Nemesis File

Paul Bruce was a tough, idealistic young trooper in the SAS when he was despatched to Northern Ireland. His top-secret mission: to execute unarmed IRA suspects in cold blood. His story, told with chilling candour, gives an astonishing insight into the role of the SAS in the bitter conflict of Northern Ireland. It is also a devastating indictment of British government policy in the Province. Paul Bruce and three SAS comrades shot down one terrified victim after another, leaving their bodies to be buried in deep, unmarked woodland graves. The soldiers grew their hair long, wore civilian clothes and drove ordinary-looking cars. But they always carried pistols nd sub-machine guns. They worked to the direct command of the Intelligence Services based at 39th Infantry Headquarters in Lisburn. Their task: to destabilised the IRA, their orders: to Kill and their secret code sign: Nemesis. The squad had been trained for the honourable tasks of covert action and secret warfare. Slowly they grew bitter at the sordidness of their terrible assignment. But worse was to follow. Britain's frustrated military leaders next ordered Bruce and his squad to foment sectarian violence by shooting down young men on the streets in Roman Catholic areas. In this hsitoric, deeply disturbing book the author describes many of his victims and produces maps to show where bodies lie secretly buried. This is not simply a breathtaking story of Special Forces soldiering, of treachery and betrayla at the highest level, but a chronicle of the mental breakdown of crack SAS troops ordered to carry out the dirtiest of jobs in a secret war. It is also the tale of the extrordinary inner struggle of one man, a man devoted to the SAS and its fine principles of professionalism and obedience. A man who finally found the moral courage to rebel.

Sergeant Paul Bruce was born in 1948. Inspired by his father's tales of wartime heroics in the Long Range Desert group, Paul joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and trained as a mechanic. In 1971 he joined the SAS.