Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Important ‘Battle of Mirbat’ M.M. group of three awarded to Sergeant R. E. ‘Bob’ Bennett, Second in Command of 8 Troop, B Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment, formerly Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, who played a leading part in the S.A.S.’s most famous Battle of the modern era, in which a nine-man S.A.S. team defended the town of Mirbat against overwhelming odds on 19 July 1972 - Sergeant Bennett having only spasmodic communications with his Captain (Mike Kealy) for a period of over four hours, controlled much of the operation from the exposed position of the roof of the BATT House, from where he directed mortar fire from the S.A.S. mortar detachment and air support from the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force as well as personally providing effective sniper fire against the determined enemy onslaught

Military Medal, E.II.R. (23532785 Sgt. R. E. Bennett, D. & D.); General Service 1962, 4 clasps, Borneo, South Arabia, Dhofar, Northern Ireland (23532785 Tpr. R. E. Bennett, SAS.); Regular Army L.S. & G.C., E.II.R. (23532785 Sgt. R. E. Bennett, MM, D. & D.) some minor edge bruising and contact wear, otherwise generally good very fine (3) £80,000-£100,000

M.M. London Gazette 9 April 1974.

The original recommendation was submitted by Lt Col Peter de la Billiere and is additionally endorsed by Brigadier Semple with the following notation: ‘Sgt Bennett showed a great coolness in the face of the enemy and his conduct must have been largely responsible for saving Mirbat’

The recommendation states:

‘Mirbat is a medium sized and important fishing town lying some 25 miles East of Salalah. It is wired in and has a small military garrison of local gendarmerie and Askars, the latter being equivalent to home guard. There was an SAS contingent in the town.

There has been no major attack on the town or Mirbat since operations commenced in Dhofar some two years ago until the night of the 19th July. On this night the communist insurgents decided to mount, against Mirbat, the largest most determined and best planned attack that they have launched in the whole campaign. From captured enemy personnel it has since become clear that they were confident of their success and that had they captured the town they intended to occupy it permanently and establish a seat of communist government in Dhofar. The political implications of such a dramatic turn of events need no further expansion.

At 0530 hours on the morning of the 19th July mortars started to rain in on the Mirbat Garrison. The Garrison was stood to and under Captain Kealy's direction commenced the battle for the town. For over 4 hours the communists pressed home their attack; they infiltrated the town; they destroyed the stone defences with Rocket Launcher and Mortar fire; they concentrated a major effort against the SAS personnel in the town; they closed to grenade range and fought with a ferocity, tenacity and blind dedication that is the mark of all Communist shock troops. They launched this attack with an estimated 250 men against a small garrison town whose defence was designed to repel attacks from no more than a dozen men acting without determination. It was only after 4 hours of continual and ferocious fighting that they finally admitted defeat and withdrew leaving behind some 40 wounded and killed. A subsequent radio intercept indicates that they suffered at least 86 casualties and subsequent reports indicate that this figure may be as high as 100 or more.

As stand-to positions were occupied Cpl Bennett immediately directed a counter-bombardment with the one 80 mm mortar available to the SAS. Despite the intensity of the fire Bennett climbed on to an exposed position on the roof of the SAS house so that he might better direct the mortar and ascertain the movements of the enemy. At an early stage Captain Kealy left the position for the Dhofar Gendarmerie Fort leaving Cpl Bennett in charge of the remaining 4 SAS soldiers; the mortar and the vital radio communications with Salalah. For the next 4 hours Bennett acted as Commander of the mortar detachment and as senior liaison officer with Salalah and the supporting SOAF strike forces. Although he had communications with Captain Kealy these were spasmodic due to the intensity of the fighting in Captain Kealy’s position: of necessity much responsibility fell on Bennett's shoulders.

During the initial and intense stages of the battle Bennett continued to direct the mortar with precision and determination. This included close support to the 25 pounder bunker. At one stage he was directing the mortar to within a few yards of his own troops well knowing the dangers if a bomb were to fall short.

