Pathfinder: A Special Forces Mission Behind Enemy Lines

About this book

First inthe official motto of one of the British Armys smallest and most secretive units 16 Air Assault Brigades Pathfinder Platoon. Unofficially they are the bastard son of the SAS. And like their counterparts in Hereford the job of the Pathfinders is to operate unseen and undetected deep behind enemy lines. When British forces deployed to Iraq in 2003 Captain David Blakeley was given command of a reconnaissance mission of such critical importance that it could change the course of the war. Its the story of nine men operating alone and unsupported 50 miles ahead of a US Recon Marine advance and head straight into a hornets nest teeming with thousands of heavily-armed enemy forces. This is the first account of that extraordinary missionabandoned by coalition command left with no option but to fight their way out of the enemys backyard. And it provides a gripping insight into the Pathfinders themselves a shadowy unit just 45 men strong that plies its trade from the skies. Trained to parachute in to enemy territory far beyond the forward edge of battlereefalling from high altitude breathing bottled oxygen and employing the latest skydiving technologyhe PF are unique. Because of new rules introduced since the publication of Bravo Two Zero there have been no first-hand accounts of British Special Forces waging modern-day warfare for nearly a decade. And no member of the Pathfinders has ever told their story before until now. Pathfinder is the only first-hand account of a UKSF mission to emerge for nearly a generation. And it could be the last.