Book description
'Afghanistan is just like Iraq - hot, dusty and full of people who want
to kill you', SSgt Simon Fuller, Royal Engineer Search Advisor
Bomb Hunters tells the story of the British army's elite bomb disposal
experts, men who face death every day in the most dangerous region of
the most lethal country on earth - Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Bomb Hunters are up against the Improvised Explosive Device - the IED -
the deadly homemade bombs planted by the Taliban. Hard to detect and
easy to trigger, an estimated 10 bombs for every one of the 10,000
British troops have been planted in the region. IEDs are now the main
killer of British troops in Afghanistan and the ultimate psychological weapon.
Bomb Hunters work in 50-degree heat as they take the 'long walk' into
the kill zone, defusing as many as 15 bombs a day. In the past year the
casualty rate has soared as the troops have become locked into a deadly
game of cat and mouse - to locate and deactivate the deadly bombs before
they maim and kill soldiers, police and civilians. Skill, cold courage
and inevitably pure luck play a huge part in the survival of these men
and as the British public have already seen - a single lapse of
concentration can result in instant death.
Ex-paratrooper, now defence journalist, Sean Rayment, takes the reader
on a journey into the heat and dust of Helmand Province as he meets
these courageous soldiers while they put their lives at risk to prevent
other British troops falling victim to the IED. He interviews the Bomb
Hunters as they perform their duties on the frontline and paints a
breathtaking picture of what life is like for the men who play poker
with their own lives every day, who live knowing the enemy watches their
every move, waiting for a weakness to show itself, a pattern in
technique to be exploited, or an error to be made that triggers the
device itself.
This is as vivid and dramatic as war reporting gets, mixing 'close to
the bone' narrative and dead-pan black humour from the Bomb Hunters
themselves, some of whom were subsequently killed in action. No punches
will be pulled on what these men feel about the war, their place in it,
the politicians and generals who send them there, and how they deal with
the relentless pressure of the job itself in the heart of the world's
most hostile combat environment. 'A vivid and absorbing portrayal of a
unique and dedicated group of soldiers.' - General Sir Mike Jackson,
formerly Chief of the General Staff.
'[a] scintillating book' - Short List Sean Rayment served as a
Captain in the Parachute Regiment in the late 1980's. As a journalist,
he has specialised in war reporting for the past ten years, undertaking
assignments in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, the
Gulf and Africa. He has been embedded with the British Army on more than
a ten occasions.
