Dead Men Risen

This is the story of the men of the Welsh Guards on their infamous 2009 tour of duty in Helmand, Afghanistan. Engaged in fierce fighting with the Taliban throughout, they became the first battalion since the Second World War to have a platoon commander (Lieutenant Mark Evison, 9th May), a company commander (Major Sean Birchall, 19th June) and a commanding officer (Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, 1st July) killed in action. Thorneloe was the first commanding officer of a battalion to suffer that fate since Lieutenant Colonel H Jones, who was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, died in the Falklands War in 1982. Toby Harnden takes the reader to the heart and heat of battle, giving visceral and at times almost unreadable detail of what it's like to fight the current Afghan war (particularly in light of the Taliban's weapon of choice as IEDs or Improvised Explosion Devices). Harnden has the trust and cooperation of the whole battalion, giving a full picture of battle experience from squaddie to major. He also follows the Battalion's return home to their friends and families, evoking the grief-stricken fallout which follows such a horrific tour of duty. Dead Men Risen is the inside story of how intense the war on the ground has become, focusing on the one of the Army's most respected and revered battalions.