In addition to this he summoned air support from Salalah and requested reinforcements which duly arrived. He personally directed the reinforcements to a safe area where they could deplane out of view of aimed fire. At the same time he directed the two Strikemaster jets with great effect, so much so that the pressure of the attack was greatly relieved by their activities. After the targets in the immediate surrounds of the town had been engaged as closely as possible Bennett then directed one aircraft onto the enemy occupying an overlooking Jebel some thousand metres away to the north. Again his calmness and his sure and confident appraisal of the tactical situation resulted in the most effective use of the limited aircraft available.

There can be no doubt that Bennett's disregard for his personal safety in order to ensure the maximum effect of the supporting arms contributed greatly to his accurate assessment of the situation and the effective employment of these arms. Bennett’s cool, decisiveness as a leader and his control of supporting fire and aircraft undoubtedly contributed, in no mean fashion, to the defeat of the enemy and to many of the casualties incurred during their withdrawal.’

The Battle of Mirbat, 19 July 1972

Few, if any, S.A.S. actions better portray the professionalism of the Regiment and the devastating damage just a handful of its men can inflict upon far superior enemy forces: surrounded by some 250 determined warriors of the Dhofar Liberation Front, the whole equipped with grenades and AK-47s (in addition to mortars, anti-tank rifles and rocket-launchers), this resilient nine-strong S.A.S. team, commanded by 23 year old Captain M. J. A. Kealy, in company with one Omani artilleryman, 30 odd Askaris from northern Oman (equipped with .303-inch rifles), and 25 men of the Dhofar Gendarmerie, managed to repulse a series of ferocious assaults over a period of two or three hours - by the time rescue arrived in the form of another S.A.S. Squadron, the rebels had left behind 30 dead and 10 wounded, versus allied losses of four dead and three seriously wounded (many other terrorist casualties were carried off the battlefield by their retreating comrades).

Kealy received an immediate D.S.O., while his men added a D.C.M. (Takavesi), an M.M. (Bennett) and a ‘mention’ to the Regiment’s hard-won tally of Honours and Awards. The ‘mention’ was a posthumous award to Sergeant Talaiyasi Labalaba, S.A.S., a Fijian, who, with the exception of just one mortar, manned the only artillery piece in their armoury, a Second World War-vintage 25-pounder, under a hail of fire until shot dead - the gun shield was found riddled with bullet holes, while the barrel was depressed through 45 degrees, Labalaba having engaged the opposition over open sights (his last message over the radio said “Enemy now very close. I’ve been chinned but I’m alright”): the campaign to have his ‘mention’ changed to a posthumous V.C. continues. A large bronze statue of Labalaba takes pride of place at the S.A.S. Headquarters to this day and as recently as 24 October 2018 the Duke and Duchess of Sussex unveiled a similar statue of ‘the forgotten hero’ in his native Fiji.

At the time of the enemy attack on 19 July 1972, the coastal village of Mirbat was a ‘desolate barbed-wire enclave ... a huddle of flat-topped houses and a couple of ancient, mud-walled forts flanked on two sides by sea, forty miles from the provincial capital, Salalah. Children and insects were numerous, but not much else’, excepting, of course, as Tony Geraghty describes in Who Dares Wins, the occasional terrorist mortar bomb that came sailing over the perimeter fence. The resident S.A.S. men, who were due to be airlifted out the following day, after three months of training work with local forces were possibly a little more relaxed than usual. Indeed as the enemy’s attack commenced in the early morning hours, Captain Kealy hastily donned a pair of flip-flops before ascending to the roof of “BATT” house to see what an earth was happening. It was, as Tony Geragthy so rightly observes, ‘the start of a battle as remarkable as that fought at Rorke’s Drift during the Zulu War.’

