In the Summer of 1981, a Libyan-backed Marxist group launched a coup to overthrow the government of Gambia. An army of 400 rebels captured the president’s wife, his family and dozens of other hostages, while seizing the armory, the airport and a radio station in the capital Banjul.
A longtime ally of the British, the government dispatched 3 SAS commandos. Their orders were fairly simple: observe the situation as it developed and await further instructions.
The leader, Major Ian Crooke, was a senior officer in the elite unit and part of the famous 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege. It turned out that Crooke, who already had a reputation in the British military for being something of a maverick and not giving a fuck, was going to exceed those orders.
Dressed in civilian clothes and armed with MP5s and 9mm pistols, the trio slipped into the Gambian capital and began to recon the rebel strength.
After scouting rebel-held positions, the Major gambled that his team, despite being outnumbered more than 100 to one, should be able to topple the coup on their own.
Crooke made his first objective the rescue of the president’s wife, who was being held at the city’s hospital. Disguised as doctors, the SAS men surprised and overpowered the rebels guarding the facility and easily freed the first lady and her entourage.
Next Crooke crossed into Senegal where he convinced local troops to accompany him into Gambia to reclaim the capital and free more hostages.
Within hours, the British-led force was assaulting a rebel-held barracks. After a brief firefight, they captured the building and its defenders, freeing the remaining hostages. Rebel morale crumbled in the face of such determined opposition and the next day, Crooke and company pushed the remaining enemy forces from the capital.
Despite Crooke’s success, the British brass were less than thrilled with his go-it-alone approach to dealing with the Gambian coup. But how could they court martial a hero, especially one who restored an ally to power, saved 100 hostages and thwarted a Marxist coup? It turns out they couldn’t. Instead they awarded him the Distinguished Service Order and promoted him to colonel.
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