Access to the block is by two doors, one at either end; there are two lifts, also one at either end, and two staircases, east and west, as well as an external metal fire- escape on each end wall. The numbers of the apartments start from one in the east and rise to nine in the west, and incorporate the floor number as the first digit, so no. 57 is the seventh flat from the eastern end on the fifth floor.
Behind the building, on the south side, lies a scruffy, narrow open space which passes for a garden. This is bounded on its long side by a six-foot brick wall, separating it from the next street to the south, Longfield Drive, and at the eastern end an alleyway that provides a short-cut between Ellerton load and Longfield.
(Although I wasn't present during the raid, I got the following details from Fraser and from the guys who took part. Because I'd been on similar operations as a member of the SP team, I could piece together the sequence of events in what I hope is an accurate reconstruction.)
By the afternoon of Wednesday 2 June, while Tony and I were doing our recce at Chequers, SB sources had assembled a fat file of information on the suspect flat.
The freehold belonged to an oil engineer, Ernest Wilson, but he'd gone off to work in Venezuela the previous October, letting the apartment fully furnished for a year to a mancalled Bingham. Suspicion about the tenants had hardened when a Special Branch investigator discovered that the monthly rent of 400 pounds was being paid into the local branch of Lloyds Bank in cash, and in irregular amounts (in November 1,200 pounds had arrived — the first payment in more than two months).
Because of the layout of the building it was im possible to maintain a continuous close-in watch on individual apartments. Surveillance had to be main tained mostly from outside, from vans or other build ings, because any stranger lurking about the corridors or on the stairs would immediately have attracted atten tion. One known IRA player, thirty-year-old Danny Aherne, described as a travelling salesman, had been seen to enter the building several times during the last days of May. He always went in through the eastern entrance, took the lift to the seventh floor, and dis appeared into no. 72, where he had an apparently legitimate arrangement renting a bed-sit from the family that lived there. Yet the mere fact that he was resident in Cumberland House focused the police attention sharply on the block.
When the DF vans had begun tracing PIRA mobile phone calls to the area, the janitor, Stan, had un fortunately fallen ill with a viral infection and was replaced by an SB stand-in called Tom. By dallying with his mop and bucket on the top floor corridor, the new man discovered that Aherne often left no. 72 a few minutes after arriving home from a shopping trip still carrying his supermarket bag, nipped down the stairs to the fifth floor, and slipped into no. 57.
In the early evening of 1 June, with the PIRA deadline approaching, SB decided that it was essential to evacuate the occupants of no. 58 and take the flat over for their own purposes. Fortunately the only person at home was Edith Treadgold, an elderly spinster addicted to detective novels, of which she had hundreds arranged in glass-fronted bookcases. Normally she lived there with a companion, but that day the friend had gone to stay with relations. When Miss Treadgold suddenly found herself called on by a woman detective sergeant she was at first horrified, but then openly thrilled to be caught up in a real-life drama. She needed little persuasion to pack a few things into an overnight bag, surrender her keys, go down in the lift and take the waiting taxi, which bore her off to a comfortable hotel room for the night.
One by one, a team of specialists filtered into the block, using both entrances and taking the lifts to different floors before working their way up or down to no. 58. They were surprised to find that Miss Treadgold had another addiction besides Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie: when they pulled back a sofa into the middle of the room to get at the party wall, they exposed a sizeable collection of magazines dedicated to bondage and flagellation.
By chasing up the owner of the flat through Interpol contacts, the SB had established a clear picture of the layout of no. 57. Inside the front door was a central lobby, with the kitchen off it to the left, and the bathroom and a separate toilet to the right. Beyond the bathroom, having a common wall with no. 58, was the main bedroom, which had a window on the south face of the block. Next to it was a smaller bedroom, also with a south-facing window, and next to that the sitting room and dining area, which abutted the kitchen at its inner end.
The windows were old-fashioned and made of wood, and the doors of the bedrooms opened inwards, away from the central lobby. Monitoring of the water and electricity supplies had suggested that at least four people were living in the flat, even though none had been seen to come out, and the only known visitor was Aherne. The regular telephone line remained unused; during the past week not a single call had gone in or out.
At first the listening devices were frustrated by television sound, but at one point the eavesdroppers picked up the noise of a child crying and a woman shouting at him or her to be quiet. The sounds caught by the microphones strongly suggested that the hostages were being held in the main bedroom, so it was into that wall that the drill had started to bite.
Meanwhile two six-man teams, Red and Blue, from the Regiment's counter-terrorist unit, were standing by in their holding base at Hounslow Barracks, a few minutes' drive to the south. As always in emergencies of this kind, control remained in the hands of the police, and would do so until the final moment before an assault went in. “But during the evening the CO and the ops officer flew up from Hereford by chopper to take overall command of the military element of the operation, installing themselves in a control room established in Police Headquarters at Hendon.
Further up the chain, an open-ended meeting was in progress at COBR, the Cabinet Office Briefing Room underground in Whitehall, where the director of the SAS, a brigadier, was liaising with senior representatives of the Metropolitan Police, the Home Office and the Prime Minister's personal staff.
In no. 58 drilling continued all night. As Yorky reported to me, the first probe, which went through at 2315, proved ineffective because its view was blocked by furniture. The second, higher up, penetrated the wall of the main bedroom by 0320, near the corner with the outer wall, but by then the room was dark and for the time being nothing could be seen. It was only at 0405, when one of the occupants got up to go to the home was Edith Treadgold, an elderly spins' to detective novels, of which she had hun in glass-fronted bookcases. Normally sleep with a companion, but that day the friend stay with relations. When Miss Tre found herself called on by a woman So she was at first horrified, but then caught up in a real-life drama. So., suasion to pack a few things surrender her keys, go down I am waiting taxi, which bore her room for the night.
One by one, a team of block, using both entrances different floors. They were surprised, he had another addiction to Agatha Christie: whether middle of the room exposed a sizeable bondage and flag. By chasing contacts, the layout of no lobby, with bathroom main be of the with room inner end.
The windows wood, and the doors of away from the central lobby and electricity supplies had sugges other equipment clank against lut on the roof, among the dish;hafts, they sought anchor-points they could abseil down and come of no. 57. Simultaneously the quietly up the eastern staircase to along the corridor and back where they slipped silently into no.
Snipers crawled on to the roof of a commanded a view of Cumberland,nt. Their primary role was to report hostage fiat's windows, which had
One (the main bedroom), Two (the and Three (the sitting room). A was to watch the windows of no. 72 for When the raid went down, the snipers as cover and take out any terrorist who e from that side of the building. Also hidden in the drive of a private house, reception van, with another six guys on board. Their job would be to and whisk everyone away from the scene the moment the assault was all these sources quick reports flowed in over net. 'Sierra One,' called the lead sniper.