Harvey Black is the author of the Devils With Wings series and The Red Effect, the first of a new series of novels set during a fictional Warsaw Pact invasion of West Germany in 1984. He is a qualified parachutist, and served with British Army intelligence for over ten years.
Russell Phillips: Can you give us a brief summary of your career in the army?
Harvey Black: Hi Russell
Thank you for the invite. I joined the Army in 1979, so my service was very much focussed around Northern Ireland and the Cold War. I cut my teeth in the Army with an Armoured Brigade in West Germany. I did three tours in NI, one conducting covert surveillance around Belfast and the other two as a Liaison Officer. For that I travelled around NI, visiting various Army units, coordinating the use of the Intelligence resources available, such as the RAF and Army Air Corps. I remember one tour I had a gold coloured Ford Capri (Except for going to Crossmaglen, that was by helicopter). I used to carry a Walther PPK, 9mm Browning and a Remington 7-shot shotgun (or alternately an MP-5) for protection.
The Cold War element consisted of Intelligence gathering in East Berlin during the 80s, where I was dragged from my vehicle and attacked by KGB soldiers, and covert surveillance in West Germany against KGB, Spetsnaz sleepers and the like.
