Operation Telic: The British Campaign in Iraq 2003-2009 - Tim Ripley

This review has been submitted to the British Army review.

Title: Operation Telic: The British Campaign in Iraq 2003-2009

Author: Tim Ripley

ISBN: 978-0-9929458-0-0

Publisher: Telic-Herrick Publications

Year: 2016

Softcover

Pages: 470

Photos/ Maps: 35/6

The War in Iraq was not popular nor was it clean. After Afghanistan, it seemed to many that the challenges of asymmetric warfare would be left behind in Iraq; a second rate conventional army led by an unpopular, sociopath would be a relatively easy adversary after the Taliban. The British led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, joined the United States as its primary ally, for a number of reasons, not the least of which was continued influence in the Middle East as well as a key position at the ‘table’. The war was not popular with the British people and PM Blair expended a significant amount of political capital to win over Parliament. What was to be however, a short, sharp engagement and a victory for democracy turned into a six year war of nerves and attrition between the allies and the factional forces of post Saddam Iraq. Op Telic the book, iterates the challenges, successes, shortfalls and frustrations encountered by the UK forces from a political, doctrinal, inter-ally and CIMIC perspective.

That it is able to cover such ground effectively is testament to its brevity and accuracy. The author was able to draw upon the recollections of the key players down to platoon level as well as the primary documentation of the various units engaged in Iraq over the period of the conflict. The author was also able to display the level of complexity associated with warfare of this nature. What is evident is the degree to which government engagement and planning did not appear to extend beyond the military defeat of the Iraqi’s. The US has been correctly criticized for its failure to plan beyond the fighting, but the British government was not clear of this failure either.

It is clear that the West had very little appreciation of what would result once the strongman and his henchmen had been removed and the traditional animosities and hatreds, suppressed for so long, allowed to burst forth. Ripley does an excellent job of tracing the rapid onslaught of internal dissent focussed on the UK forces as well as factional fighting within the Basra region. Caught in a spiral of unanticipated violence, political turmoil at home and divergent priorities amongst the Allied forces, Ripley describes a UK force struggling to deal with retraining, internal shortfalls, pressure to downsize and engaging in public works that it had never trained for. It became obvious very quickly that the lessons learned against the IRA did not have relevance in the Iraqi theatre many assumed they would.

The UK Forces showed considerable capacity for adaption and improvisation as the later years of the conflict illustrated. Nevertheless, Ripley’s book describes a military left, to a significant degree, at odds with its political masters in the UK and with a marked sense of cynicism and resentment amongst its soldiers and airmen. It also describes a society and force out of step with the realities of combat and the dangers associated with them. That the UK forces were brave and dedicated is beyond question, but the appetite for casualties and risk as well as the domestic and media attention paid to the slightest level of collateral damage has changed the nature of warfare for the West.

Ripley has crafted an excellent, balanced account of the British experiences in Iraq. He draws attention to a significant number of issues and challenges that have still not been resolved involving the soldier and their battlefields. His book is key to understanding the complexities of the modern theatre of operations and the issues that influence them. It is critical that training reflect the lessons learned, not the least of which is that the government that you may be fighting to support may be actively working against you. Based upon the conclusions of Ripley’s book, the term 360 degree battlefield may now be applied to not only to the physical fighting space, but also the domestic and international political realm as well as the media and legal spaces. The soldiers of today do not have a benign operating environment as Op Telic aptly shows. 

Stalin’s Englishman: Guy Burgess, The Cold War and the Cambridge Spy Ring - Andrew Lownie

This review has been submitted to Review in History.

Title: Stalin’s Englishman: Guy Burgess, The Cold War and the Cambridge Spy Ring

Author: Andrew Lownie

ISBN: 978-1- 250-10099-3

Publisher: Raincoast

Year: 2015

Hardcover

Pages: 433

Photos/ Maps: 60/0

Few spy scandals have rocked the Western World like the notorious Cambridge Spy Scandal of the 1950’s. This book focuses on perhaps the best known of this group: Guy Burgess, his life, education, personality, motivations and the heady academic and political cauldron of the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s UK.

The first thing that strikes the reader about this book is the degree to which the privileged society that was Burgess’ social circle both protected and tolerated behaviour that would have been completely unacceptable elsewhere. Burgess and many of his peers were open and flagrant homosexuals which was not tolerated nor legal in the UK during this period. Lownie masterfully, traces the development of Burgess’s personality through his school years and evaluates those individuals and circumstances that heavily influenced his outlook. His evaluation of Burgess’ behaviours reveals an individual of contradictions; self-absorption paired with restless brilliance and a complete domination of the id, while, concurrently, displaying a high level of loyalty to his inner circle of friends.

