David Brown served in the British army for almost forty years and between 1969 and 1976 spent a good deal of time in Northern Ireland serving with a top infantry regiment as both a platoon sergeant and later as a platoon commander. He eventually left the infantry for the elite Army Physical Training Corp and received a commission, eventually reaching the rank of Major.
This is the story of a British soldier serving in strife-torn Northern Ireland. A story of a soldier caught between necessary use of force and admiration for the people he had been tasked to put down.
Bomber’s Lament
Watch and wait in the dark
Don’t be afraid, killers can be killed
Like other men, don’t be afraid
Point the gun and squeeze the trigger
Killing is easy, living with it is hard
Dreams come, they go, only bad dreams
Where are the good dreams?
They died when you squeezed the trigger
The killers went to hell to burn and die
Your hell is here, it will last forever
God will forgive, if I ask him now
God has gone, leaving this world in disgust
He gave us paradise, we have destroyed it
Destroyed through greed and religious jealousy
The hard rain fell but couldn’t cleanse the soul
Nothing will cleanse it, for this we must suffer
Priests, man, woman, child, terrorist and soldier
The unborn have a chance but the hard rain fell
Bomber cried for help to God, no help came
Cried to his fellow man, they didn’t hear him
Only the warm arms of a woman gave comfort
Soothing an aching heart, wiping away the tears
All was not lost for God is still with us
Just listen and do what you know is right
Hold fast against evil that would control the world
Keep a strong heart, don’t be afraid of the dark
Our arms and hearts are strong, we will go on
God, where is he? He is in us to strike down evil
And the killers in the dark will be banished
But the hard rain fell and Bomber cried.
The first book featuring Bomber Brown, The Wolves of the Radfan, tells of his early life as a soldier fighting in the Middle East. Following on from Hard Rain, Bomber finds himself in more trouble in The Darkness. A story of how easy it is to go from good to bad in Northern Ireland and Switzerland.
War is not a pleasant business. People die, cut to ribbons by bullets, limbs blown off by mines and roadside bombs. Not just the soldiers, but the non-combatants: young women, the elderly and children. 1963 to 1967 saw Britain fighting in a hostile and arid country, trying to stem the expansion of communism in the Middle East. On the ground, the ordinary soldiers, infantry, gunners, engineers and armoured regiments did what the British soldier always does – getting on with the job come hell or high water! Bomber’s story is written from real-life experience. Although Bomber, the main character, is fictitious, he is based on a combination of many soldiers. Many of the events took place as described but with the storyteller’s licence when melting them together. The Wolves of the Radfan, the largest tribe that straddled the then-border between North and South Yemen, started the war and the British soldiers put paid to the Wolves in 1964, but then came the push by the communists from North Yemen and it was then the contest started in all the brutality that war produces. Many acts of great courage have not been mentioned in the book, especially in the period from 1963 to the end of 1964, perhaps someone else will write about that. Fact and fiction, fiction or fact? This is a story of a normal British infantryman who faced combat and it was nothing like he had ever imagined.
Northern Ireland in 1971-72 is a time of extreme violence that tests the people and the security forces to their limits. A soldier turned terrorist sworn to kill his former comrades. Slaughter on the streets as bombs shatter the lives of the innocents.
Bomber Brown finds himself in the thick of the action. Sometimes with his elite recce platoon but often on his own, relying on his training and initiative to survive when faced with the man determined to kill him! Face to face, gun to gun! The survivor will be the one with the steady hand, deadliest aim, and the will to win!
“The dream was back and no matter how many times Bomber shot the man he couldn’t kill him. He just had to watch the man's mouth uttering words that he couldn’t hear!”
There was no escape from the dream, so Bomber screamed at God to help him!
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