A Recently Read Book Worth Recommending

If you want a non-stop, cannot put down non-fiction story of modern war, I'd heartily recommend

The book is about the 2004 deployment of a battalion of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment to Al-Amarah in Iraq and how a company of the battalion was cut off and besieged by the Moqtada Al Sadr's forces. The engagement has been reenacted in Andy mcNabb's Tour of Duty series on the BBC, with some of the actual troops interviewed for the episode (no DVD available yet in the states but you can catch it on the military Channel on TV sometimes).

Mills, the author was the Sergeant in command of the company's sniper platoon and he gives an engaging, well-written account of the unit in action, with a particular focus on his sniper platoon. Certainly this is one of the best war memoirs I've ever read - full of typical British humor, understatement, and tense descriptions of action and the life of the troops in Iraq. It makes you appreciate that the British are on our side and that regardless of the craziness of the British government in wussifying their citizens, the British soldier is still every bit the lion he (and she) has always been, and are valued allies.