Product Description

We all saw it at once. Half a dozen voices screamed 'Grenade!' simultaneously. Then everything went into slow motion. The grenade took an age to travel through its 20 metre arc. A dark, small oval-shaped package of misery the size of a peach ...April 7th 2004: a year to the day since the city had fallen. Saddam had been deposed. The Marines and the Paras were long gone and Southern Iraq rarely made it into the news. When Sgt Dan Mills and the rest of the 1st Batallion, The Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment flew in, they were supposed to be winning hearts and minds. They were soon fighting for their lives. Within hours of arriving in Iraq a grenade bounced off one of the battalion's landrovers, 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 handcart. Temperatures on the ground often topped 50c, sewage systems that had long since packed up, the stench of cooking waste and piles of festering rubbish that grew wherever you looked. Throat-burning winds, blast bombs and well-trained, well-organised militias armed with AKs and RPGs and a limitless supply of mortar rounds were the icing on the cake. If any of Mills' 18 man sniper platoon had thought that the people of Al Amarah were going to welcome them with open arms, they were forced to rapidly reconsider. For the next six months, isolated, besieged and under constant fire the battalion refused to give an inch. Cimic House, their HQ, may have been shit, but it was home. And its defence, the most intense the British army fought in 50 years, was a modern day Rorke's Drift. "Sniper One" is a breathtaking chronical of endurance, camaraderie, dark humour and courage in the face of relentless, lethal assault.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135192 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

ANDY McNAB
'You can taste the dust and cordite. One of the best first-hand
accounts of combat that I've ever read.'

MARK SPICER, author of Illustrated Manual of Sniper Skills
'This book may upset the system, but it's a story that should be
told ... their story matches any act of heroism in British history and
they've earned their right to be heard.'

Sunday Telegraph
'A highly-charged, action filled, adrenalin-pumped, page-turning read that, frankly, knocks the socks off all previous British accounts in this genre'

Customer Reviews

I have just finished reading "Sniper One."
I have just finished reading the paper back edition of "Sniper One."
The paperback edition was only released on Tuesday. I bought a copy on Thursday, and I haven't been able to put it down till I finished it today (Monday).
Unlike some "Sniper" based books this book is more about the situation the soldiers found themselves in, and how they managed the trials of those situations, rather than overly detailed accounts of incredible shots from unbelievable distances (not to say their weren't a few of those, but they just happened as part of the job, more a consequence of the situation the men found themselves in rather than the central emphasis of the narrative).
There is more than enough action to keep you on the edge of your seat, and plenty of tales of professional soldiers maintaining a cool and professional manner, in the most extreme circumstances imaginable (they did us proud).
I was also surprised to find out that the MOD had tried to stop the publication of this book. I found that very surprising as I think this book is probably a fantastic recruiting tool. I think the Army comes off very well in this book, and the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment (PWRR) comes off particularly well (37 medals and awards seems to suggest the Army thought so as well.)
Any way if you fancy getting a small glimpse of the kind of the hell our boys have been, and still are dealing with (Don't forget Afghanistan.), I can highly recommend this book.

Amazing!!
I can not express how much i liked this book. As soon as i started reading it i couldn't put it down. Sgt Dan Mills is a solider's solider, who was there to do his job and not get caught up in the political BS that has now permeated into all walks of life now. It is fair to say that when the proverbial hit the fan, Sgt Mills and his boys stood tall and took it. Not only that, but they gave it back and then some.

Sgt Mills writing isn't full of eloquent analogies, but is just straight forward talk about his experiences during his tour in Al Amarah. This engages the reader a lot easier as the experiences he writes about don't need it and would only slow the pace of the book down.

If i ever met Sgt Mills he would def have a pint on me, as what he did, and his fellow troops did is enough to make you bloody proud.

Close to the best book I have ever read.
This is possibly the best book I have ever read, very well written and keeps you turning page after page, just impossible to put down.
It is said this is a true story I have no reason to doubt this. politicians should read this maybe they might equip our soldiers a litte better, with the best of everthing right down to the rifles. The best of everything for the best soldiers in the world, well done lads.