The operation aimed to release five British soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment and their Sierra Leone Army (SLA) liaison officer, who were being held by a militia group known as the " West Side Boys". The book gives the overall picture of Sierra Leone, which is crucial to understand the complete brutality of the rebels who have ravaged the country. OPERATION CERTAIN DEATH is an in-depth exploration of Operation Barras, a British special forces rescue mission in the Sierra Leone jungle to free soldiers who had been taken captive by rebels known as the 'West Side Boys' men and boys renowned for sadism, drug-taking, cannibalism, rape and murder.

I was so busy doing the job, most of the time your mind was focussed on planning the next flight, flying it, debriefing from that flight, and sleeping. Holmes based himself at Seaview House, the British military headquarters in Freetown, near the British High Commission. As planning for a potential military operation to release the captive soldiers progressed, it became clear that, given the number of West Side Boys and their separation between two locations (Gberi Bana as well as the village of Magbeni; see below), the operation could not be conducted by special forces alone. As the SAS operation concluded, the Chinooks ferried prisoners and bodies from Gberi Bana to the Jordanian battalion of UNAMSIL.

They were held prisoner in a fortified jungle hideaway, with severed heads decorating the palisades, defended by some 400 heavily armed soldiers. The committee is named after the room in which it meets—the Cabinet Office Briefing Room—and usually known as "COBRA" or "Cobra" or sometimes "COBR".

The newly acquired French-made weapons were highly effective and threatened a humiliating defeat for the British fleet. Confirmed to have died in the operation were 25 West Side Boys, although the true figure is probably higher, possibly as many as 80.The task force left Hastings—approximately 15 minutes' flying time from the West Side Boys' camp—at approximately 06:15. It was described by an SAS soldier as "not a clinical, black balaclava, Princes Gate type operation.