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Auction: 21001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals (conducted behind closed doors)
Lot: 701

(x) Five: Lance-Corporal C. T. F. Hands, 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, an experienced specialist operator who gave an insightful first hand account of Operation Barras, 2000

General Service 1962-2007, 1 clasp, Northern Ireland (25013882 Pte C T F Hands Para); N.A.T.O. Medal 1994, 1 clasp, Kosovo; Operational Service Medal 2000, for Sierra Leone, with rosette (25013882 LCpl C T F Hands Para); Iraq 2003-11, 1 clasp, 19 Mar to 28 Apr 2003 (25013882 LCpl T F Hands Para); Jubilee 2002, first two mounted court-style as worn, backing and pin removed, good very fine (5)

Clifford Thomas Francis Hands - or Cliff to his friends and comrades - was born on 10 March 1973 and enlisted at Dunfermline on 5 February 1992. Joining the Parachute Regiment, he served with the 1st Battalion Rifle Company and then joined the Patrol Platoon. Having served in Northern Ireland and Kosovo, Hands completed the Special Air Service Long Range Recce with Resistance to Interrogation Course in Germany in 1998 and broke his wrist whilst in the process of SAS Selection in 2000. Recovered from his wound, he was next deployed to Sierra Leone. Hands takes up the story in his own words:

'At the end of August 2000 eveny man who was in Jamaica deployed on an exercise in South Cerney. We spent a few days there up until 4 September, we were then told we were going to go in with a deliberate attack on the West Side Boys. We flew from Brize Norton to Dakka in Senegal where we shacked up in an old hanger at the end of an international runway being eaten alive by mosquitos whilst prepping ammunition and weapons. We then flew by Hercules on 6 September to Lungi Airport (night flight) then we boarded 4 tonners from the back of the Herc, being a covert operation no smoking, talking, lights etc whilst in convoy to Hastings Camp in the African jungle so know one knew there was a big ex fill of troops into the country (especially the media), but the media was tipped off that something was going on, but not to say anything until told to. We/I spent 3 days in Hastings zeroing weapons going through drills etc, then on 10 September we got the go ahead from Tony Blair approx 0300hrs, which was a relief for the Mi6 agent who was a gorgeous 6ft blond woman, a woman who looked like and dressed like a typical secretary for a company MD, the last thing you would expect to see in a camp in the jungle, the blokes and myself of course were all distracted by drooling during training and meal times.

At about 0430hrs we boarded the Chinooks and headed over the skies flanked by attack Lynx gun ships, the CRT were giving live updated on our approach. As we approached the target area the Lynx let rip its mini guns firing into the stolen wimmin vehicle with the 50cal still on it, as this could be used against us. We came down just hovering the grass jumping out straight out into a waist high swamp. At this point that didn't matter as we came under small arms fire, as we took the village our OC and 2 of the radio ops got hit with an enemy mortar, this causing shrapnel in the OCs leg and taking out Dave the radio operators backside and part of his hand. They were extracted via Chinook to HMS RFA Argyll which was used as the Medical Field Hospital.

At the end of the attack the total body count was 24 but we saw so many blood trails going into the jungle, so we could not tell how many to be precise. We then extracted by Chinook to Hastings where we then all de-kitted and flew Chinook direct to Argyll where we had chill time them debriefed and cheers all round speech by Army Chief of Staff. Then we flew to Lungi, boarded a DC10 and flew back too Lyneham and back to Dover.'

Hands saw further service during the invasion of Iraq and also completed specialist training with the Oman Special Forces, French and American Parachute training and was briefly handed a field Commission whilst on a joint international expedition to scale Nanda Devi, which stands at 7,816m and is India's second highest peak. Leaving the British Army on 17 February 2004, he took up private security work. Again in his own words:

'I gave myself 3 chances. Chance 1 was escorting a VIP from the airport to Baghdad the most dangerous road in the world when an RPG went across the bonnet of the car and exploded into the side of the road. Chance 2 was a mortar attack on us at a power plant, Baghdad. Chance 3 was an ambush on our convoy at Bayji, Northern Iraq at 2am in the morning as a night move seemed safer by higher command, we lost two vehicles due to road side bombds our Iraqi interpreter was shot in the leg, I was blown off the road in an explosion, it was one big fire fight. So I decided the kids need a Dad, not one in the ground, like a lot of close friends I have lost out there.'

Sold together with original Certificate of Service, certificate on award of his Parachute Wings, dated 7 August 1992, a plethora of photos of his career, besides related miniature awards, cloth Parachute Badges, French Parachute Wings, officially numbered '593026' to reverse and other copied research and his own career biography.

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Sold for
£5,000

Starting price
£1400