Dead Men Risen

Dead Men Risen
Author :
Publisher : Quercus Books
Total Pages : 610
Release :
ISBN-10 : 1849164215
ISBN-13 : 9781849164214
Rating : 4/5 (15 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Dead Men Risen by : Toby Harnden

Download or read book Dead Men Risen written by Toby Harnden and published by Quercus Books. This book was released on 2011 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE 2012. This is the tale of the Welsh Guards in Helmand in 2009. Underequipped and overstretched, guardsmen from the coal mining valleys and slate quarry villages of Wales found themselves in Helmand in some of the most intense fighting by British troops for more than a generation. They were confronted by a Taliban enemy they seldom saw, facing the constant threat of Improvised Explosive Devices and ambush. Leading them into battle was Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, destined for the highest ranks. He was a passionate believer in the war but was dismayed by how it was being conducted. Dead Men Risen will unnerve politicians and generals alike. In chilling detail, Toby Harnden reveals how and why Thorneloe was killed by an IED during Operation Panther's Claw. Harnden, who had known Thorneloe since they met in Northern Ireland in 1996, was on the ground in Helmand with the Welsh Guards. He draws on a trove of military documents, including many by Thorneloe, the first British battalion commander to die in action since the Falklands war of 1982. Major Sean Birchall left behind an unvarnished account of the shortcomings of the Afghan forces that represent Nato's exit strategy. Lieutenant Mark Evison wrote a diary that raises questions from beyond the grave. It was more than half a century since a British battalion had lost officers at these three key levels of leadership. By the time the fighting was over, almost no rank had been spared. A visceral and timeless account of men at war, Dead Men Risen conveys what it is like to be a soldier who has to kill, face paralysing fear and watch comrades perish in agony. Given unprecedented access to the Welsh Guards, Harnden conducted more than 300 interviews in Afghanistan, England and Wales. The searing heat of the poppy fields and mud compounds of Helmand to the dreaded knock on the door back home, the reader is transported there. Harnden weaves the experiences of the guardsmen and their loved ones into an unsparing narrative that sits alongside a piercing analysis of military strategy. No other book about modern conflict succeeds on so many levels. Dead Men Risen is essential for anyone who wants to learn the reality of Britain's war in Afghanistan.

Dead Men Risen

Dead Men Risen
Author :
Publisher : Hachette UK
Total Pages : 498
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781849168052
ISBN-13 : 1849168059
Rating : 4/5 (52 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Dead Men Risen by : Toby Harnden

Download or read book Dead Men Risen written by Toby Harnden and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-03-03 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE 2012. This is the gripping story of the men of the Welsh Guards and their bloody battle for survival in Afghanistan in 2009. Underequipped and overstretched, they found themselves in the most intense fighting the British had experienced in a generation. They were led into battle by Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, a passionate believer in the justness of the war who was deeply dismayed by the way it was being resourced and conducted. Thorneloe was killed by an IED during Operation Panther's Claw, the biggest operation mounted by the British in Helmand. Dead Men Risen draws on secret documents written by Thorneloe, which raise questions from beyond the grave that will unnerve politicians and generals alike. The Welsh Guards also lost Major Sean Birchall, commanding officer of IX Company, and Lieutenant Mark Evison, a platoon commander whose candid personal diary was unnervingly prophetic. Not since the Second World War had a single British battalion lost officers at the three key levels of leadership. Harnden transports the reader into the heart of a conflict in which a soldier has to be prepared to kill and die, to ward off paralysing fear and watch comrades perish in agony. Given unprecedented access to the Welsh Guards, Harnden conducted hundreds of interviews in Afghanistan, England and Wales. He weaves the experiences of the guardsmen and the loved ones they left behind into a seamless and unsparing narrative that sits alongside a piercing analysis of the political and military strategy. No other book about modern warfare succeeds on so many levels.

First Casualty

First Casualty
Author :
Publisher : Little, Brown
Total Pages : 480
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780316540964
ISBN-13 : 031654096X
Rating : 4/5 (64 Downloads)

Book Synopsis First Casualty by : Toby Harnden

Download or read book First Casualty written by Toby Harnden and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning journalist reveals the dramatic true story of the CIA's Team Alpha, the first Americans to be dropped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan after 9/11. America is reeling; Al-Qaeda has struck and thousands are dead. The country scrambles to respond, but the Pentagon has no plan for Afghanistan—where Osama bin Laden masterminded the attack and is protected by the Taliban. Instead, the CIA steps forward to spearhead the war. Eight CIA officers are dropped into the mountains of northern Afghanistan on October 17, 2001. They are Team Alpha, an eclectic band of linguists, tribal experts, and elite warriors: the first Americans to operate inside Taliban territory. Their covert mission is to track down Al- Qaeda and stop the terrorists from infiltrating the United States again. First Casualty places you with Team Alpha as the CIA rides into battle on horseback alongside the warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. In Washington, DC, few trust that the CIA men, the Green Berets, and the Americans’ outnumbered Afghan allies can prevail before winter sets in. On the ground, Team Alpha is undeterred. The Taliban is routed but hatches a plot with Al-Qaeda to hit back. Hundreds of suicidal fighters, many hiding weapons, fake a surrender and are transported to Qala-i Jangi—the “Fort of War.” Team Alpha’s Mike Spann, an ex-Marine, and David Tyson, a polyglot former Central Asian studies academic, seize America’s initial opportunity to extract intelligence from men trained by bin Laden—among them a young Muslim convert from California. The prisoners revolt and one CIA officer falls—the first casualty in America’s longest war, which will last two decades. The other CIA man shoots dead the Al-Qaeda jihadists attacking his comrade. To survive, he must fight his way out against overwhelming odds. Award-winning author Toby Harnden gained unprecedented access to all living Team Alpha members and every level of the CIA. Superbly researched, First Casualty draws on extensive interviews, secret documents, and deep reporting inside Afghanistan. As gripping as any adventure novel, yet intimate and profoundly moving, it tells how America found a winning strategy only to abandon it. Harnden reveals that the lessons of early victory and the haunting foretelling it contained—unreliable allies, ethnic rivalries, suicide attacks, and errant US bombs—were ignored, tragically fueling a twenty-year conflict. "Masterful, complex, and heartfelt, from the deeply personal to the critically strategic. Captures many lessons on many levels." —Ambassador Hank Crumpton, former senior CIA officer

