The Pegasus Journal has published, in conjunction with DRA Books, The Battle for Helmand, highlighting the role and success of the deployment by The Parachute Regiment to southern Afghanistan in the summer of 2006.

In full colour this special publication records the role of all the units who served in Helmand. It is packed with stunning photographs and unit accounts from those who served there.

In total 32 personnel from the Battle Group and the RAF died during the tour and this book is dedicated to them.

It is planned that a proportion of profits will go to Airborne Charities to support the Regiment and members of 3 PARA injured during the operation.

Copies of the book are available to members of the Regiment and the PRA at the discounted price of £17.99. ( usual price £24.99)

Please call direct on 01752 671297 or send a cheque for £17.99 to DRA Books, 14 Mary Seacole Road, The Millfields, Plymouth, Devon PL1 3JY.

MODERN WARFARE                        

The importance of a conflict is determined not by its size or by the numbers of combatants involved but by its ripple effects and its influence upon future events.
In a series of thrilling recreations of eight of the most significant encounters of the last three decades, military historian Richard Connaughton presents a fascinating insight into modern warfare, including interviews with some of the major figures.

The conflicts include Goose Green in the Falklands, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Barras in Sierra Leone, as well as more recent events at Fallujah, Iraq, and in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Richard Connaughton has interviewed most of the major figures involved in each of the conflicts and offers powerful insights into why battles either work or don't. This book will tell you what warfare means in the contemporary world and how it can affect tomorrow.

Richard Connaughton, for over 30 years an Army Officer, is a former Head of British Army Defence Studies. He has worked on the development of principles and theories of Military Intervention. His understanding of military and political possibilities has been enhanced through having been to the places about which he has written, which include Grenada, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.

From the same publisher, Constable & Robinson comes Into the Killing Zone: Dispatches from the Frontline in Afghanistan by Sean Rayment.

A soldier's eye view of the fighting in Afghanistanfrom ex-Para and Sunday Telegraph correspondent Sean Rayment who has followed the conflict in Afghanistan from the first moment and tells the story of the rise and fall of the British effort in Afghanistan.

The current conflict in Afghanistan is unlike any other war in the world. Since 2006 British soldiers have been living in impossible conditions, under the searing desert sun (on occasions reaching 50°C) and facing continual fire from elusive Taliban forces. With access to many members of the Parachute Regiment, the Royal Marines, and The Royal Anglian Regiment as well as the undercover operations of special forces, Sean Rayment recounts the lives and battles of the British forces at the centre of the most difficult conflict of our times.

Included here is the dramatic two-week siege of Sangin in August 2006, in which 120 members of the Parachute regiment stood against an unseen desert force: in the turmoil, under heavy fire, Corporal Bryan Budd of the Paras headed off a Taliban assault and was killed; he won a posthumous VC. During the most dangerous periods soldiers were forced to sleep standing at their battle positions.


Available from good Bookshops

             3 PARA

If you want to know about what our troops are going through in Afghanistan READ THIS BOOK!!!-It tells the true story of the 3 Para Battlegroup who deployed to Afghanistan in the spring of 2006 into the dangerous Helmand province.At first it was hoped they wouldn't have to fire a shot but that was to change and very soon they were involved in some of the fiercest fighting not seen since the second world war!-The dozens of decorations the battlegroup recieved for their gallantry,including the Victoria Cross,clearly show just what these Airborne soldiers went through!

SNIPER ONE

In April of 2004, the 1st Battalion, the PWRR, arrived in Iraq. Dan Mills was a sergeant in the sniper platoon of Y Company. His platoon was posted to the Cimic House compound in Al Amarah in the Maysan province, to defend the CPA whose role it was to reconstruct the town.

It was intended to be a peacekeeping tour, with the PWRR visiting local police stations to help the Iraqi police keep order in Al Amarah. But on their first foot patrol, Dan's team are hit by a grenade thrown from an Iraqi police station being used by supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, the OMS. What should have been a peacekeeping tour turns out to be a constant back-and-forth battle that lasts for months.

The author describes the action very clearly, never getting lost in metaphor or rhetoric. Dan Mills makes no attempt to hide his platoon's joy at killing the enemy, and he makes it clear that no remorse was felt for ending the lives of armed opponents. The blame is very much placed on the armed Iraqis that make it impossible for the non-military agencies to make a go of rebuilding the province. He does, however, express pity for the folk of Al Amarah that have no interest in combat, but are forced to live amongst the carnage of the power struggle.

The way he tells it, the PWRR were very careful to avoid civilian casualties, and any collateral damage was caused by OMS mortars, and OMS fighters using civilians as human shields. But this is of course just one side of the story of a very messy situation. Ask a member of the OMS that lived through those months of combat, and I bet you'll hear the exact opposite. Ask a civilian, and you'd probably hear another version somewhere between the two.

But, as an account of the events in Al Amarah during that period, Sniper One is a gripping read. Dan Mills describes the combat and the quiet moments with excellent pace. At no point did I find my interest wane, as the fighting becomes intense, and even the the non-combat situations are informative or amusing.

Sniper One by Sgt Dan Mills is an excellent read for anyone wondering what awaits a battle group once it arrives in an urban warzone.

THE BATTLE FOR AFGHANISTAN

This is the story of the defeat of Soviet Russia's forces in Afghanistan by a guerrilla force known as the Mujahideen, heavily backed by Pakistan and the USA. The Mujahideen paved the way for the Taliban regime, to exist having all but defeated the Russian Army in the late 80's. The author, Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, was head of the Afghan Bureau of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence and as such was effectively the Mujahideens commander-in-chief. He controlled the flow of thousands of tons of arms across Pakistan and into its occupied neighbour, arms that were bought with CIA and Saudi Arabian funds from the USA. One of the Mujahideens close allies was none other than Osama Bin Laden. This compelling book was put together with great skill the by military historian, Mark Adkin in conjunction with Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf and is essential reading for anyone interested in the truth behind the Afghanistan War which led to the conditions that exist there today.