This makes a welcome change from my usual Audible listening to a book behaviour, actually opening and leafing through the pages of a physical book. I found it most enjoyable (see below, I also found it a different form of history from the norm, as you stepped inside the mind of a British Army infantry officer as his career built up to the expectation of combat and then experienced the elephant, albeit the new asymmetrical warfare of Afghanistan):
This was a book from the pile of "many" paperbacks I have acquired over the years on this peculiar piece of history. "Their time" of reading has appeared to have now come. The Afghanistan list to date (in a sort of chronological order) is as follows:
COIN:
- An ordinary Soldier by Doug Beattie (Irish Guards)
- 3 Para by Patrick Bishop
- 3 Commando Brigade Helmand by Ewen Southby-Tailyour
- Joint Force Harrier by Commander Ade Orchard RN
- Apache by Ed Macey
- Apache Dawn by Damien Lewis
- Task Force Helmand by Doug Beattie
- 3 Para, Ground Truth by Patrick Bishop
- 3 Commando Brigade Helmand Assault by Ewen Southby-Tailyour
- Dead Men Risen by Toby Harnden (Welsh Guards)
- Sweating The Metal by Flt Lt Alex 'Frenchie' Duncan (Chinook)
Further recommendations list (still to get):
- Khandak Fighting with Afghans: Patrick Hennessey
Russian invasion of Afghanistan:
Still to get:
- The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan by Grau and Glantz
- The War in Afghanistan by Mark Urban (Google Book preview) https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/War_in_Afghanistan/D-i-DAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA1&printsec=frontcover
In the library:
- War in a Distant Country Afghanistan: Invasion and Resistance by David Isby
Any further recommendations to the above greatly appreciated. So perhaps with this background knowledge I should be able to finally get into GMT's COIN "A Distant Plain" (another 'Bucket List' item).