War Stories - Al J Venter

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Résumé :
Venter's choice of military events is eclectic. He has four chapters on Afghanistan, three on Somalia, several on how Lisbon fought its desperate rearguard colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea as well as several on the Rhodesian War.

Biographie:
Al J. Venter is a specialist military writer and has had 50 books published. He started his career with Geneva's Interavia Group, then owners of International Defence Review, to cover military developments in the Middle East and Africa. Venter has been writing on these and related issues such as guerrilla warfare, insurgency, the Middle East and conflict in general for half a century. He was involved with Jane's Information Group for more than 30 years and was a stringer for the BBC, NBC News (New York) as well as London's Daily Express and Sunday Express. He branched into television work in the early 1980s and produced more than 100 documentaries, many of which were internationally flighted. His one-hour film, 'Africa's Killing Fields' (on the Ugandan civil war), was shown nationwide in the United States on the PBS network. Other films include an hour-long program on the fifth anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, as well as 'AIDS: The African Connection', nominated for China's Pink Magnolia Award. His last major book was 'Portugal's Guerrilla Wars in Africa', nominated in 2013 for New York's Arthur Goodzeit military history book award. It has gone into three editions, including translation into Portuguese....

Sommaire:
Venter's choice of military events is eclectic. He has four chapters on Afghanistan, three on Somalia, several on how Lisbon fought its desperate rearguard colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea as well as several on the Rhodesian War. These include a tribute to his old friend Ron Reid-Daly, founder-commander of the Selous Scouts, a vivid profile of the RLI 'Incredibles' in a cross-border strike on enemy positions in Mozambique as well as a chapter by Colonel Brian Robinson, longest serving commander of the Rhodesian SAS. Venter also draws heavily on his experiences as a military correspondent for Britain's Jane's Information Group in the Middle East: he accompanied the IDF when it went into Beirut in 1982. Neall Ellis who flew helicopter gunships against the rebels in Sierra Leone and is currently flying support missions in Russian Mi-8s in Afghanistan, Al Venter going into combat with a bunch of South African 'Parabats' in a strike against enemy positions in Angola (where he was subsequently wounded), Mike Hoare's aborted invasion of the Seychelles a quarter of a century ago, an American mercenary in Iraq as well as a United States Navy rescue mission in Somalia are among more than 30 chapters that appear in this new book. The book is illustrated with more than 100 photographs and follows the publication of his earlier military titles War Dog (2006) and Barrel of a Gun (2010), both published by Casemate in the US and Britain....