A Million Bullets

by J Fergusson (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.25

  In May 2006 a small British Army force was sent to the Helmand province of Afghanistan. They were to keep the peace and perhaps help to build some roads. The defence minister said the mission could be carried out without a shot being fired . But there was no peace to keep and the province quickly turned into a battle zone. The fiercest fighting was in the small, dusty town of Sangin, where the soldiers of 3 Para, a regiment of the 16th Air Assault Brigade, rapidly found themselves besieged by a determined and well-armed enemy. By July they were isolated and surrounded. They were running out of food and were down to boiling river water. In temperatures often approaching 45C, they came under attack three to five times a day, every day for over seven weeks. At times they were assisted on the barricades by non-combatant regiments who were trapped alongside them- drivers and mechanics of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers who had never fired a mortar or a machine-gun in their lives before. Over a million bullets, 700 dead Afghans and 6 VC recommendations later, James Fergusson brings us the gripping story of those 52 days. Based on extensive interviews with British sold

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $4.19

  In April 2006, a small British peace-keeping force was sent to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Within weeks they were cut off and besieged by some of the world's toughest fighters: the infamous Taliban, who were determined to send the foreigners home again. Defence Secretary John Reid had hoped that Operation Herrick 4 could be accomplished without a shot being fired; instead, the Army was drawn into the fiercest fighting it had seen for fifty years. Millions of bullets and thousands of lives have been expended since then in an under-publicized but bitter conflict whose end is still not in sight.Some people consider it the fourth Anglo-Afghan War since Victorian times. How on earth did this happen? And what is it like for the troops on the front line of the 'War on Terror'? James Fergusson takes us to the dark heart of the battle zone. Here, in their own words and for the first time, are the young veterans of Herrick 4. Here, unmasked, are the civilian and military officials responsible for planning and executing the operation. Here, too, are the Taliban themselves, to whom Fergusson gained unique and extraordinary access. Controversial, fascinating and occasionally downright terrifying, A Million Bullets analyses the sorry slide into war in Helmand and asks this most troubling question: could Britain perhaps have avoided the violence altogether?