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This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Embassy Siege that spanned from the morning of 30th April to 5th May 1980, in London. During that event, a group of six men from an area of Iran, dubbed locally as “Arabistan,” stormed the Iranian Embassy in London to take hostages in order to negotiate the release of Arabistani prisoners held by Iran and to gain more control over their claimed territory. Eventually, the British Special Air Service (SAS) took control of the situation, in the hopes that future would-be terrorists would think twice about messing with the United Kingdom.
A film based on the embassy siege, 6 Days, was released in 2017, and despite its attention to detail, great acting and action, it only grossed $316,946 globally. Even though the world may not have been ready for such a film, gun enthusiasts and history buffs will certainly take interest if you’re looking for a well made action movie. In PART 1, we took a look at the firearms utilized by the hostage takers, and now in PART 2, we’ll look at the weapons used by the SAS in the film.
IRANIAN EMBASSY SIEGE: THE GUNS OF THE 6 DAYS MOVIE – PART 2
H&K MP5
Image credit: Dog With A Bone Productions & General Film Corporation
SAS unit going through practice drills in a full sized mock-up of the embassy. Image credit: Dog With A Bone Productions & General Film Corporation
The weapon most utilized by the SAS during the Iranian Embassy Siege was Hecker & Koch’s famous MP5. The movie 6 Days not only stayed true to that selection, but also showed it several configurations; such as the stockless MP5A1, the retractable stocked MP5A3, and the integrally suppressed MP5SD version. Some MP5’s were also accurately equipped with large flashlights above the weapon. The MP5 has seen its fair share of love here on TFB and the TFB TV YouTube channel.
Due to its popularity on the world stage, and especially amongst firearms enthusiasts, I’ll include two MP5 videos. The first is Alex C’s run and gun with the MP5, and the second, is James’ look at the new MP5 SP5 available for the U.S. civilian market.
BROWNING HI-POWER
Image credit: Dog With A Bone Productions & General Film Corporation
Since we slightly covered the Browning Hi-Power in Part 1 as handled by the hostage takers, I won’t take much time on them here. I did notice the use of extended 21 round magazines in some of the holstered Hi-Powers in some of the scenes, though in others scenes, the standard 13 round magazines were used.
If you’d like a more in depth look at the history of the Hi-Power, or British designation P35, you can check out Tim’s video below from the Military Arms Channel on YouTube. Although the Hi-Power served well into the 21st Century, the British Army began retiring them around 2013 in favor of Glock 17’s. Sadly, since that time, the Browning Hi-Power production has been discontinued, but they’re of course available on the used market.
REMINGTON 870
Image credit: Dog With A Bone Productions & General Film Corporation
The Remington 870 shared a very short role in the 6 Days film during a scene in which a locked door needed to be breached. Even though the MP5 received most of the glory, the 870 would’ve made for fast entries during an unknown, fluid situation where speed was of the essence. As seen in the photo above, the 870 was clearly depicted as a secondary weapon as the operator’s slung MP5 can be seen across his body while he’s deploying the shotgun.
Click the photo to see TFB’s coverage of everything that is the 870.
NOTABLE MENTIONS
Several weapons that the movie gives quick glimpses of are Police Constable Trevor Lock’s holstered revolver and the use of G60 Flashbang grenades. Despite PC Lock being frisked by his captors, he amazingly retained his service revolver, and managed to keep it hidden until the SAS raid. The stun grenades were a valuable tool used to disorient enemy combatants, giving time for the team to enter and disable the terrorists. It was later reported that the terrorists had used kerosene on barricaded windows, which ignited with the aid of the grenades. Due to the fire during the Iranian Embassy Siege, the embassy wouldn’t reopen for another 13 years.
For those that had already watched the movie 6 Days, or got a chance to after our PART 1 article, what did you think? Were there any details they got wrong or left out? If you haven’t been able to see the film yet, feel free to check it out on Netflix (available as of this writing) or buy it on Amazon.com.
