Worth picking up.It is winter of 2001. A terror ship is bound for Britain carrying a potentially devastating weapon. A crack unit of SAS and SBS is sent out to assault the vessel before she reaches London. So begins a true story of explosive action as this band of elite warriors pursues the merchants of dearg from the high seas to the harsh wildlands of Afghanistan. The hunt cultimates in the single greatest battle of the Afghan war, the brutal and bloody siege of an ancient mud-walled fortress crammed full of hundreds of Al Qaeda and Taliban enemy. The story follows our handfull of crack fighters as they battle against impossible odds and bitter betrayal to rescue fellow soldiers trapped by a murderous enemy. Over eight days of vicious and medievil bloodshed some 500 enemy woukld die, but at the cost of dozens of British, American and allied casualties...
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Bloody Heroes by Damien Lewis
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just_me
- Guest
Bloody Heroes by Damien Lewis
Got this a couples days ago, half-way through its now - it's a good read.
Me too, but only if you 'pick it up' and don't buy it. If you're after a factual account you'll be disappointed but if you like the 'Andy McNob' genre you'll probably enjoy it. It's called 'The Most Explosive True War Story of The 21st Century' and 'The exclusive inside story' and 'A tremendous read'.
My misgivings? Well it obviously based on actual events but emphasis seems on more of a 'story' than 'true'
It comes with pictures. The first photo page shows 'SBA/SAS operators fast rope 90 feet ....onto the target.....' The second page shows 'SBS/SAS operators fast rope....onto the target ship' from a different angle, with an inset photo of operators holding a lifebuoy from the MV Nisha after the event.
Fair enough. But how did they get 2 cameramen onto the ship even before the troops? Possibly on an earlier stick - but the precise and detailed planning of the raid described everyone as being fully occupied. The description of the action sounds the usual controlled chaos and with no time for anyone taking 'me-graphs'.
Secondly, one shot is on a day with blue sky and white clouds while the other is on a totally overcast day. Finally, the superstructure of the ship bears no resemblance to the sketch drawing of the ship at the start of chapter 2 or photos of the ship in the newspapers reporting the story after the event.
Later in the book the leader of a SB patrol is addressing the senior US officer in a Forward Mounting Base forever calling him 'mate'. Mind you, this could be true. Maybe bootnecks have changed over the years.
Then we have the scenario where 15 or so Taliban are harrassing the FMB with small arms fire and the US commander calls in an air strike. I thought 4 x 2000lb JDAMs a bit of overkill for seeing off 15 Taliban - but then again, the Yanks have money to burn, so it's possible, I suppose.
Quote: 'The enemy fighters had somehow worked out how to fire their RPGs at a forty-five degree angle, so that the grenades acted like mortar rounds' Surely, 'the somehow' couldn't have had anything to do with them fighting hundreds of thousands of Russians for years 
In general, the whole scene of banter between everyone just seems 'forced'. The spiel between the blokes seems completely artificial. Or, at least, I've never heard a CSM say to anyone, 'That's the spirit, lad'. Unless we're talking grog, that is. It's the sort of thing a civvie makes up in imagining how squaddies talk. Or, having heard the banter he's trying to reproduce it and not doing a very good job.
Of course, all the conversations between the bad guys are total fabrications - unless he had the 'exclusive inside story' with them, too.
Anyway, like just_me I'm only half-way through so may have to eat my words. Watch this space.
My misgivings? Well it obviously based on actual events but emphasis seems on more of a 'story' than 'true'
It comes with pictures. The first photo page shows 'SBA/SAS operators fast rope 90 feet ....onto the target.....' The second page shows 'SBS/SAS operators fast rope....onto the target ship' from a different angle, with an inset photo of operators holding a lifebuoy from the MV Nisha after the event.
Fair enough. But how did they get 2 cameramen onto the ship even before the troops? Possibly on an earlier stick - but the precise and detailed planning of the raid described everyone as being fully occupied. The description of the action sounds the usual controlled chaos and with no time for anyone taking 'me-graphs'.
Secondly, one shot is on a day with blue sky and white clouds while the other is on a totally overcast day. Finally, the superstructure of the ship bears no resemblance to the sketch drawing of the ship at the start of chapter 2 or photos of the ship in the newspapers reporting the story after the event.
Later in the book the leader of a SB patrol is addressing the senior US officer in a Forward Mounting Base forever calling him 'mate'. Mind you, this could be true. Maybe bootnecks have changed over the years.