Many thousands of words have been written about the Battle of Mirbat in numerous publications and more recently two entire books on the action have been published, SAS Operation Storm, Nine Men Against Four Hundred In Britain’s Secret War, by Roger Cole (one of those present at Mirbat) and Richard Belfield, and Storm Front: The Extraordinary Story of a Secret War, The SAS’s Greatest Battle, and The British Pilots Who Saved Them, by Rowland White, from which the following extracts relating to Sergeant Bennett and his part in the action are taken:

‘At the opening of the action Bennett took his position at the top of the BATT house, an exposed position from where he could best survey the action as it unfolded. He was the eyes and ears for Fuzz, Tak and Tommy Tobin, all three down in the mortar pit, about ten yards away from the house. Laba was already cutting his way at speed through the mist to get to the 25-pounder gun…

From the roof Bob Bennett fired his British made SLR and in between called out the positions to the mortar pit. The SAS had one functioning mortar. The opposition had at least half a dozen.’

From his position in the forward hangar on the roof, Bob Bennett could make out the shape of a figure, nearly 800 yards away, holding down the barbed wire of the perimeter fence, his AK47 raised high, urging the men forward. Standing tall in a peaked cap and belts of ammunition criss-crossing his chest, inspiring and driving his troops on, he reminded Bennett of some kind of an image from a Communist propaganda poster. A hero of the revolution! Even Bennett had to admit it was a stirring sight. A brave man, he thought, but the SAS Sergeant was now in no doubt about what was at stake. Their aim, it was perfectly obvious now, must be to take the town. And that must meant taking us. Then in the back of his mind he remembered Aden; his thoughts paused on what had happened to Robin Edwards and Nick Warburton, the two SAS mendecapitated in the Radfan in 1964. And Bennett assumed that if the Adoo were allowed to overrun Mirbat, then the nine-man BATT team would suffer the same fate.

It’s a fair distance, he thought. The Adoo commander was on the limit of the SLR’s effective range, but Bennett was sniper-trained. He had a clear line of sight, there was no wind and he had a static target. He raised the rifle and took aim, squeezing the trigger and… crack… the stock kicked into his shoulder.

Missed, he chided himself, as the guerrilla continued pushing his men forward towards the fort. He took a breath then steadied himself and let the sight settle on his target. With the gentle squeeze from his index finger, the SLR cracked and recoiled again. Damn. The rebel remained in action; still straddling the wire; still rallying his assault force.

But Bennett wasn’t the sort of character to get needled by it. He was too cool, too experienced for that. He’d just take the next shot. He controlled his breathing, shut out the chaos of the battle raging around him and focused. Everything slowed down as he applied the smoothest of pressure to the rifle’s trigger; the only part of him that wasn’t completely still. Half a mile away, his target was unaware that he’d been singled out. The SLR jerked back as the 7.62mm round was fired down the length of the barrel, ripped into a fine spin by the rifling within. It left the muzzle at a speed of over 2,700 feet per second. A moment later, still travelling faster than the sound of the report from the gun that fired it, the sharp nosed bullet speared its target. The Adoo leader buckled and fell; another one of the bodies hanging like washing along the taut wire of the fence. But there were plenty more to take his place.’

Meanwhile the two Fijian SAS men, Laba and Takavesi were fighting a desperate battle of their own in the gun-pit, Laba eventually falling mortally wounded and Takavesi being also seriously wounded.

‘Standing at the bottom of the BATT House stairs, Captain Kealy was now faced with the pivotal moment of his military career. It was one of the toughest decisions any officer will ever face, regardless of how long they serve. There was a major crisis at the gun-pit but who should go? He quickly summed up the situation. “I don’t like it. It’s gone too quiet. Something’s happened over at the fort. If we lose the gun we’re in deep trouble.” He had already made up his mind. “I need a volunteer to come with me.”

The great tradition in the SAS right from the early days is the ‘Chinese Parliament’, a meeting where all voices are equal. They all knew that Laba was already injured and judging by the silence, Tak was also down. Immediately, everyone volunteered, with both Pete Warne and Bob Bennett arguing that they should go instead of the young Captain. Tempers were short but Kealy’s mind was made up. This was the moment he was about to go from being Captain Kealy to Boss Kealy. His argument was pure cool logic.

