OPERATION TELIC AND THE LIBERATION OF IRAQ: From the Desert Rats to the Media War

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Anecdote-packed daily diary recounts the journalist author's experiences as a reserve officer and media handler with the British 7th Armoured (the Desert Rats) and 19th Mechanized Brigade during Operation TELIC in Iraq in 2003. One of his first missions is dealing with a barrage of media questions following the brutal murder of six Royal Military Police by a crazed mob in Majar-al-Kabir. Later, he recalls the adrenalin-filled atmosphere when the British Army garrison at Basra Palace is surrounded by a crowd firing mortars and unleashing hundreds of rounds from their AK-47s. It's only after a tense stand-to that the nervous troops discover that they are not under attack: the crowd is celebrating the demise of Saddam Hussein's sons. Unconvinced of the merits of military action before arriving in theatre, Abbott ends his tour in a positive mindset despite the failure to locate WMD.