Then we have the scenario where 15 or so Taliban are harrassing the FMB with small arms fire and the US commander calls in an air strike. I thought 4 x 2000lb JDAMs a bit of overkill for seeing off 15 Taliban - but then again, the Yanks have money to burn, so it's possible, I suppose.
Quote: 'The enemy fighters had somehow worked out how to fire their RPGs at a forty-five degree angle, so that the grenades acted like mortar rounds'
Surely, 'the somehow' couldn't have had anything to do with them fighting hundreds of thousands of Russians for years In general, the whole scene of banter between everyone just seems 'forced'. The spiel between the blokes seems completely artificial. Or, at least, I've never heard a CSM say to anyone, 'That's the spirit, lad'. Unless we're talking grog, that is. It's the sort of thing a civvie makes up in imagining how squaddies talk. Or, having heard the banter he's trying to reproduce it and not doing a very good job.
Of course, all the conversations between the bad guys are total fabrications - unless he had the 'exclusive inside story' with them, too.
Anyway, like just_me I'm only half-way through so may have to eat my words. Watch this space.
The whole Qala-i-Janghi operation seems to be turning into a bit of a SF landmark!
Anyway, to further the above comments, this was also said about the book by a reader.....
"Damien Lewis is a great author, But please get facts correct!! I served for nine years in the Royal Marines Commandos, at that time the S.B.S. was part of the Corps of Royal Marines not the army! In his book " Bloody Heroes " Damien makes no mention this. He does however correctly state the S.B.S. base is at Poole in Dorset. ( this also the base of the R.M. landing craft squadrons ) S.B.S. stands for Special Boat Squadron not Special Boat Service.in his book on page 4 Damien refers to a basic grade S.B.S. rank as Trooper!not correct! The basic R.M. rank is MARINE either 1st or 2nd class"
Anyway, to further the above comments, this was also said about the book by a reader.....
"Damien Lewis is a great author, But please get facts correct!! I served for nine years in the Royal Marines Commandos, at that time the S.B.S. was part of the Corps of Royal Marines not the army! In his book " Bloody Heroes " Damien makes no mention this. He does however correctly state the S.B.S. base is at Poole in Dorset. ( this also the base of the R.M. landing craft squadrons ) S.B.S. stands for Special Boat Squadron not Special Boat Service.in his book on page 4 Damien refers to a basic grade S.B.S. rank as Trooper!not correct! The basic R.M. rank is MARINE either 1st or 2nd class"
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just_me
- Guest
I finished it and although it was good, some bits were a bit "iffy". Like Sisyphus says the photos are a bit strange as one where the SAS/SBS are fastroping onto the ship (media crew on board before operatives a bit strange) it is reasonably light whereas it was discribed as dark. So maybe not entirely accurate.
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Alfa
- Guest
I agree with you Sisyphus I've read "Operation Certain Death" which is one of his other books and is the same sort of thing, the "banter" between the SAS is, I assume, suppose to make it sound realistic but it just comes across as a poor attempt to imagine how SF soldiers talk and act with each other.
He's very sensationalist and I doubt most of what's in his book is really "from the men who were there" as is implied.
He's very sensationalist and I doubt most of what's in his book is really "from the men who were there" as is implied.
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just_me
- Guest
If I'm reading a book about military events that actually took place, I would prefer to read about it from the soldier themselves (as in the author). When people who weren't actually there write about the events in that form (writing conversations and so on) it usually sounds a bit fake, like it did in Bloody Heroes. I thought it did anyway, and Damien Lewis seems to have got a few facts mudled up and contradicts himself a few time, I had to re-read quite a few bits.
Nice spot Seraph! 
My guess is that he's sat down with 'Mat' or some of the guys and got the main bullet points. The rest seems to be, more or less, made up but fitted around 'real events'.
I don't think it's a bad read [if you like that sort of thing] but it riles me when the write-ups tell you 'The most explosive true war story of the 21st Century', 'The exclusive inside story', 'The most dramatic story of a secret wartime mission that you will ever read'. And so on......
By the way, the prisoners 'rebelled' and were dealt with; The media were on site within a couple of days, etc.. so how was it a 'secret wartime mission'?
I don't think it's a bad read [if you like that sort of thing] but it riles me when the write-ups tell you 'The most explosive true war story of the 21st Century', 'The exclusive inside story', 'The most dramatic story of a secret wartime mission that you will ever read'. And so on......
By the way, the prisoners 'rebelled' and were dealt with; The media were on site within a couple of days, etc.. so how was it a 'secret wartime mission'?
