Transcript: Rescue

Audio transcript

Corporal Ian Getty: ​

Basically, they'd been told... that was one of their things: no helicopters over the top of them. So there'd been no helicopters for 17 days basically since it happened, bar that first one at the start. But that day we heard the helicopter in the morning and it woke everyone up, so it was quite close. And we could hear the West Side Boys starting to get up and hear it. And it turned around and we could hear it going away and so obviously we were  quite relieved because they said they were going to shoot us if a helicopter comes over.

Then we heard it turning back and this time it just did the full run-in and just opened up with the guns. And then, it must have been about 10 seconds later, they were kicking the door in. The guy just says, 'Stay there. Stay down.' Then you heard them say there was some fighting outside. Then it was about 40 minutes before they got us out.

We stayed in that room just. And the boss got a pistol they gave to him and we just stayed in the room. Then in 40 minutes they came and got us all in a line, ran up to another house where they had like a big football pitch where they were landing the helicopters, into the helicopter and away.

All the fighting was being done in the jungle round the sides. Anyone in the village was dead. You could still hear them fighting just outside the village, but we were only running 200m, then we were back into the house, and then almost [...] the chopper again.