The book is also a fascinating study of British society and the role of connections, schools and economic well-being in garnering position and influence. Thus it was that, despite numerous questionable social traits and work results, Burgess’s connections and the loyalty of his school and work alumni to ‘one of their own’ enabled him access to the highest levels of foreign office employment and, by extension, correspondence. It was beyond the pale that anyone with breeding would betray the club. Thus it was that he was protected and shielded regardless of what became a pattern of increasingly erratic and questionable behaviour. Indeed, such was the level of institutional blindness amongst the British Foreign Office that he was actually posted to the US embassy where, although not provided a meaningful job (he was too much of a loose cannon for that) he still retained access to the highest levels of sensitive official papers and correspondence.

Another intriguing aspect to Lownie’s study is the level of loyalty that Burgess and his closest confidants held for each other. This allegiance transcended national affiliations and their mutual support and views served to strengthen their desire to undermine the strength of the corrupt West. Interestingly, while their efforts focused on the passage of information to the Soviets, for Burgess, this loyalty did not extend to an acceptance of the greatness of the Soviet Union, but a belief that British communism would prove superior to the Russian.

Burgess continued to be a study of contrasts throughout his life. Thus it was that there are continued references to his slovenly appearance and lack of personal hygiene amongst his friends and co-workers, while, concurrently, his insistence at wearing an Old Etonian tie at all times. It would appear from Lownie’s evaluation that Burgess was a deeply troubled personality, continuously seeking the next thrill while studiously avoiding the responsibilities of maturity and age. He constantly sought to be the centre of attention yet engaged in self-destructive and self-absorbed conduct. His drinking was legendary as was his flamboyant and reckless behaviour and yet he yearned for the company of others all the while alienating them with his conduct.

As Lownie describes, literally thousands of cables and messages were passed over to the Soviets during Burgess’s lifetime; so many that they were too numerous to decipher in total. Such was the flow of information that the Soviets suspected Burgess of being a double agent as they could not believe that the quantity and quality of the information that he was providing could be done without the knowledge of the British counter-intelligence people.

Burgess and his compatriots were a product of their times. His effectiveness as an operative and his ability to ultimately avoid capture and escape reads like a strange adventure novel as opposed to a real life drama. Lownie has done an outstanding job at detailing the environmental as well as psychological underpinnings of Burgess’ behaviours; additionally, he has also shed a great deal of light on the nuances of the society that facilitated this behaviour. The book is eminently readable and engaging and is strongly recommended.

Allies Are a Tiresome Lot: The British Army in Italy in the First World War - John Dillon

This review has been submitted to War History Online.

Title: Allies Are a Tiresome Lot: The British Army in Italy in the First World War

Author: John Dillon

ISBN: 978-1-910777-32-9

Publisher: Helion

Year: 2015

Hardcover

Pages: 224

Photos/ Maps: 15/4

As part of their Wolverhampton Military Studies program, Helion has published this interesting study of the experiences and undertakings of the British Army deployed to Italy in support of the Italian Front. Dillon has provided a comprehensive overview of the unique challenges, social environs and environmental differences facing the British and how they adapted their doctrine and regulations accordingly.

The Italians were a late comer to the war and were not held in high regard by the British command; however, a number of setbacks had, by 1917 driven the Italian government to the brink of surrender. The Allies, specifically the British, under significant pressure on the Western front due to the war weariness of the French (having recently mutinied), the recent loss of Romania and the deteriorating situation in the East with Russia, could not afford to lose the Italians without incurring a substantial threat to the entire war effort. They therefore reluctantly agreed to pull badly needed troops from the Western Front to bolster the Italians.

The Italian Front for soldiers recently engaged in the horrors of the Western Front was, in many respects, a paradise. Combat was infrequent, distances to the enemy trenches were as far as over a kilometre in many cases, the weather was mild, the ground dry and the daily routine easy; boredom became as much a challenge as the enemy. These unique challenges form the basis of Dillon’s work. He divides his narrative into distinctive sections, each stand-alone and covering such areas as medical, crime and punishment, morale and working with the Italians. He also provides, at the outset, a synopsis of the Italian war effort both in terms of the fighting as well as the relations of the Italian Government with its Allies. He closes his book with the British/Italian engagement with the Austro-Hungarians during the final months of the war and the challenges associated with the tense post war regional relations and the need to bring the soldiers home.

As this is a relatively unknown aspect of the First World War Dillon’s work is significant in the light it sheds on the unique facets of this campaign. He writes with clarity and humour, relating conditions and situations not seen on other fronts. This is a serious work however, well researched and presented. He draws on a plethora of primary source material to provide not only the strategic perspective but also the soldier’s narrative, weaving in many firsthand accounts into his writing.

Helion has maintained its high standard of quality with the production value of this work. Dillon’s book is a fascinating account of the strange world that the British soldiers, fresh from the Western Front, found themselves; the challenges that they faced and the methods that they used to adapt to this new environment.