An Ordinary Soldier : Afghanistan - A Ferocious Enemy. A Bloody Conflict. One Man's Impossible Mission

London: Simon & Schuster. Very Good/Very Good. 2008. First Edition, First Impression. Hard Cover. 8vo 1847373763 Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. Map end papers. No ownership marks. Maps.317 pages clean and tight. ON SEPTEMBER 11th 2006 - exactly five years after the attacks on the Twin Towers - 40-year-old Doug Beattie played his part in the War on Terror. As a guard of Rudolph Hess in Spandau Prison, as a junior soldier in Northern Ireland, an NCO in Bosnia and a regimental sergeant major to Colonel Tim Collins in Iraq, he thought he had seen it all. How wrong he was. One of a tiny contingent of British troops, the Royal Irish Regiment captain went to help Afghan forces recapture the town of Garmsir - known as the Taliban gateway to Helmand Province. The mission should have lasted 48 hours. Instead Beattie was in Garmsir for two brutal and bloody weeks At one stage the UK contingent shrunk to-just three men. They were up against a ferocious enemy in impossible conditions, without adequate supplies. His wife thought he was working behind a desk - instead he was leading from the front, fighting for his life, trying to stand firm against an overwhelming onslaught. For his repeated bravery Doug Beattie was decorated with the Military Cross. This is a thrilling, modern war story. Visceral yet intelligent. Action-packed but also emotional. Beattie never shrinks from portraying the horrors of war and his role in them, but the maturity of voice and heartfelt honesty sets this book apart from other military memoirs. His account is alternately shocking, thoughtful, even humorous, but always unflinchingly candid. AN ORDINARY SOLDIER offers an extraordinary insight into the mission in Afghanistan and, crucially, the relationship between British troops and the Afghans they serve alongside. It demands to be read. .