Just imagine being abroad and waking up to find you are in the middle of an invasion.

This is exactly what happened to my guest today, JIM PAYNE.

He was working in Kuwait when IRAQ invaded the Sheikhdom overnight on the 2nd August 1990.

Within just 2 days, the Kuwaiti defence forces had either been overrun or fallen back to neighbouring Saudi Arabia or Bahrain.

The Kuwaiti Emiri Guard, supported by local police and a Platoon of Saladin armoured cars managed to repel an airborne assault by Iraqi special forces, but the Palace fell after a landing by Iraqi marines, and eventually Republican Guard tanks rolled into Kuwait City after several hours of heavy fighting.

The Emir of Kuwait had escaped into the Saudi Arabian desert but his younger brother was shot and killed by the invading Iraqi forces as he attempted to defend the palace after which his body was placed in front of a tank and run over.  

Towards the end of the first day of the invasion, only pockets of resistance were left in the country.

By 3 August, the last military units were desperately fighting delaying actions at choke points and other defensible positions throughout the country until out of ammunition, or overrun by Iraqi forces. From then on it was only a matter of time until all units of the Kuwaiti Military were forced to retreat or be overrun.

The Iraqis moved quickly to install a “puppet” government – to be known as the Republic of Kuwait before being declared as the 19th province of Iraq.

The legal government of Kuwait attempted to carry on in exile but it wasn’t long before Iraqi officials started a violent crackdown on local resistance, but it took until the end of February for the Iraqi  forces to be finally vanquished and for Kuwait to be liberated.

Immediately after the invasion, Jim spent a month in hiding flitting from house to house, with a lot of help from friends of all nationalities and one notably brave Kuwaiti citizen, but eventually his  luck finally ran out and he was captured by Saddam’s notorious Republican Guard, blindfolded, taken into the desert to be used as a “human shield”.

Listen here to what Jim told me about those terrifying days when he was in constant fear for his life and wondering whether he would ever see his family and Essex home again: –

Now 30 years on Jim has written about his experiences.

The book is called “A RELUCTANT GUEST” is published by Greenwich Press, priced at around £12, and is available from THE GREENWICH EXCHANGE PUBLISHING  –  https://greenex.co.uk/,THE BOOK DEPOSITORY, WATERSTONES and elsewhere.

This book must be a strong contender for your Christmas list, especially since it’s a real life experience, not to mention that the author is a local man.  

Sticking with the theme of imprisonment, we turned our attention in the second hour to 3 Essex teenagers who were also trapped.

But their imprisonment was self inflicted!

Yes, truly they successfully wedged themselves inside an industrial sized tumble drier and it required a team of fire-fighters along with the Essex Police Helicopter Emergency Service and the Ambulance Service’s Hazardous area Response Team to free them! 

Bet that was popular!

A range of heavy equipment had to be employed and they initially had to help the third man to complete his crawl into the drier as he’d got his ankles trapped in the door.

Once all 3 were safely inside the unit, rescuers had to employ a whole range of equipment to remove the door, effect their release and provide pain relief, after which the boys were left in the care of the ambulance service.

The incident occurred a week ago at a derelict laundry site in Bower Hill, Epping, which proved challenging to access with rescuers having to carry a lot of heavy equipment over a large distance.

One has to assume that the victims either had mobile phones, or other friends with them when they became trapped or they might still be there.

But you also have to ask yourself why anyone would want to climb into a tumble drier in the first place!

I’ll see you again tomorrow,
Scott