Risen

Risen
Author :
Publisher : Entangled: Teen
Total Pages : 278
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781633758940
ISBN-13 : 163375894X
Rating : 4/5 (40 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Risen by : Cole Gibsen

Download or read book Risen written by Cole Gibsen and published by Entangled: Teen. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fans of Vampire Diaries and Twilight will be thirsting for this latest vampire addiction... My aunt has been kidnapped by vampires, and it’s up to me to save her. Only...I had no idea vampires existed. None. Nada. I’m more of a reader than a fighter, and even though I’d been wishing to escape my boring existence in the middle of nowhere, I’d give anything to have it back now if it meant my aunt was safe. Then there’s the vampire Sebastian, who seems slightly nicer than most of the bloodsuckers I’ve run into so far. Yes, he’s the hottest being I’ve ever come across, but there’s no way I can trust him. He swears he’s helping me get answers, but there’s more to his story. Now I’m a key pawn in a raging vampire war, and I need to pick the right ally. But my chances of surviving this war are slim at best, when the side I choose might be the one that wants me dead the most.

Bandit Country

Bandit Country
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 0
Release :
ISBN-10 : 034098094X
ISBN-13 : 9780340980941
Rating : 4/5 (4X Downloads)

Book Synopsis Bandit Country by : Toby Harnden

Download or read book Bandit Country written by Toby Harnden and published by . This book was released on 2010-03-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Armagh was firstdescribed as "Bandit Country" by Merlyn Rees when he was Northern Ireland's Secretary of State, and for nearly three decades it has been the most dangerous posting in the world for soldiers. Toby Harnden has stripped away the myth and propaganda associated with South Armagh to produce one of the most compelling and important books of the subject. Drawing on secret documents and interviews in South Armagh s recent history, he tells the inside story of how the IRA came close to bringing the British state to its knees. For the first time, the identities of the men behind the South Quay and Manchester bombings are revealed. Packed with new information, "Bandit Country" penetrates the IRA and the security forces in South Armagh."

Down Among the Dead Men

Down Among the Dead Men
Author :
Publisher : Open Road Media
Total Pages : 214
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781480471962
ISBN-13 : 1480471968
Rating : 4/5 (62 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Down Among the Dead Men by : Simon R. Green

Download or read book Down Among the Dead Men written by Simon R. Green and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a fort on the edge of civilization, an ancient evil has awoken Ten years after the Demon War, the wounds of the Forest Kingdom are finally beginning to heal. Deep in the Darkwood, on the border between two long-feuding territories, a fort has been erected to keep the peace. But a month ago, the soldiers inside stopped speaking to the outside world. Have they come under attack, or is something more sinister at work? Led by the adventure-hungry warrior Duncan MacNeil, a party of Rangers is sent to investigate. With a witch, a swordsman, and a powerful eight-fingered woman at his side, MacNeil steps into the deserted fort—and discovers a massacre. The gory scene suggests that the soldiers turned on one other, but the witch has an alternate theory. Beneath this newly built fort, she senses an ancient evil, a power older than the Kingdom itself, about to trap them in the dark.

The Crowded Hour

The Crowded Hour
Author :
Publisher : Scribner
Total Pages : 368
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781501144004
ISBN-13 : 1501144006
Rating : 4/5 (04 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Crowded Hour by : Clay Risen

Download or read book The Crowded Hour written by Clay Risen and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “gripping” (The Washington Post) story of the most famous regiment in American history: the Rough Riders, a motley group of soldiers led by Theodore Roosevelt, whose daring exploits marked the beginning of American imperialism in the 20th century. When America declared war on Spain in 1898, the US Army had just 26,000 men, spread around the country—hardly an army at all. In desperation, the Rough Riders were born. A unique group of volunteers, ranging from Ivy League athletes to Arizona cowboys and led by Theodore Roosevelt, they helped secure victory in Cuba in a series of gripping, bloody fights across the island. Roosevelt called their charge in the Battle of San Juan Hill his “crowded hour”—a turning point in his life, one that led directly to the White House. “The instant I received the order,” wrote Roosevelt, “I sprang on my horse and then my ‘crowded hour’ began.” As The Crowded Hour reveals, it was a turning point for America as well, uniting the country and ushering in a new era of global power. “A revelatory history of America’s grasp for power” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Both a portrait of these men, few of whom were traditional soldiers, and of the Spanish-American War itself, The Crowded Hour dives deep into the daily lives and struggles of Roosevelt and his regiment. Using diaries, letters, and memoirs, Risen illuminates an influential moment in American history: a war of only six months’ time that dramatically altered the United States’ standing in the world. “Fast-paced, carefully researched…Risen is a gifted storyteller who brings context to the chaos of war. The Crowded Hour feels like the best type of war reporting—told with a clarity that takes nothing away from the horrors of the battlefield” (The New York Times Book Review).