Des Powell on mobility training in Africa during his SAS days (Image: Des Powell/Quercus)
It was supposed to be an ordinary day out, just a father in the car with his three teenagers – then everything changed. “There was a collision just ahead,” recalls Des Powell, the memory still vivid. “I’d seen enough crashes to know something wasn’t right. And suddenly one of the cars burst into flames. It’s lucky I was there because the occupants were in shock, so I grabbed the doors and got them out. They needed to get away from the car.”
Where most of us might have frozen or fumbled for our phones, Des – who served 20 years with the SAS, the UK’s most elite fighting force – did what he’d been trained to do: stay calm, think clearly.
And act fast, even with his own children watching, by drawing on the training and experience that has ensured his survival undercover in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones and most unforgiving terrains in the world. He remembers: “I told two of my kids to stay put, and just said to the eldest, ‘Do what I tell you to do’.”
As flames licked up beneath the bonnet, Des moved fast. After urging the stunned passengers to safety, he and his son directed traffic and shouted for people to move clear.
Years of combat training had taught him the most important lesson of all: Stay aware. “People don’t realise how spatially unaware they get in a crisis,” he explains. “They freeze.”
This was real life. No uniform. No kit. Just a father who knew exactly how to help, what to do, and how to direct his young son’s involvement. “Your brain just works quicker under pressure,” he tells me as he shares the dramatic story. “It’s not that we’re better, it’s just training and exposure. I still get scared and feel the butterflies, but I’m trained to act.”
Des loved his tea breaks even when camouflaged (Image: Des Powell/Quercus)
His specialist knowledge has inspired him to write his new book, My Trial By Fire. It reveals how military training isn’t just for the battlefield, but is a blueprint for facing life’s emergencies and can also transform the way we face life’s daily pressures.
And here was the perfect example… not behind enemy lines but on a British roadside, with his own children, now aged 30, 28 and 20, watching. Thanks to Des, no one was injured that day. His instincts had been honed during his service with distinction in both the Parachute Regiment and the SAS, a 28-year-long career in which he helped to execute some of the most dangerous, clandestine operations across Northern Ireland, the Middle East, South America, Africa and the Balkans.
These missions included 10 days behind enemy lines during the first Gulf War, in the biting desert cold of January 1991, when his cover – eight-man SAS patrol Bravo Three Zero – crept across the desert under cover of darkness. Des was second-in-command.
Their mission was to gather intelligence that would enable coalition forces to neutralise Saddam Hussein’s Scud missile launches before they could cause World War Three.
“We were told we’d be heavily involved. Three squadrons were sent to Saudi Arabia. Scuds were being fired into neighbouring countries, including Israel, which was threatening to join the war.
“Our job was to be dropped 200 miles behind enemy lines and hunt for these mobile rockets, before there was a major escalation. For 10 days, we provided covert intelligence for air strikes while evading detection. We used to joke, ‘We’re out here to stop World War Three’, but deep down we knew it might be a one-way trip. There was dark humour, yes – but also pride in our mission. Only when we got back to HQ did we learn it had succeeded.”
His first book, co-written with top military historian Damien Lewis, detailed this mission and was a bestseller. The latest has a unique new tone.
Des performing a one arm press-ups while in the Paras (Image: Des Powell/Quercus)
Unlike most SAS books, it is intentionally relatable, linking the Special Forces mindset to real-life situations – such as a wedding speech rather than an armoured ambush, or the overwhelming sight of a mountain of holiday laundry, rather than a 20km hike across enemy territory. These “takeaways” – as Des calls them – are his response to an invitation from his publisher to write a book about personal development.
“I didn’t want to go full-on with that,” says Des, 69. “So I suggested telling stories with lessons learned, and they were good with it. It’s a mish-mash of what I picked up in the military and travelling the world. Academia wasn’t for me, but my experiences taught me common sense.” This is an understatement of considerable proportion.
Born in Sheffield, Des was brought up to respect his grandfather, who had fought in the First World War, and his father. Both men were dead before he was 10.
