Sergeant Ian 'Percy' Suttil from Uttley. His Father kept the 'Royal Oak' Rotheram. A J/mne who went through about 1965-ish. Known to have served in 42Cdo. Married a girl from the NAFF. Later joined Rhodesian SAS, unfortunately he was killed in Action while patrolling the Mozambique border 30th Janary 1981. Sadly his parents could get no information on the death of their Son as all ties with the country were cut because of UDI.
Rhodesian Roll of Honour
Personal Information on Ian
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Article by Terry Bell
However he was recruited, Bacon’s range of special skills ensured that he was attached directly to the Military Intelligence directorate — the Directorate of Covert Collection — as an agent and operative. He reported ultimately to At Nel as the head of the East Front desk that was responsible for actions in and information from Mozambique. But he was also available for service in other areas and did travel, both within Africa and Europe. His very first operation appears to have been within months of returning to South Africa. He was sent into the Mozambique capital, Maputo to pinpoint, probably with the aid of established ‘Rhodesian’ informers in the Frelimo government’s security forces, the houses used by South African ANC personnel. This led to ‘Operation Beanbag’. The attack column drove into the Mozambique capital, Maputo, and attacked and destroyed three houses used by the ANC. The police provided the basic information about the houses to be attacked. SB Colonel Jac Buchner and Major Callie Steijn of Military Intelligence were responsible for overall planning. A former Rhodesian Special Air Services officer, Garth Barrett, was in command of the column. A DCC operative from Maputo, apparently Henry Bacon, drove into South Africa to give the final briefing to Barrett before the column moved into Mozambique and Maputo. There they attacked and destroyed the houses. Sixteen ANC members, a Portuguese electrical company engineer, Jose Ramos who happened to be driving by, and three Recces died in the raid. Two of the Recces, Robert Hutchinson and Ian Suttill, were British, all were SAS members who had fled independent Zimbabwe. Terry Bell
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Article from Henning
The ANC and Frelimo propaganda machines went into action the following day, Foreign correspondents were shown the body of Sergeant Robert Hutchinson, and to reinforce the stereotype image of South African soldiers as Nazi?s, a swastika had been daubed on his helmet, the same had been done with Sergeant Suttil and Corporal Park's helmets and kit in addition to the swastikas the words "Sieg Heil" had been added, just in case somebody missed the point. In South Africa the afternoon English Daily "The Star" had pictures of this crude propaganda on its front page that afternoon, the Rand Daily Mail followed suite the following morning. Frelimo also accused the South African soldiers of mutilating the bodies of those killed during the raid, and a number of mutilated bodies were put on display to substantiate this, unfortunately they did not explain when the South Africans found the time to do this, seeing how constrained by time they were during the raid. Henning (full article worth reading)
