David MB Brown MBE BEM
David MB Brown
MBE BEM
David Brown served in the British Army for almost forty years and between1969 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 Corps and received a commission, eventually reaching the rank of major. During which time he was awarded the BEM (British Empire Medal Military Division) and MBE (Member of the British Empire Military Division).
Biography
David was born in Cambridge, England on a cold winter’s day in January 1947 in the notorious area known as The Kite, living in a two up-two down, Victorian slum.
He left school at the age of fifteen and joined the army, working his way up through the ranks and finally getting a Late Entry Commission as an officer. After forty years of service he retired at the age of fifty five and became a professional mountaineering instructor. Retiring again at the age of sixty nine he took up the pen and started writing books based on his experiences.
Chronology
2019
David Brown
The Wolves of the Radfan
2022
David Brown
Hard Rain
2023
David Brown
The Darkness
2025
David Brown
Run if you Want to Live
Books
The Wolves of the Radfan
David Brown
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.
Hard rain
David Brown
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.
The Darkness
David Brown
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!
Next
Run! If you Want to Live.
David Brown
Chapter 1 – Ireland 1975
Run!
It was dark and Bomber knew he had to find shelter. Even the voice in his head was telling him but he was too exhausted to answer. He was soaked to the skin, cold and shivering and beginning to stumble, not knowing if he was going in a straight line or circles. How long he had been running for he no longer knew, except that he had to keep going. The rain was now driving horizontally and turning more into sleet, freezing him to his very core. The fertiliser bag he had been using to help keep the rain out had been torn to shreds by the many hedge rows and bushes he had forced his way through.
The blow, when it came, took him completely by surprise and it was a minute before he realised he had run into something big and hard. Lying on his back in the mud and the dark he felt strangely at peace. Sleep seemed the right thing to do. “Leave me alone, blast you!” Bomber heard himself say but the voice in his head kept telling him to get up and fight and just wouldn’t shut up. When he tried to get up his legs were like jelly and wouldn’t work, so he dragged himself forward until he felt the hard stone wall that had stopped him in his tracks. Now he could hear a strange hysterical laughter that wouldn’t stop. Using the wall for support to gain his feet he shook his head and the voice asked “What are you laughing at, you stupid shit?”
The laughing stopped when he coughed and spat out the blood in his mouth. Groping along the wall he came to a door and as he fumbled at the handle the door swung open. He fell in and lay on the stone floor which felt strangely warm. He felt, rather than heard, the door shut as the wind and sleet no longer touched him. His eyes started to close and he knew his strength was spent.
“Get up!” the voice was gruff, Irish and insistent.
“Can’t!” croaked Bomber, knowing he was finished, that they had found him and that this was the end.