Veterans of the SAS have launched a campaign to win posthumous Victoria Crosses for two unsung heroes who died fighting a forgotten battle against overwhelming odds during a secret war. Prince William, acting in an unofficial capacity, has unveiled a statue to one of the heroes inside the SAS’s camp at Hereford. But the life-size bronze figure was paid for by an American multi-million­aire, the public cannot see it and there have been no medals for the two men who died in a conflict at the height of the cold war.

The survivors of the battle of Mirbat in Oman in July 1972 have dubbed it the SAS’s Rorke’s Drift, a reference to the stand by British soldiers against the Zulus in 1879 Like Queen Victoria’s soldiers, the nine SAS men who defended their camp in a fisherman’s house close to the Omani port of Mirbat were out­numbered by more than 25 to 1 “The difference being that our Zulus were all armed with AK-47s instead of spears,” said Roger Cole, 67, then a corporal and now the co-author of a new book, SAS Operation Storm (Hodder & Stoughton), about the battle in which he raked the enemy with machinegun fire from the roof.

He and his fellow soldiers were attacked by at least 400 communist guerrillas determined to seize the port. They were awaken before dawn by mortar fire as the Russian-backed rebels used dried-out wadis like trenches to try to sneak upon the British positions. Sergeant Talaiasi Labalaba, 30, a Fijian known to his com­rades-in-arms as “Laba”, aimed, loaded and fired a 251b field gun—which usually has a crew of four – on his own for an hour to keep them at bay. Finally an incoming round smashed his face and jaw and he dropped, mortally wounded, into a gun-pit full of empty shell cases. Trooper Thomas Tobin, 24, ran 700 yards across the battle­field, firing and moving in a manoeuvre known as “pepper potting” to reach him before he was himself shot in the head with an AK-47 round.

Both men are buried yards from each other under a cypress tree in the SAS church­yard in Hereford. Laba was men­tioned in dispatches, the lowest honour that can be awarded. Tobin received nothing. Their bravery helped the SAS to win the six-hour battle which left 200 of the enemy dead or badly wounded. But the outcome was far more signifi­cant than the bodies lying in the sand.

The SAS had been invited to Oman by the sultan to help his small army put down the insur­gency. They operated under the pseudonym of the British Army Training Team. If the guerrillas had won that day, they would have gone on to take control of the Strait of Hormuz through which 90% of the world’s oil flowed. It would have given the Soviet Union a strategic stranglehold on the region.

 When the smoke cleared, Cole – who had broken off briefly mid-battle to feed the SAS’s pet cats from a tin of fish – helped to tend three of the enemy’s wounded, feeding cheese to one. Their hands touched. Cole said last week: “He looked at me. He spoke perfect English. He said: ‘How many friends have you lost today? I said one, maybe two. He said he had lost a brother and a cousin. We welled up. We had tears in our eyes. They weren’t like the baddie enemy then. We had a common bond.”

The SAS believes the lack of recognition for Laba and Tobin is linked to their backgrounds. Laba was one of 50 Fijians who had been recruited, like Gurkhas, to fight in the British Army; Tobin was the son of poor Irish immigrants who had started his military career in the catering corps. Cole said: “It is one of the big reasons I have written the book. I understand they could not give them Victoria Crosses at the time because this was a secret war. But then the hush­puppy warriors of the MoD forgot all about it.”

Richard Belfield, an award-winning documentary film­maker who is his co-author, said: “There was a rationing of medals. The regiment has been angry ever since over who got the medals and who didn’t.

      “An anonymous donor gave the regiment some money and said why don’t you erect a statue to one soldier who abso­lutely epitomises the regiment. They didn’t give it to Paddy Mayne or David Stirling, who founded the regiment. It went to Laba. But he only got mentioned in dispatches and Tobin got absolutely nothing. “Part of the argument was that this was a secret war and people would wonder what was happening in Oman if the medals were announced. But there is a real anger in the regiment that these great heroes have never been properly recognised.”

Helen Tobin, a solicitor and one of Tobin’s three sisters, said on their behalf:

      “It was a battle in which a real band of brothers faced overwhelming odds and we do not believe their heroism, and that of their other comrades, was ever given the recognition that was their due. “We hope as these events are revisited that recognition will be forthcoming.”

 The Ministry of Defence said: “It is MoD policy not to comment on special forces matters and we see no reason to change that policy on this occasion . . . recommendations for honours and awards are made by commanding officers, before being passed up the chain of command for. . . consideration by the MoD armed forces opera­tional awards committee.”

and a week later on the 21st of August Lord Ashcroft contributes