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Lions of Kandahar: The Story of a Fight Against All Odds Paperback – May 19, 2015
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Southern Afghanistan was slipping away. That was clear to then-Captain Rusty Bradley as he began his third tour of duty there in 2006. The Taliban and their allies were infiltrating everywhere, poised to reclaim Kandahar Province, their strategically vital onetime capital. To stop them, the NATO coalition launched Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in its history. Dispatched as a diversionary force in support of the main coalition attack, Bradley’s Special Forces A-team watched as the NATO force was quickly engulfed in a vicious counterattack. Key to relieving it was possession of Sperwan Ghar, a modest patch of high ground. Bradley’s small detachment assaulted the hill and, in the midst of a savage and unforgettable firefight, soon learned they were facing nearly a thousand seasoned fighters. Now Bradley recounts the whole remarkable story as it actually happened and brings to life the men who impossibly won the day—Americans and Afghans alike—each unique, all indelible in their everyday exercise of extraordinary heroism.
Praise for Lions of Kandahar
“A powerful and gripping account of a battle that helped shape the war in Afghanistan . . . With crisp writing and page-turning action, Lions of Kandahar is one of the best books written about the conflict.”—Mitch Weiss, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist and co-author of Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War
“One of the most important documents to emerge from the war in Afghanistan.”—The Seattle Times
“Powerful . . . a riveting account of a strategic battle that doesn’t glorify war or focus on heroic deeds . . . Make room on your military bookshelf for Lions of Kandahar.”—San Antonio Express-News
“Bradley takes the reader into battle.”—Time
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBantam
- Publication dateMay 19, 2015
- Dimensions5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100553386166
- ISBN-13978-0553386165
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“Powerful . . . a riveting account of a strategic battle that doesn’t glorify war or focus on heroic deeds . . . Make room on your military bookshelf for Lions of Kandahar.”—San Antonio Express-News
“Bradley takes the reader into battle.”—Time
“A raw and authentic war story about untamed Green Berets in action. Bradley and Maurer crush it! Mr. President, grab a copy—this is a sure-bet Special Forces exit strategy. Unleash more of these brave lions across Afghanistan and America will win this war.”—Dalton Fury, New York Times bestselling author of Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander’s Account of the Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted Man
“A powerful and gripping account of a battle that helped shape the war in Afghanistan. But Lions of Kandahar is more than that. Major Rusty Bradley and Kevin Maurer give readers a stirring inside look at the day-to-day operations of a Special Forces team—and what it takes to defeat insurgents hell-bent on regaining control of Afghanistan. With crisp writing and page-turning action, Lions of Kandahar is one of the best books written about the conflict.”—Mitch Weiss, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist and co-author of the critically acclaimed Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War
“This is a riveting tale, told from the front lines of the secret war against the Taliban. Lions of Kandahar is the definitive account of a modern Special Forces mission—a must-read for anyone hoping to understand the harsh realities of the Afghan conflict.”—David Zucchino, Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and author of Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad
“I have read this book three times and I am still chilled to the bone with every word. In Lions of Kandahar you will be riveted by the unabridged action of our real-life military heroes. It took a group of exceptional individuals to accomplish Operation Medusa. We as a nation can only pray we have half the guts and fortitude given selflessly every day on our behalf by the Army Special Forces.”—Marshall R. Teague, actor; U.S. Navy (ret.)
“The war in Afghanistan is made for Special Forces, but very little has been written about these soldiers since the initial attack on Afghanistan in 2001. Bradley and Maurer do a great job of showing how these elite units fight and why they are so important to the battle against the Taliban. Lions of Kandahar is a gripping, moving, and well-told war story.”—Greg Jaffe, Washington Post reporter and co-author of The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army
About the Author
Kevin Maurer has been embedded as a reporter with the U.S. Special Forces and 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan and Iraq more than a dozen times in the last five years.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing."
—attributed to Edmund Burke
September 2006
The first rounds slammed into the windshield like a jackhammer. I winced, expecting the worst. Luckily, the bullet-resistant glass did its job, otherwise my brains would have been blown all over the truck. Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) shot by just feet away, so close I could see the spring-loaded stabilizer fins that can easily shear off men’s heads, arms, legs, and destroy a small vehicle with appalling quickness. Their vapor trails hung in the air. The roar of machine guns was deafening, overwhelming. We had just arrived at the battlefield.
