3 Para - Books (Patrick Bishop, Paperback)

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Customer Reviews of 3 Para

Krantz
london
8th October 2008

A great insight
This book is indeed fantastic to read, it is well researched and gives a slightly more wholesome view of what our boys are up against. My only criticism, not meaning to take anything away from the author, is that the book is not written as if a soldier is talking, but rather from a third person perspective, which is good but not my personal choice (after reading sniper one). This by no means takes away from the value of the book and its a very good read, for anyone who wants a bit of a clue as to what's really going on in afghanistan.

L. BETTLES

5th October 2008

Good solid read
A good solid read. Interesting and well written in my opinion. My only criticism is that it jumped around a bit and therefore I found it hard to follow on occassion. This perhaps reflects the chaos of the situation.

R. Goggin
London
24th September 2008

3 Para
This book is not written by a soldier but an author who wasn't there and who didn't experience it first hand. It therefore seems to lack the observations or humour of books like "Sniper One". However, it still contains a lot of useful insight and facts about the day to day life of the UK forces in Afghanistan.

The book identifies a variety of issues that our troops have had to contend with. Everything from running low on ammo to screwed up chains of command and all topped off with Afghan forces phoning up the Taliban and tipping them off. It is obvious that our boys have done an admirable job in very testing conditions.

The big problem I have with this book is the way it explains the loss of soldiers from the Parachute Regiment compared to other UK troop losses. One particular episode where two signallers were killed really concerned me. It was almost as if the author didn't think there deaths mattered and for that fact I think the Author failed dismally. The book may have been about 3 Para but to not pay credit to those who served right alongside them and lost their lives is shameful.

Eric Ambleside
North Yorkshire
17th August 2008

Sober and sensible, despite the cover
Patrick Bishop has now written several accounts of specific units or services in wartime, including the excellent "Fighter Boys" and "Bomber Boys", both about WW2 British fliers.

At first glance, this foray into contemporary conflict doesn't look promising; the paperback version is decorated with tawdry tabloid marketing blurb (and the statutory McNab/Ryan rave review) which makes it seem like another of the sensationalist glorifying accounts of recent conflicts that now seem to be cluttering the bookshelves of the nation.

Fortunately, Bishop is a better writer than that, so I persisted and was rewarded with a fascinating account of the British Army in Afghanistan, which focuses on the detail of day to day fire-fights without being the cheap tat that the cover suggests. Bishop remains sober and sensible throughout.

Don't expect balance from Bishop however - that's not what he does. As with this WW2 books, he starts from the assumption that the subjects of his research are the good guys, generally heroic, and that the enemy are pretty much invisible in human terms. Whilst he is clearly partial, it should be noted that he appears to be entirely objective in his reporting of the other side - he's not writing for The Sun and seems to ensure that accounts are factual and honest. As he makes no pretence of approaching the book in any other way, that's fine. As with previous books, he pulls together primarily first hand accounts and some other sources to draw a picture of the fighting from the sharp end, almost entirely from the viewpoint of the guys doing the shooting. The result is a down to earth narrative, that feels real and honest, and as accurate as first-hand accounts ever can be within the wider battle.

3 Para are painted as tough, straightforward and generally decent guys, if rough and ready below the familiarly standard British officer class (Sandhurst training must be pretty effective - they all look and sound/read the same!).

General conclusions on the war in Afghanistan: probably an understandable mission to begin with, but as usual, nobody learned the lessons of history, and are now therefore repeating the mistakes of same. Don't pick a fight with the Afghans - you'll never entirely win.

A view of the fighting from the other side would be fascinating, although due to the nature of that opposition it may be unlikely to ever surface.

Overall an excellent book, another well-written and clear-minded contribution from the author.

Mr. S. Stevenson
Brighton, UK
9th August 2008

Not first hand..
I bought this book and like many others who had read 'Sniper One', 'Eight Lives Down' and other similar books, found this quite disapointing.
I expected it to be a first hand account where you feel like you are there with the actual soldiers, but this is nothing like that at all.
It is all a sort of mix up of whats going on in different places at different times, and is altogether quite confusing to be honest.
It seems as though the author has got loads of information of what happened from people who were there and decided to make a book out of it, but quite frankly it would have been one hundred times better if it was written by one of the soldiers themselves.
If you want a good military read then I advise buying the books mentioned above.