Sniper one: on scope and under siege with a sniper team in Iraq

Book Cover
Average Rating
Author
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Publication Date
2008.
Language
English

Description

When Sgt. Dan Mills and the rest of the 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment flew into Iraq in April, 2004, they were supposed to be winning hearts and minds. They were soon fighting for their lives.

Within hours of their arrival in Iraq, a grenade bounced off one of the battalion’s Land Rovers, rolled underneath and detonated. The ambush marked the beginning of a full-scale firefight during which Mills killed a man with a round that removed his assailant’s head. It was going to be a long tour.

Like some post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” nightmare, the place had gone to hell in a handbasket. Temperatures on the ground often topped 120 degrees Fahrenheit, sewage systems had long since packed up, and the stench of cooking waste and piles of festering garbage grew wherever you looked. Throat-burning winds, blast bombs and well-trained, well-organized militias armed with AKs, RPGs and a limitless supply of mortar rounds were the icing on the cake.

If any of Mills’s eighteen-man sniper platoon had thought that the people of Al Amarah were going to welcome them with open arms, they were rapidly forced to reconsider. For the next six months, isolated, besieged and under constant fire, the battalion refused to give an inch.

Sniper One is a breathtaking chronicle of endurance, camaraderie, dark humor and courage in the face of relentless, lethal assault.

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ISBN
9780312531263

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Published Reviews

Booklist Review

When a battalion of the Prince of Wales' Royal Regiment landed in Iraq in 2004, Mills commanded the 18 men of the sniper platoon. His gripping combat narrative covers how the platoon did more than its share of the fighting during the months when the Iraqis virtually besieged the battalion. The enemy was zealous and well equipped with small arms, grenades, and mortars, and the local civilians were either hostile or trying to keep their heads down. The platoon's combat record involved wounds for most of it members and decoration for many, including Mills; one man won the first nonposthumous Victoria Cross in 38 years. Quite apart from its excellence as a combat narrative, Sniper One is a valuable portrait of the British army, a force small in numbers but high in quality that still emphasizes mastery of the basic skills of the infantryman. Possibly the year's best book, so far, on combat in Iraq.--Green, Roland Copyright 2008 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

Starred Review. When the 1st Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, under Mills's command, was told they'd be heading to Iraq in November 2003, the war was no longer much of a news item in Britain. But, says Mills, We didn't give a toss... we were going somewhere interesting. The battalion was assigned to al-Amarah: 400,000 people and a center of support for Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Under heavy sniper fire and mortar attacks, British peacekeeping gave way to a full-scale military operation. Mills powerfully describes the demanding work of his snipers before and after the city was brought under control (more or less). The work's real value is its insight into the contemporary British army. Mills and his comrades are professionals, unconcerned with the wider aspects of their assignment; They'll fight out of their skin for you, Mills notes. One man deals with stress by masturbating. Another fails to deal with it, and his transfer is matter-of-fact, with no moral dimension. British participation in Iraq has been largely ignored in the U.S. That should change with Mills's page-turning account, already an international bestseller. 16 pages of color photos; map. (Sept. 2) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.

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Library Journal Review

Fast-paced action and explicit language are evident in this memoir of British military action in Iraq, originally published in the United Kingdom in 2007. Mills was decorated for his command of an elite sniper platoon of the first battalion of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. He writes a graphic account of combat in the area of Al'Am,rah from April to October 2004. Initially welcomed as saviors, the soldiers in the platoon find themselves in fierce fighting by the time of the 2004 handover of power. They're despised as invaders and face repeated assaults, culminating in an Alamo-like siege. Mills provides some comic relief as he describes the colorful personalities of his fellow soldiers. His style is not technical and should appeal to general readers as well as history and military buffs. Most of the coverage of the Iraq War concentrates on American forces, and it is time that other coalition forces are discussed. Other titles on British actions in the region include Patrick Bishop's 3 Para and Chris Hunter's Eight Lives Down. Recommended for most general collections; special collections might consider it as well.-David Alperstein, Queens Borough P.L., Jamaica, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

