Bloody Hell: The Price Soldiers Pay [Paperback]

The Mirror A refreshing change from the usual war book, Bloody Hell debunks the myth of glory and warriorhood with gripping accounts of action told from the individual soldier's perspective. The effect of war on a soldier's life is graphic and deeply disturbing. The Guardian Bloody Hell is an honest, grim, collection of personal experiences of the true face of war. It is a powerful indictment of the long-term impact of war. To quote from the book, "The true hell of war doesn't start until you come home". The New Internationalist War stories to end all war stories. A chilling journey into the heads and hearts of men who are trained to kill.

A refreshing change from the usual war book, Bloody Hell debunks the myth of glory and warriorhood with gripping accounts of action told from the individual soldier's perspective...graphic and deeply disturbing.

An honest, grim, collection of personal experiences. It is a powerful indictment of the long-term impact of war. To quote from the book, "The true hell of war doesn't start until you come home".

Not since Michael Herr's Dispatches unveiled the reality of what it meant to be a dog-soldier in Vietnam has there been a book which cut through the "statesmanlike" bullshit with which career politicians cloak their determination to send the young men of each generation to die in a foreign field. Starting with Simon Weston's moving and inspiring foreword, and spanning the "bloody century" from World War I to the Gulf, it comes at a significant time... Should be required bedtime reading for Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, and Jamie Shea.

Reveals what war really is.

It is said that war is hell, but hell is a word used easily in our daily speech. In this fine book, Hallock probes the very pits of hell, but upholds the principle of life over the wasting barbarity of war. The horrors recorded here-mostly from interviews with veterans who still languish in the afterwash of violence--are more than convincing. For young men and women who yearn to be all they can be, I recommend reading this work before signing on the dotted line.

This is a wonderful oral history of war veterans, unique in its sweeping coverage of many military adventures. It is a poignant and revealing portrait of war seen from the bottom up. Let us hope it will be read by young people, as a sobering reminder that we must have no more war veterans.

As this terrible century draws to an end, these poignant and searing testimonials give an unusually valuable perspective on its horrors, and show us how we can and must ensure that this shameful chapter of human history is closed for good.

Soldiers have always told their tales of war, but in Bloody Hell, they go further and lay bare the horrors, nightmares, and nagging questions that haunt their lives. Veterans of every major war in this century reveal the real price that soldiers pay, exposing the chasm between the recruiter's sell and the realities of the military machine.