Review Hell In The Streets Of Husaybah, The April 2004 Fights Of 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines In Husaybah, Iraq

Kelly, Lt Col David, (Ret), Hell In The Streets Of Husaybah, The April 2004 Fights Of 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines In Husaybah, Iraq, Philadelphia & Oxford: Casemate, 2022

 

Hell In The Streets Of Husaybah, The April 2004 Fight Of 3^rd Battalion, 7^th Marines In Husaybah, Iraq came out of the Marine Corps Oral History Program. Two officers went to Iraq and interviewed 190 Marines who took part in a battle with insurgents in April 2004 in Husaybah along the Syrian border in western Anbar province. The book provides the commentary of the author and firsthand accounts of the Marines. It gives details on one small battle early on in the war. It starts off interesting but then all the stories become repetitive as the major action only covered a few days. 

 

On April 14, 2004, insurgents launched the Battle of Husaybah which would last one week. It began with an ambush of some Marines who were visiting the local Iraqi police and escalated to town wide fighting. The Marines quickly counter attacked and swept through all of Husaybah top to bottom. The insurgents made one more attempt on the town but failed. The fighting was over by April 18. This occurred at the same time as the Battle of Fallujah. The commander of the 7^th Marine Regiment believed that the militants thought the unit was weak as it sent all its heavy vehicles to Fallujah and was trying to take advantage of the situation. The stories of those days’ events are some of the best in the book. There were two Marines that were killed that had a deep impact upon the unit.

 

The main problem with Hell In The Streets Of Husaybah is that accounts of the Marines all end up sounding the same. Many were deployed during the invasion. They got called up to redeploy to Iraq. They were working with the local police and then the insurgents attacked. Afterwards the insurgents largely disappeared. There is only so many ways you can hear recollections of those events especially because the combat only lasted five days. Thankfully the book didn’t include all 190 interviews but Kelly could have done a better job picking which ones to includes and which to exclude.

 

Retired Lieutenant Colonel David Kelly’s book is a mixed bag. There are some interesting stories from the Marines, but then they become monotonous as they almost all talk about the same things over and over. Kelly probably wanted to give a wide range of views from both officers, non-commissioned officers and enlisted men, but he should’ve been more selective. Less could’ve provided more.

 

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