Dimensions
111 x 178 x 25mm
'Black Knights' is an extraordinary vivid, gripping and moving fly-on-the-wall account of what front-line combat action meant in the first major war of the twenty-first century. Written by a young journalist who was the only British daily newspaper reporter to be embedded with the US military during the operation in Iraq, this book unflinchingly describes the modern face of battle, and the young soldiers who fought in it.
The tank and infantry company known as the 'Black Knights' was the first unit in the US Third Infantry Division to engage in combat. By the time the first statues of Saddam were toppled in Baghdad, the soldiers had been through a terrifying baptism of fire - and had inflicted terrible casualties on the Iraqis. How did the troops - many of them under the age of twenty, some of whom had only recently acquired US citizenship - cope with fear and injury? How did they react to the killing? How were they changed by war? What, finally, was the impact on the people of Baghdad?
Oliver Poole shared the soldiers' food, living space and dangers, becoming their confidant and a sounding-board for all their hopes and fears. He has written a remarkable frank and revealing narrative - testimony as much to his own courage and writing skills as to the bravery and professionalism of the combatants.
