Review Burning Horizon, British Veteran Accounts Of The Iraq War 2003

Whippy, Julian, Burning Horizon, British Veteran Accounts Of The Iraq War 2003, Oxford and Philadelphia: Casemate, 2023

 

Burning Horizon, British Veteran Accounts Of The Iraq War 2003 by Julian Whippy is about the experiences of British soldiers during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It mixes commentary by the author about the overall events before and during the war with long interviews with troops. Most military histories focus upon the generals and officers but this one is more about the regular soldier and what they saw and felt about serving in Iraq.

 

There are four sections to the book. The first is on how the soldiers were called up to duty. The second is on their deployment to Kuwait. The third is on the invasion where British troops were tasked with taking Basra province in southern Iraq. The last is on their trip home.

 

The main takeaway from the start of Burning Horizon is how unhappy many of the troops were. For instance, they many didn’t like the trip from England to Kuwait. The Royal Air Force didn’t have enough planes and had to hire contractors which didn’t work on the weekends holding up hundreds of troops from getting to the Middle East. Many others felt that their equipment was out of date because it was from the Cold War. Several talked about checking out their chemical warfare suits and finding some of them lacking pieces and falling apart. There was also supply shortages. One unit of Scimitar light tanks didn’t have enough ammunition to train in Kuwait. The most recent experiences of the British military were doing peace keeping in the former Yugoslavia and the Gulf War. Things hadn’t changed much since then which led to these many complaints. As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said you go to war with the military you have not the one you want. That shouldn’t be true but often happens.

 

The U.K.’s troops took part in two main operations during the actual invasion of Iraq. Those were seizing the oil fields in Basra province and then moving on Basra City. The many recollections by soldiers gives the fighting a personal touch. There was even some comedy involved such as during Operation James to seize Abu al-Khasib outside Basra City. The town was broken up into different parts each using names from James Bond with the hart of Khasib being called Pussy Galore after the main female character in Gold Finger. The fighting in both Khasib and Basra City was heavy and chaotic. There were both regular Iraqi army troops but also the Fedayeen Saddam militia. The latter tried again and again to infiltrate behind the British and ambush them. One of the most intense stories came in Basra city when a Challenger tank became disabled in a ditch and it took several hours to recover it under fire. The chapters on combat are by far the best in the book. It’s always interesting to read what soldiers saw and felt rather than just hearing about the generals giving a command and then a unit trying to carry it out which is what most books are about.

 

There are two drawbacks to Burning Horizon. The biggest is that the stories by the soldiers are in very small font. This was probably done to keep the page count down but it’s annoying. The other is that like most military histories there are dozens and dozens of units, equipment, etc. For instance, in one sentence Whippy writes that troops were waiting at TAA Viking and FARP with an AC-130U overhead which was being used by TAC HQ. That translates to two staging areas for soldiers with a plane overhead which was being used by a headquarters unit to coordinate the operation. The sheer number of acronyms can be overwhelming even if there’s a glossary listing all of them at the end.

 

There are dozens of books about the U.S. involvement in Iraq but very few about what the British experience so Burning Horizon helps fill in that part of the history. Basing it upon first-hand accounts also makes it much more engaging than your usual military account. Although it’s only a small part of the account Whippy also shows how the U.S. and U.K. went through very similar things during the invasion. There was some very tough and short fighting, and then they felt things were over, the Iraqis were going to take over, and they tried to get their troops out as quickly as possible. That didn’t work out and Iraq and the Coalition suffered the consequences. That’s the topic of other releases however.

 

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