Leading from the Front
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Product Description
Book Description
The frank-speaking autobiography of one of Britain's most respected military leaders
Product Description
As Chief of the General Staff, Sir Richard Dannatt was in overall command of the British army for the three years from 2006. This period saw some of the fiercest fighting yet in Afghanistan, and new and increased pressures and expectation placed on the army. From his very first day in the job General Dannatt proved himself a courageous leader and a forceful advocate for the army, never shying from controversy to tell it as he found it.
Dannatt's distinguished career in the army has spanned thirty-eight years and seen him serve in many different theatres of conflict, from Northern Ireland (where he was awarded the Military Cross) to Bosnia and Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. His experiences forged his unwavering loyalty to the fighting British soldier. More than any leader in recent times, Dannatt has used his position of command to argue for improved pay and conditions for British soldiers, a greater dialogue between the army and the country, the right equipment for the troops to do the job asked of them, and greater welfare and support back home for the wounded. His leadership has shaped the debate about the role of a modern army in modern warfare.
Leading from the Front is Richard Dannatt's fascinating reflection on a life of military service and offers his characteristically frank analysis of whether Britain's defence strategy is fit to respond to the threats we will face in the 21st century.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Top man,
By
This review is from: Leading from the Front: An autobiography (Hardcover)
I read this book because I was impressed by the author's Christian testimony in the press. It is here in the book but I think muted in a typical traditional Anglican way. So I was rather disappointed that there was not more about how his faith influenced his life.The general got to the top army post and was only denied charge of all the armed forces because of his outspoken standing up for the interests of his troops in a way the Labour government did not appreciate. One admires his courage on behalf of his troops and also his courage under fire in Northern Ireland. If one is not into the technicalities of the army large parts of the book are hard going but Dannatt comes across as a first rate soldier and family man.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
General Sir Richard Dannatt's verdict: more cash, more time please,
By
This review is from: Leading from the Front: An autobiography (Hardcover)
General Sir Richard Dannatt's memoir of his time in the British army manages somehow to be both fascinating and banal.Fascinating because of the detail he provides to back-up his severe criticism of Ministry of Defence civil servants and politicians, Labour ones in particular but Gordon Brown above all, for failing to fund the army sufficiently for the jobs they demanded of it. Banal because, despite his long experience of counter-insurgency and peace-keeping operations starting with Northern Ireland in the 1970s, his repeated message through the book is one of `give the army more money, give the army more time'. The contrast with the US army and the way, for example, it has massively altered its counter-insurgency approach under General Petraeus is marked. Resources and time certainly feature in the lessons learnt by the Americans, but are very far from the whole picture. The picture Dannatt paints of the British army by contrast is, in this respect, unintentionally a deeply unflattering one because it gives the appearance of an army looking over the last 40 years and pointing the finger at others rather than asking questions of itself. In fact, the British army has been rather smarter than Dannatt's account gives out, but how it has learnt the lessons of its mistakes such as those in Northern Ireland or tries to meet the continuing challenge to ensure that soldiers do not go violently out of control in the stresses of counter-insurgency are not stories told in this book. The one significant area of army error Dannatt does concede in the epilogue is that the army's doctrine of "Go first, go fast, go home" was a wrong one. But we are left wondering whether some of what he blames politicians for is really the result of the army giving poor advice to those politicians based on its faulty doctrine. If the army's own doctrine wrongly emphasised getting out of conflicts very quickly, was it really just politicians who are to blame for having planned and resourced the army on the basis that it would get out of conflicts quickly? Yet Dannatt in other respects show a shrewd mind, particularly in his understanding of how counter-insurgency operations are both political and military questions. As he writes of his time in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, "If I found politics and the military hard to separate over the years, perhaps some might understand that the crossover goes back a long way." The book is written in a plain style, with a sufficient smattering of military jargon to give a taste for how rampant acronyms are in the modern military but without having so many as to confuse the casual reader. The account is regularly punctuated by name-checks for those held particular commanding posts, as if out of a sense of duty Dannatt often feels a responsibility to credit them. The names of soldiers who were killed often feature too, sometimes movingly and always as a reminder about the human reality behind discussions of army deployments, resources or campaign outcomes. In all, the book is - perhaps like Dannatt's own career - solid and competent. It offers much in the way of detail about how he believes politicians got it wrong, but little in the way of insight into the way the army should be organised and operate.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Leading from the Front,
By
This review is from: Leading from the Front: An autobiography (Audio CD)
Excellent - so good to hear Sir Richard reading this himself - and to hear such an honest frank view of the previous government from the 'gentleman' at the top on the front line!
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