Operation Medusa, the largest NATO-led offensive in history, was turning into an absolute disaster. Nearby, the main Canadian advance had stalled, and then stopped altogether, ambushed by anti-armor assaults and then enveloped in urban firefights. My Special Forces team and our Afghan allies were five minutes into a savage firefight at the base of Sperwan Ghar, a remote hill in the Panjwayi district in western Kandahar Province. Two other SF teams were also leading Afghan soldiers up the hill under heavy fire. If we could seize the hill, we could call in air strikes to help our NATO allies.
The first two minutes of a fight are the most precious. You know who you are up against in the first thirty seconds, if you live that long. The machine guns that raked our Ground Mobility Vehicles (GMVs) and the volleys of RPGs told me that we were up against enemies who knew exactly what they were doing. Already, the Taliban fighters had dealt the nearby Canadian mechanized units a severe blow, killing nearly a dozen and destroying several vehicles. I could hear the Canadians on the radio. They were fighting for their lives. We all were.
This was my third tour in Afghanistan, and when I’d departed seven months earlier we’d nearly chased the Taliban out of Kandahar. They were supposed to be broken and defeated. But since then, NATO forces had assumed control of southern Afghanistan, replacing American units with a collection of troops from around the world. The NATO commanders focused heavily on setting up reconstruction teams and less on combat and maintaining security, critical to the reconstruction efforts. Five years into the war, the change in strategy would result in the bloodiest period since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
We’d been warned that the Taliban had returned in force. They had massed thousands of fighters in Panjwayi, their heartland, and had their sights set on overrunning Kandahar city, the capital of the province and of southern Afghanistan. These guys weren’t bush-league Taliban villagers. This wasn’t the Taliban of old that “sprayed and prayed,” hoping Allah willed them to kill the infidel and live another day. These Taliban were using well-coordinated and synchronized movements. After a volley of airburst rocket-propelled-grenade rounds, the enemy followed up with well-placed RPG rounds aimed directly at our heavy machine gunners, hoping to disable the guns or kill their operators. This was our first glimpse of a resurgent Taliban movement wholly focused on pushing the coalition forces out of southern Afghanistan. Now, hunkered down in our trucks, we faced firepower rarely seen since the first months of the war.
Hard thumping cracks of gunfire from the right rear of my truck startled me. I sat sidesaddle, facing out, and turned my head just in time to see the intense red glow of another RPG slam into the ground. The red tracers that immediately followed from the Taliban machine guns struck our vehicles and the earth around us, ricocheting in all directions. I swung my M240 machine gun in that direction as fast as I could. The matrix of irrigation ditches, which ran six feet deep in some places, thick vegetation, and grape-drying huts exploded with enemy fire.
“Contact right, contact right!” I screamed over the roar of the guns. Every machine gun and grenade launcher on my team’s trucks erupted toward the Taliban positions. The race was on to pour as much firepower into the enemy as possible.
Just as we were beginning to gain an edge, a mud fortress and its surrounding buildings directly in front of my truck suddenly opened up. We were in the open and exposed. Rounds skipped all around inside and outside the vehicle, then the flash. An RPG exploded on the truck’s front bumper. My teeth hurt and I had the strong metallic taste of explosives in my mouth. The confusion and pain assured me I was alive. We had enemy fighters to our right, front, and left. Their ambush almost cut our column in half, preventing any reinforcements from getting into the fight. This was their goal from the start. Divide the unit, cause confusion, and destroy each of us individually. We needed air support NOW!
Dutch Apache helicopter gunships circled above us. The thumping sound of the Apaches’ 30-mm cannon fire was sweet music. The gunships made runs on the heavily defended buildings to drive out the occupants. The first two of four 2.75-inch rockets from the Apaches slammed high into the grape house less than a football field away. The sharp cracks of the explosions marked a good hit. As the dust cleared from the rocket blasts, our Afghan Army soldiers opened fire and cut down the four or five Taliban fighters who came stumbling out of the building, dazed and confused. Good kills usually drop like rag dolls, as these did.
I figured we were facing about fifty to eighty fighters in and around the hill. We had about sixty Afghans and thirty Special Forces soldiers in three A-teams and one command and control B-team. This B-team was supposed to be composed of twelve additional men, but this was just four in one truck. Our target, Sperwan Ghar, jutted out of the valley of farms separated by deep irrigation ditches. It was prime real estate because whoever owned it could see up and down the valley and across the river, where the Canadians were getting mauled.
As we desperately tried to push up the hill, we radioed back to the tactical operations center (TOC) for more information. They were watching a live feed from a Predator drone flying over the battlefield that revealed a drastically different scenario than we had been briefed on.