Pete Warne had to stay as he was the number one radio operator and their link to the outside world. With Laba out of action, Bob Bennett was now second in command and would be the man to run the battle once Kealy was over at the gun-pit. Bob was also the best man to direct the mortar. Of the three specialist medics, two were otherwise occupied so Tommy Tobin was the obvious choice…

Once Kealy had made his decision, Bob Bennett smiled and told Kealy that, if he insisted on going, he had better put his boots on before he set off. Like Tak, Mike Kealy still had his flip flops on, but unlike the Fijian, Mike was no rugby player.’

Dodging a hail of lead, Mike Kealy and Tommy Tobin somehow made it to the gun-pit, where they found Laba dead and Tak seriously wounded propped up against the edge of the gun-pit still firing his rifle. Tommy Tobin immediately set to work administering first aid but was himself shot and mortally wounded performing this courageous action. The enemy were closing in and the situation was desperate. It was imperative that the 25-pounder gun did not fall into enemy hands or it would be immediately turned on the BATT House and all would be lost.

‘With this in mind, Boss Kealy did something beyond all normal bounds of courage. Knowing how vulnerable they were in the gun-pit he called Bob Bennett and said, “Drop the mortars round the gun!” He knew the risks and so did Bob. The rebels were now so close that Fuzz Hussey could not fire the mortar on its tripod. Instead, he had to hold it with one arm wrapped round it so he could pull it back and rest it against his chest. With the other arm he then had to drop the mortar down the tube. This made it even harder to get an accurate shot off.

Bob Bennett could see how close the rebels were to the gun. Something needed to be done. He shouted down to Fuzz, “Put the rounds as close as you can to the gun!” Fuzz Hussey already thought the world was going crazy and this confirmed it. He thought, “What kind of a fucking fire order is that?”

If Fuzz Hussey got it wrong he would kill his boss, his close friends, Tak, Tommy Tobin and Walis Khamis in the gun-pit. But still he went for it. The mortar flew through the morning air and dropped thirty yards north of the gun, near where the rebels were gathered. Fuzz Hussey was one of the great mortar men of his generation and this was the finest round he had ever fired. It scattered the rebel forces - they had never expected anything like that.’

The turning point in the Battle of Mirbat came with the arrival of Strikemaster Jets from the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force followed on the ground by the relieving force made up of members of G Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment.

Peter Warne and Takavesi, gives some account of this and Bob Bennett’s part in directing the air strike in SAS, The Soldier’s Story, by Jack Ramsay:

Peter Warne: “Get on the set and call for reinforcements,” Bob said, amazingly calm. My resolve stiffened even more, if possible, by the death of Laba, I ran back down to the radio room, keyed my call sign again, got the acknowledgement and sent the bad news: 'Laba dead. Sekonia VIS. Tobin VIS. Situation desperate. Send reinforcements. Over.'

A hesitation, then I was asked to send a wet rep [weather report]. I yelled in frustration, jumped up and looked out of the door, saw the limp flags and the low cloud and reported back. No sooner had I got back on the roof than we saw two Strikemaster jets breaking through the cloud. They streaked at about 80 feet over the town. Roger appeared at the wall. He had been controlling them. He thought a casevac chopper was arriving and he was directing it with his small air-to-ground radio. Instead the jets had appeared.

“The seventh cavalry has arrived,” he yelled, and disappeared. Bob grabbed the radio. “Hello, Red Leader,” he said. “This is Batt House. Enemy left and right of the fort. Over.” The voice of the pilot crackled back a “roger”. 'How long have they been going at you?” “Since dawn.” It was now 0815 hours. “Roger, Batt House. They’re like ants down there. I can see hundreds of them.”

