Customer Reviews
There is something about 3 Para. - By: Ned Middleton, 15 Dec 2007 
There is something about 3 Para. It was April 2006 & 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment (3 Para) Battle Group were deployed to Helmand Province in Afghanistan for a 6 month tour of duty. What they were expecting to encounter & what they found on arrival were entirely different things. The pre-deployment intelligence suggested the tour was likely to pass without a shot being fired whilst they concentrated on a task which required then to provide security for a reconstruction programme.
Six months later, the Battle Group returned home having fought one continuous battle after another during which they defeated the Taliban within Helmand Province. That military success did not, however, come without a price. 18 Officers & men died during the tour after another two had lost their lives in preliminary operations.
It is many years since I served with 3 Para & I well remember the stories of both Sergeant Willetts who saved many lives in Northern Ireland for which he was awarded a posthumous GC in the 1970s and, in 1982, Sergeant Ian McKay who was awarded the last VC of the 20th Century. Now, in just 6 months in 2006, 3 Para had added yet another VC & another GC in addition to many other honours & awards to their illustrious Battalion & Regimental history.
Written by a professional foreign correspondent who was given access to alll the information & personal stories required to create this significant, & important, work of literature about a series of modern military actions, Patrick Bishop has done an excellent job in providing an informative & readable account of exactly what happened.
This is what our forces are doing in Afghanistan. Doubtless, in many ways, it will be similar to what our forces are doing in Iraq. It is, therefore, a book which should be read by everyone with an interest in the world at war - today.
As a postscript (and not part of the book itself), readers will be interested to know that the Commanding Officer of 3 Para Battle Group - Lt. Colonel Stuart Tootal DSO OBE (the DSO being awarded for his outstanding service in Afghanistan) resigned in November 2007 after attacking the Ministry of Defence over "poor pay for soldiers, lack of equipment, the standard of army housing & poor medical treatment afforded to his injured soldiers."
Unlike their comrades from the USA, when the modern British Army has finished with it's soldiers - they reallly are finished with them.
NM
British Army major (Retired)
