For three decades one of the most secretive units in the British military has not been the SAS or SBS: it has been a mystery force known variously as the Shadow Wing, the Black Unit or X Platoon.
Officially there was no X Platoon. The sixty men in its elite number were culled from units across the Armed Forces, at which point they simply ceased to exist. X Platoon had no budget, no weaponry, no vehicles and no kit - apart from what its men could beg, borrow or steal from other military units.
For the first time ever a highly decorated veteran of this shadow force - who served as its Platoon Sergeant - reveals its history. From anti-narcotics operations in the Guatemalan jungles, to hunting war criminals in the war-torn hills of the Balkans, from being sent to war against the Russian military to calling in the largest parachute-borne force since the Second World War, Steve Heaney was at the cutting edge of X Platoon operations. The first non-officer in the British Army ever to win the Military Cross, he reveals the extraordinary missions undertaken by this tiny force of elite operators.