“Talon 30, this is Eagle 10. Here is your situation: The enemy count is not dozens, but hundreds, maybe even a thousand. They are everywhere! Do you copy, over?”
We’d already shot half of our ammo. Now we knew we were horrifically outnumbered and outgunned. We faced hundreds of Taliban fighters, with more pouring in from all directions.
We were in very serious trouble.
Product details
- Publisher : Bantam; Reprint edition (May 19, 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0553386166
- ISBN-13 : 978-0553386165
- Item Weight : 8.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #319,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #153 in Afghan War Biographies
- #189 in Afghan War Military History
- #346 in Intelligence & Espionage History
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Kevin Maurer is an award-winning journalist and best selling co-author of American Radical and No Easy Day.
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Effort is made to write for the public, though the source was undoubtly filled with jargon.
Technicalities are explained as the story unfolds. De team members are very well introduced, you feel you know these guys. If you search for a hands on account of a real battle, this is it. Meticulous in detail, you feel the importance of being prepared. Unlike Hollywood: in the real world you cannot shoot endlessly without changes magazines, the reader feels the dire need for perfect logistics. Re-supplies from the air to do field maintenance and repairs are live saving. As is luck. It's commendable how all the details of moving into and fighting a battle are integrated into the story without slowing it down. This sends a clear message: the world needs men like these, men that can part with their families and do their job. Also clear: they experienced individual heroism, but a battle is won as a team. All participating parties are mentioned and credits given where due. It shows that the Afghan army can be deployed as a force to be reckoned with. It's all about absolute trust, as there is between friends, it's about really being a team. That team includes air support and an unbroken chain of command to get that in time and in place. There are a few maps to give an outline of the battle locations and transit route, but you can reconstruct the route without these, the book stresses situational awareness. Also included: a few pages with images, makes it come alive even more.
This book shows us a glimpse of how a warrior's mind works, regretting to be wounded or called home and taken away from the battle field to the hospital, leaving your fellow soldiers fighting on their own. And their response: we'll go on, there's enough war when you return.
MAJ Rusty Bradley's book LIONS OF KANDAHAR exhibit why Special Forces must lead the way in the GWOT. His 3rd Special Forces Group ODA rotated to Afghanistan in 2006, returning to an area where they'd previously deployed and had developed a rapport with the local Afghan National Army contingent. They respected the Afghans' culture while holding them to a high professional and ethical standard, and it resulted in an unshakable bond.
That bond was needed during the battle for Sperwan Ghar, where three ODAs (including Bradley's) meant to provide reconnaissance for a Canadian mechanized column rapidly became involved in a massive battle with upwards of 1,000 Taliban militants. The Talibs were advised by foreign fighters, moving them away from "spray and pray" method and turning them into a formidable and effective fighting force that tested the Special Forces soldiers' limits.
Not only does LIONS OF KANDAHAR show that the bond between SF and the local nationals is the key to winning the war, it dispels the myth that special operations warfighters are invulnerable supermen. While they are trained well above the standard of conventional soldiers and are specifically selected for their intellect, maturity, and superior mental resilience, they are still very much human, feeling fatigue, suffering injuries (many of them severe), and in some cases, paying the ultimate sacrifice.
Bradley's commander's assessment that the Battle of Sperwan Ghar might be one of the greatest battles most people have never heard of is absolutely correct. It was a riveting tale that possessed the kind of courage and grit one wants to read in a war story and the kind of humor that war veterans will readily recognize. I highly recommend this novel to students of history and special operations.
Top reviews from other countries
Segue un pattern che ho trovato spesso negli ultimi libri che ho letto sull'argomento:
- eventuale partenza con il botto (ad esempio nel bel mezzo ad un'operazione militare) per poi partire con il flashback
- introduzione doverosa per inquadrare bene la situzione di partenza che sia politica, geografica o strategica.
- eventuale ulteriore flashback. Insomma, come abbiamo fatto a finire in quella situazione :-) .
- da circa metà libro in poi si entra nel vivo dell'azione miltiare con descrizione di veicoli, armi, spostamenti ecc..
- interessanti considerazioni finali patriottiche che a me colpiscono sempre tantissimo
Nota: grazie a questo libro (nel finale) e al capitano Rusty finalmente conosco il titolo del brano che avevo sentito in radio.
Toby Keyth - "Courtesy Of The Red, White, And Blue (The Angry American)"