“But they had set me on the right path. Sheffield was quite a rough place, but my mum and dad loved me as much as they could and stopped me going down the wrong path,” he says with gratitude and respect.
After leaving school at 16 – “ridiculously young”, he says – he stacked shelves in a supermarket, worked as a butcher and grafted in a steelworks. But it was while working on a building site near Poole harbour in Dorset that he saw Royal Navy Marines trucks in the town and, encouraged by friends, spoke to an Army careers officer who suggested he apply to the Parachute Regiment.
He served eight years before volunteering for the SAS, where eventually he became the Unarmed Combat and Fitness instructor for B Squadron. He pioneered and implemented HALO, or High Altitude Low Opening – whereby a parachutist free-falls for a lengthy period before opening the parachute at low altitude – and other covert airborne entry techniques, allowing airborne special forces personal to secretly arrive on enemy territory from high-altitude aircraft.
An immensely modest man, Des wears his achievements lightly. When I ask what was the most significant moment of being deployed in Iraq behind enemy lines as part of Bravo Three Zero, he shares the frustration of watching bombs falling on Baghdad and being powerless to intervene.
“We were in vehicles in the desert and could see the flashes, the bombs, and the aircraft coming in. We were just out there, watching like spectators, and you feel you want to do something, but you can’t,” he recalls. “You know people are dying, and you know it’s not soldiers getting killed, so you felt a sense of helplessness, really.”
Skydiving with the boys (Image: Des Powell/Quercus)
The next evening it happened again, and this strengthened their resolve to continue their covert intelligence mission.
“We had a kind of chat and said what we can do is focus on our mission, because it will help prevent more innocent people getting killed. And if World War Three comes about, that’s going to be a catastrophe, so we knew our work was getting more important as each day wore on.”
And although it was the Bravo Two Zero unit, captained by author Andy McNab, whose actions on the same undercover mission became famous through his bestselling memoir when they were captured, Des feels only pride in McNab’s literary success.
“We’re all part of the brotherhood. We all know each other, and we were all trying our best, against extreme odds, to produce a positive outcome,” he says. “We often joke that we’ve all come through the same ‘sausage factory’; the same gruelling selection process with the simulated interrogations, to do a very difficult job that is not for everyone, so whenever we talk to [fellow former members of the SAS], we always say ‘be good and stay safe’ and we mean it sincerely.
“We are a brotherhood and some of our guys have made the ultimate sacrifice. Respect underscores everything we do.”
● SAS: My Trial By Fire – True Stories and Life Lessons from SAS Selection by Des Powell (Quercus, £22) is published on June 5
Des Powell’s advice can help with public speaking (Image: Getty Images)
Des Powell’s ‘takeaways’ to navigating life’s challenges
The wedding speech
Knowledge dispels fear, and nowhere is that principle illustrated better than in learning how to throw yourself out of an aeroplane. Your fear asks, ‘What if the chute doesn’t open?’ but trust in systems comes from understanding the system. My advice, therefore, is to take the first steps towards overcoming fear by understanding how it ticks. So, if you have to do a speech at a wedding, arrive early at the venue and get a feel for the room. Familiarising yourself with fear chips away at it.
How to prepare for a day in front of a computer
The discipline of the military way of life can seem strange. It isn’t. It’s a simple, common-sense pragmatic approach to the business of being. A good soldier will do the basics well, because when things get scary that’s where you’ll go: back to basics. So, get up in plenty of time to make your bed, eat a good breakfast, do some exercise and tidy your desk. Do the basics well and the rest will follow.
Why you should always iron your shirt
Being tidy brings everyone up to the same (high) standards. Nothing in life is done without order or structure, and that starts with being organised and tidy. If you are organised in your appearance, it will spill over into your work and family life.
Holiday laundry
In life, things will happen that you would rather avoid. That could be something as simple and mundane as getting back from holiday and washing all those dirty clothes rather than letting them go mouldy on your bedroom floor. Step up and take action or things will only get worse. It is better to do something than nothing at all.