Horse Soldiers
The Extraordinary Story of a Band of Special Forces Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
On September 11th, 2001 the world watched in terror.
On September 12th, 2001 they volunteered to fight.
Twelve soldiers gave us a reason to hope.
THE DECLASSIFIED TRUE STORY OF THE HORSE SOLDIERS.
This is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who entered Afghanistan immediately following September 11, 2001 and, riding to war on horses, defeated the Taliban.
Outnumbered 40 to 1, they capture the strategic Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, and thereby effectively defeat the Taliban throughout the rest of the country. They are welcomed as liberators as they ride on horses into the city, the streets thronged with Afghans overjoyed that the Taliban have been kicked out.
The soldiers rest easy, as they feel they have accomplished their mission. And then, the action takes a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers are ambushed by the would-be P.O.W.s and, still dangerously outnumbered, they must fight for their lives in the city's ancient fortress known as Qala-I Janghi, or the House of War . . .
Praise for Doug Stanton:-
‘A thrilling action ride of a book.’ New York Times
‘As gripping as the most intricately-plotted thriller.’ Vince Flynn
‘A riveting story of the brave and resourceful American warriors who rode into Afghanistan after 9/11 and waged war against Al Qaeda.’ Tom Brokaw
‘This reads like a cross between an old-fashioned Western and a modern spy thriller.’ Parade Magazine
‘Spellbinding...action-packed prose. The book reads more like a novel.’ USA Today
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this absolutely riveting account, full of horror and raw courage, journalist Stanton (In Harm's Way) recreates the miseries and triumphs of specially trained mounted U.S. soldiers, deployed in the war-ravaged Afghanistan mountains to fight alongside the Northern Alliance-thousands of rag-tag Afghans who fought themselves to exhaustion or death-against the Taliban. The U.S. contingent, almost to a man, had never ridden horses-especially not these "shaggy and thin-legged, and short... descendents of the beasts Genghis Khan had ridden out of Uzbekistan"-but that was not the only obstacle: rattling helicopters, outdated maps, questionable air support and insufficient food also played their parts. Stanton brings each soldier and situation to vivid life: "Bennett suddenly belted out: 'It just keeps getting better and better!' Here they were, living on fried sheep and filtered ditchwater...calling in ops-guided bombs on bunkers built of mud and wood scrap, surrounded by Taliban fighters." In less than three months, this handful of troops secured a city in which a fort had been taken over by Taliban prisoners, a tangle of firefights and mayhem that became a seminal battle and, in Stanton's prose, a considerable epic: "Dead and dying men and wounded horses had littered the courtyard, a twitching choir that brayed and moaned in the rough, knee-high grass."