Book "Storm Front" - highly recommended! (Spoilers)

[Johnny Dioxin]

It's by Rowland White - now, I'm not a big fan of his writing style, but I have read Phoenix Squadron and though I felt he had padded it out to a large extent with secondary and barely connected information, along with short biographies of every character mentioned and for a similar reason I just couldn't get into his book about the Vulcan strike on Port Stanley, I decided to give this one a go.

 

Although he still tells the short biographies of many of the characters in the book, in most cases it is actually very interesting - such as the sort of experiences the SAS soldiers went through (such as learning to deliver babies) and where people learned certain tactics, and how their past experiences still haunted them and affected their decisions at the battle of Mirbat (where 9 SAS men fought against an entire company of Adoo guerillas).

 

Not wanting to give anything away, but the primary public role of the large SAS presence in Oman was also quite a surprise (although also aimed at intelligence gathering, besides a "Heart and Minds" strategy).

 

The main story is mostly about the way the RAF personnel seconded to the Omani Air Force backed up the SAS operations with airstrikes in their old Strikemaster aircraft, and supported them with similarly second-hand airframes such as the Beaver, Skyvan and heliborne ops using the Jetranger and Hueys.

 

One thing that stood out early, was the tale of the Strikemaster brought down by a "spray-and-prey" burst from an AK-47, from which a single round burst a fuel line, bringing down the jet and ending the pilot's fast jet career. I immediately thought of the people in DCS (and other sims) complaining about the "Golden AK47" shot bringing down their simulated aircraft :thumbup:

 

Anyway, it's a damn good read, and I would recommend it to any enthusiasts - be they of the green or blue type :)

 

I will forewarn you about his speech quotes, though, which are extremely annoying, but he persists with them throughout.

 

eg: "What are you doing" asked the OC "about the Firqas in the area?"

 

Every single speech phrase is printed in that way. :hmm:

 

But I'm sure you'll really enjoy it.

 

In case you haven't seen them - there is a documentary about this action, in the SAS: The Untold Story series, where a couple of the guys who were there recount the story. Might be on YT.

 

There are some differences between the version on TV and that told by Rowland White, but that is probably to be expected.

 

Edit: PS - I couldn't find that documentary on YouTube - luckily I recorded it from the TV - but I did find a couple of news articles:

 

 

Edited November 1, 2018 by Brixmis