General Sir Mike Jackson, redoubtable and straight-talking former head of the British Army
The TelegraphAfter a spell with 15 Para, a TA battalion, in 1976 he went to Staff College. As one of a small number of Russian speakers he was chosen to go on a trip to Moscow, where he visited Frunze, the Russian staff college. Jackson noticed that the British military attaché, who was one of their party and whose job it was to take every opportunity to find out as much as he could about the Soviet armed forces, was surreptitiously counting the coat hooks in the hall. “My dear Brigadier,” he said with a smile, “Five hundred and sixty-four.” In 1977, Jackson took up an appointment as Chief of Staff of the Berlin Infantry Brigade. The South Armagh IRA specialised in long-range sniper fire on foot patrols and exploding roadside bombs by command wire or radio signals as the Security Force vehicles drove by.
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