War is not a pleasant business. People die, cut to ribbons by bullets,
limbs blown off by mines and roadside bombs. Not just the soldiers, but
the non-combatants: young women, the elderly and children. 1963 to 1967
saw Britain fighting in a hostile and arid country, trying to stem the
expansion of communism in the Middle East. On the ground, the ordinary
soldiers, infantry, gunners, engineers and armoured regiments did what
the British soldier always does - getting on with the job come hell or
high water! Bomber's story is written from real-life experience.
Although Bomber, the main character, is fictitious, he is based on a
combination of many soldiers. Many of the events took place as described
but with the storyteller's licence when melting them together. The
Wolves of the Radfan, the largest tribe that straddled the then-border
between North and South Yemen, started the war and the British soldiers
put paid to the Wolves in 1964, but then came the push by the communists
from North Yemen and it was then the contest started in all the
brutality that war produces. Many acts of great courage have not been
mentioned in the book, especially in the period from 1963 to the end of
1964, perhaps someone else will write about that. Fact and fiction,
fiction or fact? This is a story of a normal British infantryman who
faced combat and it was nothing like he had ever imagined.
