their eyes or getting hurt, and putting them in not very nice places.

“And it is actually quite easy for a handler to control their dog in a way where it doesn’t look like they have found anything.”

Chris had to find water to stay alive and was forced to drink from a creek downstream from a factory making toxic uranium powder called yellowcake.

At the time the poisoned water burned his throat and made him retch.

It wasn’t until later that he found out it could cause severe deformities in any future children.

Over eight days he lost more than two-and-a-half stones – a potentially fatal weight loss.

He was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in battle.

And in 1995 he released the book The One That Got Away which documents his escape – though his account was criticised by other surviving members of the patrol, including Sergeant turned thriller writer Andy McNab.

Chris, who grew up near Newcastle, continued to serve by training SAS soldiers.

He later started his own security training firm based in the US, where he is allowed to use guns.

And he has also written a string of best-selling novels and produced and appeared in a number of TV programmes, including ITV’s Ultimate Force with Ross Kemp, which ran from 2002 to 2008.

In 2003 the BBC screened Hunting Chris Ryan, where he was pitted against a four-man ‘Hunter Force’ of elite soldiers to carry out missions.

He continues to give security training and publish books.

He has just released Safe: How to stay safe in a dangerous world.

It is aimed at giving people practical advice about how to avoid becoming victims of muggings, abductions and car-jackings and also what to do if they are threatened or caught up in an attack.

This includes advice on knowing when to run, how to escape attackers, and also if having to defend yourself is inevitable, how to fight. He urges people to grab any weapons at their disposal, attack as a group and be as loud as possible to turn the balance of power on attackers.

And he also gives advice on what to do in a hostage situation, which includes making alliances with you kidnappers and mentally preparing yourself for any torture, so that the physical shock doesn’t come with added mental horror.

And on Monday he will be at the Gatehouse Theatre in Stafford where he will talk about the book and his experiences.

“With everything that has happened with recent terrorist attacks, there are a lot of people asking what to do if they are caught up in a similar situation.

“Now the chances of being affected by a terrorist attack are the same as winning the lottery, but a lot of what to do is simply being prepared.”

He uses the Manchester attack as an example.

“There was a reason why the attacker chose to strike at the end of the concert – it was the same tactics we would use.

“I bet when people were arriving they were alert and wary about what was going on.

“But when leaving they would have been thinking about finding the car, beating the traffic, or what they wanted to eat when they got home.

“People – and this includes the security guards – probably switched off.

“And that is the exact moment you strike.

“We used to do it all of the time on targets returning to their bases, because when they were in sight of somewhere they perceived as safe they let their guard down.

“And we would hit them. Bam!”

l Safe by Chris Ryan is available on Amazon.

He is appearing at the Stafford Gatehouse Theatre on Monday. Tickets are still available.

Rob Golledge