Product Description

In an action-packed narrative Oliver Poole describes how he became "embedded" in a US tank and infantry company known as the Black Knights - the first unit in the Third Infantry Division to engage in combat when, 12 hours after crossing the Kuwait border, it helped seize an airfield in the outskirts of Nasiriyah. His company was at the head of a column that fought its way through Republican Guard units on the day the American army reached the outskirts of Baghdad, and finally led the advance from the west into the centre of Saddam Hussein's capital. By the time the author first met the soldiers he was assigned to, they had been training for nine months in Kuwait to make them one of the most prepared desert-warfare units in the world. Their one overriding desire was to escape the sand and dust and go back to their families. They all knew the only way to do that was by going home via Baghdad. 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 they - many of them under the age of 20, 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 was the impact on the people of Baghdad? Oliver Poole has written a fly-on-the-wall account of what frontline combat action meant in the first major war of the 21st century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #926109 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-03
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From the Inside Flap
Oliver Poole became the West coast of America correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in September 2001, arriving in New York on one of the first planes allowed out of Heathrow following the September 11 attacks. At the end of 2002 the Pentagon announced it was introducing a new system of press coverage in the event of war in Iraq: journalists were to be 'embedded' with military units on the front line. In February 2003 Oliver Poole landed in Kuwait.
Born and brought up in London, he was educated at Oxford University. After working for three years on the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, he joined the Telegraph Group in 1999. He now lives in Los Angeles.

About the Author
Oliver Poole is the West Coast of America correspondent for the Daily Telegraph based in Los Angeles. An Oxford graduate, he started his job in September 2001, arriving in New York on one of the first planes allowed out of Heathrow following the 11September terrorist attacks.

Customer Reviews

"Up Close and Personal"
This is a marvelous, intriguing, well written account of an
embedded journalist who actually places the reader right by
his side as he makes the perilous journey with the Black Knights
on their trek through Iraq to Bagdad. His personal stories, day
by day, leads one to definitely believe that Oliver Poole could
have been taking notes for 20 hours a day. It is definitely a
moving, vivid account from the advance of the Black Knights into
Iraq to the joyous welcome they received on their return to
Fort Stewart, Georgia on July 12th. Well done, Oliver!!!!!!!!!

Innocents and illegal invasions
A great travel narrative of war. The publisher seemed intent on packaging and promoting it like Bravo 2 Zero, but this totally missed the point. The book recounts the experiences of a young British journalist embedded with the American 51st armoured division during its invasion of Iraq. I read it when it was published and you knew that collectively the 'allies' had got themselves into a pickle. What Poole saw hinted at why it would all go so wrong, not to mention why it was wrong.

This is the story of an innocent going to war, with other innocents and seeing lots of innocents killed. The maturity comes at the end and the understanding that a country will send people to do a job that they don't understand and don't need to understand to get that job 'done'. Read this if you're innocent of what modern warfare means for those caught in the crossfire. Read this is you're under thirty and want to know what it would have felt like being part of an invasion. There will be better books about the invasion, but as first hand accounts go I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I know the writer and hope he produces another book as he continued to cover Iraq for the telegraph during more turbulent years for the Americans.

Reality Journalism
The intensity and horror of war is brought home in this first class description of the America's victorious march through Iraq. Poole is right up there in the front line and paints a detailed picture of the realities of the invasion and the personalities involved. A fascinating read.