Speed. Aggression. Surprise. The untold truth behind the story.

TomDCPetch

Host Tom Petch - former SAS officer turned filmmaker - goes behind the headlines with officers, soldiers, war correspondents, and insiders who lived the real story. No PR. No spin. Just the brutal, complex, often uncomfortable truth about war, politics, and the people caught in between. From elite operators to front-line journalists, each episode cuts through the noise to ask: What really happened? Who decides how we remember it? And what does it cost to tell the truth?

Episodes

  1. 1D AGO

    “Fog-Marched at Dawn” – Captain Rachel Webster on Lawfare, Service, and the Cost of Speaking Up

    Tom Petch sits down with former British Army officer CaptainRachel Webster, whose 24-year career spanned Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan - only to end in a dawn arrest she describes as “the most horrendous experience” of her life. From becoming one of the first female welders at British Steel to serving in some of the most complex theatres of modern conflict, Rachel’s career was defined by resilience, leadership, and breaking barriers. But years after service, she found herself pushed onto her own bed, hands restrained, marched from her house without a warrant - accused as part of a widening legal process she says reflects a growing culture of retrospective lawfare. In this raw and revealing conversation, Rachel speaks openlyabout: • Being one of the first women to push into male-dominated military spaces • Serving in South Armagh during the Troubles • Deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan • What “lawfare” looks like at the individual level • The psychological toll of being investigated years after operations • Why soldiers feel abandoned by the institutions they served This episode goes beyond headlines. It asks difficult questions about justice, accountability, political responsibility - and the human cost when trust between soldier and state breaks down. 🎧 Listen now on Spotify #militarypodcast #lawfare #BritishArmy #NorthernIreland#Afghanistan #womeninwar #SpeedAggressionSurprise

    1h 30m
  2. JAN 16

    “We Were Told It Would Be Easy” – Colonel Stuart Tootal on the Truth of Afghanistan

    Colonel Stuart Tootal commanded 3 PARA on the British Army’s first major combat tour of Helmand Province in 2006. What followed was not peacekeeping - it was a full-scale insurgency. In this episode of Speed. Aggression. Surprise. - The Untold Truth Behind the Story, Tom Petch sits down with one of the most honest and uncompromising commanders of the Afghanistan war. Tootal describes how British forces entered Helmand expecting a benign stabilisation mission - and within weeks found themselves fighting for survival in places like Sangin, Now Zad, and Musa Qala. He explains the catastrophic mismatch between political assumptions and battlefield reality, the failures of multinational command, and the brutal arithmetic of casualty evacuation under fire. This is not a sanitised account. Tootal speaks candidly about losing men, the impossible decisions commanders are forced to make, and the psychological burden of knowing that every helicopter launch risks a Black Hawk Down scale disaster. The conversation also turns to veterans - from the shocking treatment of wounded soldiers at Selly Oak Hospital to the long-term failures of pastoral care once the fighting stops. Tootal reflects on why he ultimately resigned from the Army, the controversy that followed, and what Afghanistan should have taught Britain about future wars. This is a rare, ground-truth account of modern warfare — from a man who lived it.

    1h 36m

About

Host Tom Petch - former SAS officer turned filmmaker - goes behind the headlines with officers, soldiers, war correspondents, and insiders who lived the real story. No PR. No spin. Just the brutal, complex, often uncomfortable truth about war, politics, and the people caught in between. From elite operators to front-line journalists, each episode cuts through the noise to ask: What really happened? Who decides how we remember it? And what does it cost to tell the truth?

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