Ground Truth: 3 Para Return to Afghanistan by Patrick Bishop

Ground Truth follows the battalion on its second tour, as the bestselling 3 Para described the gruelling mission in summer 2006 when British troops brought the fight to the Taliban along the Helmand River, and a very bruising encounter it was too.

This time the tempo is more varied, such as playing the strange game of hide-and-seek looking for elusive Taliban commanders and masterminds of the local homemade bomb industry — by far the biggest single threat to the patrolling British soldiers, and many innocent villagers besides.

It is a beguiling and often bewildering account of how this strange war seems to the fighting man and woman. To call them "ordinary soldiers" would be wide of the mark. They emerge as highly motivated and thoughtful and individualistic to the point of eccentricity. By earning their trust, Bishop gets into the core of their thoughts and fears. As a view from the ground, often with the author present at key points in the story, Bishop's books are invaluable.

The Paras' story culminates with what is, by any standards, a big win. The battalion organises the escort and reception for a huge road convoy of hundreds of vehicles ferrying a giant turbine from Kandahar in the south to the Kajaki hydroelectric plant designed in 1953 to bring electricity to most of southwestern Afghanistan. Though the Taliban do their best to stop it, the convoy gets through with only two casualties, an American ranger and a British engineer crushed beneath the lorry he was repairing.

Helping to clear the approaches through the poppy fields south of Kajaki, ideal ambush country for the Taliban, is Corporal Stu Hale of the battalion's intelligence cell. In 2006 he had trodden on a mine and lost his foot. Returning to Helmand after gruelling recuperation, he told Bishop, was part of his healing process. Corporal Marianne Hay, the sniffer dog handler, was often in the front of reconnaissance patrols and won huge respect from the Paras — though she admits to the author "feeling bad about putting the dog in first" in a potentially booby-trapped house.

The smaller incidents linger almost more than the passages of arms. Corporal Bev Cornell, an accomplished linguist and a battalion interpreter, managed to win the trust of a group of very frightened women and children after the Taliban had turned their compound into a battleground. She was supposed to get "int" (intelligence) from the women but first calmed them down by swapping family stories. Eventually they removed their headscarves, an extremely rare gesture of trust. Bev Cornell was fascinated — "the women I saw there were beautiful".

Sadly, there are only fleeting glimpses of the Afghans themselves. This book is the soldiers' tale and close encounters with the locals were difficult and dangerous. Bishop is full of admiration for the Paras, whom he has followed now for more than a quarter of a century, but he is too good a journalist and historian not to worry about the big questions. By the evidence of the ground truth chronicled here, the international effort in Afghanistan remains a strategic mess, a campaign that lacks coherence.

Most of the Paras believed in what they are doing. Quite fairly, Bishop examines the various reasons the politicians have given for sending them there. There is not a single al Qaeda terrorist in sight in this story, where the Taliban are focused on fighting for their own turf and making money from drugs. If this is, as Gordon Brown and John Hutton suggest, part of the great battle for civilisation of our time, it can only be a very tiny skirmish in it.

Synopsis by Foyles.co.uk

Afghanistan, 2008. After their eighteen-month epic tour of Helmand Province, the troops of 3 Para are back. This time, the weight of experience weighs heavily on their shoulders. In April 2006 the elite 3 Para Battle Group was despatched to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on a tour that has become a legend. All that summer the Paras were subjected to relentless Taliban attacks in one of the most gruelling campaigns fought by British troops in modern times. Two years later the Paras are back in the pounding heat of the Afghanistan front lines. The conflict has changed. The enemy has been forced to adopt new weaponry and tactics. But how much progress are we really making in the war against the insurgents? And is there an end in sight? In this searing account of 3 Para's return, bestselling author Patrick Bishop combines gripping, first-person accounts of front line action with an unflinching look at the hard realities of our involvement in Afghanistan. Writing from a position of exclusive access alongside the Paras, he reveals the 'ground truth' of the mission our soldiers have been given. It's a sombre picture. But shining out from it are stories of courage, comradeship and humour, as well as a gripping account of an epic humanitarian operation through Taliban-infested country to deliver a vitally needed turbine to the Kajaki Dam. Frank, action-packed and absorbing, "Ground Truth" is a timely and important book that will set the agenda for discussion of the Afghan conflict for years to come.