The adoo now turned their attention to the jets as the first strafing runs were made. The first jet went into a vertical dive, spraying the left perimeter fence; the other put two rockets into the wadi to the right Then they came back again with bullets, rockets and a 500-kilogram bomb loosed into the wadi to the east of the fort. One of the jets was hit in the tail section and limped away. The other made one final run and then it too was off. The jubilation was short-lived, however, because now we could hear firing behind us to the east. The adoo had regrouped and were counterattacking.

Then came two more Strikemasters on strafing runs. Bob directed them to Jebel Ali and the back of the fort. “It looks hot down there,” said one pilot. “Roger, Red Leader,” said Bob. “Sheets of lead.” The jets disposed of the sangars on the top of the hill, then rocketed the top of the hill until it disintegrated, then they came back to the fort and strafed the adoo with rockets and tracer.’

Takavesi: ‘In the gun pit I thought the screaming of the jets was the best sound I had ever heard. I looked at the sky and I could hear the roar of the jets coming in and I think that's the only thing that saved us at the time. I overheard Bob Bennett telling the pilot on the radio : “I say, look, just fire whenever you can or hit the fort.” They came more or less right on top of us. The pilots were briefed to fire willy-nilly, just to hit the side of the fort. Anything to the other side of the fort towards the plain was enemy, anything on this side towards the coast was friendly forces. They came in very low, I'd say about 50, 100 feet and I'm sure the pilots could have seen everything. It wasn't over, though. I could see figures on the eastern skyline about 2,000 metres away, a disciplined-looking bunch. I lined the front sight blade on the leader. Okay, maybe I was down to single shots, but a single shot was all I needed to get rid of the officer leading them. Bob was following my gaze. We waited, then he told me to go down again and get a sit rep from base.

It was the best news I'd heard. The little black dots on the skyline were G Squadron. When I got back to Bob, he'd already guessed and had sent Fuzz with the other medical pack to the gun pit. Then he picked up his SLR and began sniping at the retreating enemy. And I followed suit with the Browning. I began to wonder how it had happened, why we had not been warned by the ‘green slime’ (Intelligence Corps), then I turned to see a Huey chopper take off from the gun pit and come towards us. It landed a few feet away from the building, but before I could take a look I was ordered downstairs to help with the casevac. The ground floor was like an abattoir, littered with the wounded, stinking of piss, sweat and blood; flies were all over the place. There were plenty of the old Askaris from the wali's fort and they all had the same skin wounds on the scalps where rounds had grazed them as they popped their heads over the wall. Some had more than one wound. Another centimetre and they would have been dead. Amazing wounds. Then there was an adoo with a dreadful throat wound. He was making a terrible sucking sound. Even now in my front room in Hereford I can still hear that horrible sound. He died later.

I looked out and saw the chopper pilot gesturing me to come over. He wanted me to check the bodies in the back to find out which one was ours. There were six on stretcher racks. I pulled the blanket off the nearest and saw an Arab with his head caved in; then a young one, maybe seventeen - I couldn't see the wound, just the dead, open eyes. The third was face down, lying on the crook of his arm. I attempted to roll the body over but rigor mortis had set in. It was solid. I then had to lever the whole body up, using the elbow, and as I did so I could just see Laba's features. The jaw line had been shot away but I could tell it was Laba by his eyes. They were still open. It was like a sledgehammer blow to the morale. I was still hyped up after the battle but all feelings of exhilaration disappeared in a flash. Here was a man I'd drunk with, fought with, laughed with... and here he was, laid out on a stretcher, stiff as a board. It was just too much. I was engulfed with sorrow at the loss of such a comrade.

Tommy Tobin died of his wound. The guerrillas left behind thirty bodies and ten wounded, although sources later indicated that the casualties had been much higher, probably half the force having been killed or wounded. Mirbat was the beginning of the end of the rebellion, the adoo having received a loss of credibility along with their casualties, and they never again deployed such a large attacking force.’

Sold with copy of original recommendation and Certificate of Service ‘Red Book’.