Book Review: We Are Soldiers

We Are Soldiers by Danny Danziger
Sphere $39.99

Award-winning Sunday Times columnist Danny Danziger made the inspired decision not to write a book about British soldiers, but to let the soldiers tell their own stories. In this wide-ranging volume, we hear from buglers, medics, tank commanders and paratroopers — in fact, we hear from the guy who works in the military post office all the way through to the Lieutenant-Colonels commanding operations deep within Afghanistan.

While the stories are undoubtedly different, they are similarly moulded by the shared mission and the life or death situations that these brave people find themselves caught up in.

The book is divided into three sections and unfolds in much the same way the army operates — systematically. It begins, therefore, with Combat Service Support (music, dental, etc), moves into Combat Support Arms (artillery, engineers, etc) and ends with Combat Arms (infantry, army, air corps, etc). With each story, as we move from the relative safety of rear positions into the heat of the battle zones themselves, the tension builds — culminating in some horrendous frontline confrontations, acts of sheer heroism and, ultimately, the inevitable waste of human life.

The stories themselves are born out of all the major engagements since the Falklands War. We are set down in Rwanda, move into Bosnia, skirt about the fringes of Northern Ireland, slip in and out of Sierra Leone, and spend a great deal of time in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Interestingly, some of the older soldiers who have gone their entire careers without engaging enemy forces, or participating in a live operation, are hugely envious of the young men and women serving in the Middle East — there is an almost universal keenness to put their training into practice.

Make no mistake: they want to do their bit.

Perhaps the most common revelation is that, on their return home, they no longer sweat the small stuff — if it is not life or death, then it isn’t worth losing sleep over.

There is also a shared understanding that they were deployed to make things better for the locals, that they were truly committed to providing a safe and secure place where life and commerce can thrive without interference and intimidation. But there is also an understanding that they could only do so much — that sometimes their best just wasn’t enough, and that people do, sadly, perish.

These raw, first-hand accounts help open one’s eyes to the grim realities facing the military in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

They are personal stories, with no room for political, ideological or theoretical discussion, just the practicalities of the day-to-day responsibilities — we are here, they seem to be saying, to make things better.

Steve Scott is an Auckland reviewer.