Another testosterone-laced memoir of an elite unit kicking butt in Iraq, this one with a cheerful, politically incorrect British twist. Having missed out on Operation Iraqi Freedom a year earlier, the author's 15-man sniper platoon in the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment was thrilled to learn in April 2004 that it was finally shipping overseas on a "peacekeeping" mission. Soldiers whose enlistment was expiring eagerly signed up again. Arriving in Iraq, Mills and his men cringed at the heat, loathed the poor sanitation, pitied the poverty, despised Iraqi police, Iraqi soldiers and all civilian superiors, but loved the American forces' vast arsenal and luxurious amenities. Their assignment took them to a large city--lacking, the author repeats, sewage and trash collection--where they quickly walked into an ambush and found themselves enmeshed in a vicious insurgency. Mostly, they defended their base in the city center and fought as infantry, but circumstances often required their specialty, so readers looking for technical details about sniping will not be disappointed. Mills, an 18-year veteran of tours in Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Bosnia, never conceals his and his men's love of fighting. While American career soldiers have been known to admit this in their memoirs, they usually feel obliged to justify it by proclaiming their love of country and reminding readers of the sacrifices our troops make to protect us from hordes of suicidal maniacs. Mills has no interest in defending America's invasion of Iraq, and he adopts the traditional British soldier's view of the enemy as wacky foreigners, genuinely dangerous but terrible shots. A military memoir refreshingly devoid of the usual patriotic overlay. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

When a battalion of the Prince of Wales' Royal Regiment landed in Iraq in 2004, Mills commanded the 18 men of the sniper platoon. His gripping combat narrative covers how the platoon did more than its share of the fighting during the months when the Iraqis virtually besieged the battalion. The enemy was zealous and well equipped with small arms, grenades, and mortars, and the local civilians were either hostile or trying to keep their heads down. The platoon's combat record involved wounds for most of it members and decoration for many, including Mills; one man won the first nonposthumous Victoria Cross in 38 years. Quite apart from its excellence as a combat narrative, Sniper One is a valuable portrait of the British army, a force small in numbers but high in quality that still emphasizes mastery of the basic skills of the infantryman. Possibly the year's best book, so far, on combat in Iraq. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal Reviews

Fast-paced action and explicit language are evident in this memoir of British military action in Iraq, originally published in the United Kingdom in 2007. Mills was decorated for his command of an elite sniper platoon of the first battalion of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. He writes a graphic account of combat in the area of Al'Amrah from April to October 2004. Initially welcomed as saviors, the soldiers in the platoon find themselves in fierce fighting by the time of the 2004 handover of power. They're despised as invaders and face repeated assaults, culminating in an Alamo-like siege. Mills provides some comic relief as he describes the colorful personalities of his fellow soldiers. His style is not technical and should appeal to general readers as well as history and military buffs. Most of the coverage of the Iraq War concentrates on American forces, and it is time that other coalition forces are discussed. Other titles on British actions in the region include Patrick Bishop's 3 Para and Chris Hunter's Eight Lives Down. Recommended for most general collections; special collections might consider it as well.

[Page 86]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

When the 1st Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, under Mills's command, was told they'd be heading to Iraq in November 2003, the war was no longer much of a news item in Britain. But, says Mills, "We didn't give a toss... we were going somewhere interesting." The battalion was assigned to al-Amarah: 400,000 people and a center of support for Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Under heavy sniper fire and mortar attacks, British peacekeeping gave way to a full-scale military operation. Mills powerfully describes the demanding work of his snipers before and after the city was brought under control (more or less). The work's real value is its insight into the contemporary British army. Mills and his comrades are professionals, unconcerned with the wider aspects of their assignment; "They'll fight out of their skin for you," Mills notes. One man deals with stress by masturbating. Another fails to deal with it, and his transfer is matter-of-fact, with no moral dimension. British participation in Iraq has been largely ignored in the U.S. That should change with Mills's page-turning account, already an international bestseller. 16 pages of color photos; map. (Sept. 2)

[Page 153]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
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