Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
by Mark Bowden
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mark BowdenEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-08-01
ISBN: 0451203933
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
Book Review: Riveting, Objective Story of Rangers, Delta and Blackhawks Trapped in
Summary: 5 Stars
Well written, extremely well researched and riveting account of the American forces that tried to make a quick capture of two lieutenants of war lord Mohamed Farrah Aidid within the urban city of Mogadishu only to become trapped within the City having to cut their way out and return with a slowly mobilized rescue force to extricate the remaining forces trapped over night. The author, who is a historian and not a pure journalist, has an unusual ability to obtain numerous interviews, predominantly American but also Somalis involved in the fight, with extraordinary access to military communications that really describe the intensity of battle and the feelings of the participants. Full of first hand accounts, you get the battlefield perception of forces on the ground and the pilots in the Blackhawks along with smaller craft referred to as 'little birds'. The author also has a knack for bringing the reader a graphic view of the soldier's lifestyle, particularly away from home and explains in there detail what it means to be a Ranger or 'Delta boy" and the differences in operations and force membership. The accounts are graphic at times on how they fight boredom and deal with battle stress, thus this truly an adult book on the riggers of being in a combat force. The writing is intense, capturing the feelings of the soldiers that although appearing to be a routine mission turns into a nightmare as logistics and radio communications break down, made more complex by the downing of two blackhawks changing the quick get in get out mission into a rescue mission that bogs down within the urban city contested by Para-military forces and pure civilians armed with everything from AK-47s to rocket propelled grenades, the latter bringing down the blackhawks. Highly personalized views of the soldiers who face intense fire from a multitude of directions as every Somalia seems to be armed from a 5 year old that shoots wildly at a convoy to a mother armed with a baby in one hand and well armed Somalis firing from the constant massing of crowds. The authors bring you back and forth between the different military elements following time lines and it is often an agonizing read as you want to know immediately how each participant or group survives. A classic example is downed pilot and lone survivor of a crash, Mike Durrant who is badly wounded and pinned in the wreckage waiting for help that can't get there in time His fate is a constant unknown as you read about his capture and potential death by the Somalis. The fighting is severe and often cruel as the fire is constant and the hatred of the American's intense. It seems a miracle that only 18 soldiers were killed and just under 80 were wounded, many severely, while countless thousands of Somalis were killed and wounded. The author is extremely objective explaining what happens and he is unusual in that he does not cast blame but reports it an unusual subdued factual way. You often wonder while reading the book why no back up force was ready to immediately go in and he explains that in detail, it wasn't that simple. But this is an amazing account of highly professional soldiers trapped with in a wild west city of surprisingly well armed Somalis who rally together, even their company clerks man the rescue force and perform like warriors, to save their comrades and cut them out. The book is now used by the army to study urban warfare and the author is often called upon to speak to military personnel, virtually as an expert, on what went wrong and to learn from that experience.
Summary of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
The acclaimed New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down is "a shocking account of modern warfare . . . gripping and horrifying" (San Francisco Chronicle)Destined to become a classic of war reporting, Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowden's brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War. On October 3rd, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly injured.
Drawing on interviews from both sides, army records, audiotapes, and videos (some of the material is still classified), Bowden's minute-by-minute narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern combat ever written--a riveting story that captures the heroism, courage, and brutality of battle.
"Black Hawk Down ranks among the best books ever written about infantry combat. . . . A descendent of books like The Killer Angels and We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young."-- Bob Shacochis, The New York Observer
"If Black Hawk Down were fiction we'd rank it up there with the best war novels: The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, or The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien."-- Tom Walker, The Denver Post
"Stands in a league with Shelby Foote's stirring Civil War Diary, Shiloh."-- Jim Haner, The Baltimore Sun
"One of the most gripping and authoritative accounts of combat ever written."-- Kirk Spitzer, USA Today
"Amazing . . . One of the most intense, visceral reading experiences imaginable."-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
A New York Times bestseller for 14 weeks
Bowden's Black Hawk Down series, which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer was awarded the Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle Award for best foreign reporting
Journalist Mark Bowden delivers a strikingly detailed account of the 1993 nightmare operation in Mogadishu that left 18 American soldiers dead and many more wounded. This early foreign-policy disaster for the Clinton administration led to the resignation of Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and a total troop withdrawal from Somalia. Bowden does not spend much time considering the context; instead he provides a moment-by-moment chronicle of what happened in the air and on the ground. His gritty narrative tells of how Rangers and elite Delta Force troops embarked on a mission to capture a pair of high-ranking deputies to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid only to find themselves surrounded in a hostile African city. Their high-tech MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters had been shot down and a number of other miscues left them trapped through the night. Bowden describes Mogadishu as a place of Mad Max-like anarchy--implying strongly that there was never any peace for the supposed peacekeepers to keep. He makes full use of the defense bureaucracy's extensive paper trail--which includes official reports, investigations, and even radio transcripts--to describe the combat with great accuracy, right down to the actual dialogue. He supplements this with hundreds of his own interviews, turning Black Hawk Down into a completely authentic nonfiction novel, a lively page-turner that will make readers feel like they're standing beside the embattled troops. This will quickly be realized as a modern military classic. --John J. Miller
East Africa Books
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