APACHE AT WAR

Rounds slammed the ground all around the Taliban He hit the earth face first vanishing into the foggy confusion of desert conflict The Apache s engines rumbled on as we orbited hoping to see immediate harsh hard proof that he was no longer a threat Billed as the ultimate fighting machine the AH 64 Apache attack helicopter is a US designed close support aircraft in service in the UK with the Army Air Corps AAC Apache at War is a senior British pilot s vivid and uncompromising account of flying this and other combat helicopters in action Tautly often graphically written here is a memoir of the author s service flying close support helicopters with the AAC from patrolling Bandit Country in Co Armagh Northern Ireland in the late 1990s to taking out Taliban fighters in Helmand Province Afghanistan in the mid to late 2000s with active service in the Balkans and Iraq along the way Besides combat flying Steve Jones was also a qualified instructor on the Apache and helped to teach the then Lieutenant H Wales Prince Harry to fly and fight the aircraft He tells of mentoring the hard living prince of equipping him with skills that would later bring out the best in him in Afghanistan offering insights into Harry the soldier and pilot far remov