After someone pointed out the movie trailer for the upcoming Ridley Scott war movie, Black Hawk Down (starring John Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, Ewan McGregor and interestingly Aussie Eric Bana), I was poking around looking for some more information on it. Obviously, one of the first things I typed was www.blackhawkdown.com, and was not surprised when a page started to load - but was when I saw it was a simple redirect to a story on Philadelphia newspaper The Inquirer.

I started to read the story, and before I knew it was embroiled in one of the most amazing war stories I've ever read. The writer has gone to huge lengths to question as many people involved as possible to get an accurate depiction of events. The story is sold fairly bluntly and fairly simply, which gives it all the more impact.

The movie is, of course, based on this story - the epic tale of over a hundred American soldiers (a combination of Army Rangers and some units from the elite Navy SEALs and Delta Force) who dropped into Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 to abduct some Somalian warlords. What was expected to be a relatively short, simple mission lasting only an hour turned into a lengthy pitched urban battle on the streets of the city.

Its very easy to forget that games like Counter-Strike are just a tiny glimpse of this particular unpleasant aspect of human life. Reading the story is definitely something that gamers should do, to keep in mind that these games are basically based on death and destruction and how horrible it is.

Its a long, long read - something like 26 pages all up, and it looks like they're still adding new pages to it. However, it is an amazing story of the trials and tribulations of combat and a fascinating look at the behaviour of soldiers in war.

Update: blackhawkdown.com looks like it has been scabbed by dirty domain theives, so you'll have to go to philly.com directly.

what, no open in new page :p

This better be good...

sounds good
I couldnt be bothered reading that, so Ill wait for the movie :D

that movie trailer seems non-existant trawg

(or is it just meh)

Trailer date says it was loaded on the 1/1/1970!

Yeah trog, I have read heaps of reports on that, very interesting.

There were alot of similar situations that the Aussies got themselves into when they patrolled the Somalian streets.

The Somalians used to really fear the Aussie soldiers because we would arrive steathly on foot, without warning, and surprise the warlords and gang leaders.

Whereas the Yanks would rock up in their Humvee's and LAV's, giving the locals heaps of time to piss bolt or hide evidence.

We rock.

Indeed we do

trailer is fixed (dirty nats)

Hay your right, this is good

all the transmissions and comments would be good if they didnt use realplayer

If you really like the article, I reccomend the book "Blackhawk Down", obviously relating to the same incident... It was researched extensively prior to the author writing it, and is apparently (according to the Delta Force chaps involved) dead on...

Its written by... here we are... Mark Bowden.

Arguably the best documented battle to have ever taken place, (due to the overhead recon planes, there was s***loads of live-feed of the whole thing) afterwards there was a big fuss about how if the logistics had been better managed, less yanks would have died and such...

All in all, one of the best war books Ive ever read, second only to "Bravo Two Zero", by Andy McNab...

Do try it!!

guys, i urge u all to read it, its one of the best reads ive ever read. i read it about 2 years ago now, and i couldnt stop, literally. i just hope the movie is as good as the actual event.. its f***en scary that that kinda s*** happend. those guys were lucky to survive

Is there much "camping" involved ???
Or do both sides "rush" out and kill each other like the newbies think reality is ??
I bet if they were on those streets they would in an instance,throw away their weapons, convert to islam or whatever the national religion is and hide in a corner to save their arses.

Funny how they bitch in their "reality" mod about not camping and wasting time, but in reality life they would certainly do it to save their life and win.

P.S. Q3A sarks...

you're gay

Bravo two zero is a very good read

yez this is one of the best books available.

if u see it in the shop for 20 bucka, buy it and i guarantee that u won't be disappointed with it.

Well it depends if we're talking real wars or not, because personally I think Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy is the best war book I've read. Have to pick up a copy of this Blackhawk Down though if its as good as it seems :)

All Tom Clancys war books (ive read like... eight of 'em) are very in-depth, looking at political processes blah blah blah...

this book (Blackhawk Down) begins as the helicopters are gunning up on the tarmac, and goes from there.

tres' cool :)

Heh, Red Storm Rising owned. Its an interesting point about it being well documented. I remember the (rather unlikely) thing in The Bear and the Dragon (also by Tom Clancy) where the CIA set up weblinks to the UAVs over a battle in which China invaded Russia...teh goal was to stir up protestors in China and cause a demonstration...

Cool, thanks for the recommendations, I'm gonna go out and look for that book tomorrow.

Ive got it in my locker at school accumulating fines if you want it :P
'sif theyre ever gonna see that again

lol Phoenix.

We are not so different, you and I... :)

I just finished reading it, and boy what a tough time they had. The article is brilliant, with sound clips, video clips, and pictures to help the reader understand exactly what it was like. If the movie is anything like what I just read, it will be great.

US always involves itself in those kinds of missions, quite recently Panama was 'playground' to the US and it has happened in several other countires as well

lets hope holywood dosnt get its dirty dirty dirty film recking hands on this movie

Great story. I am getting both books. I never really knew about this and I can't say that I remember any of it going on in 1993. I was only in year 8 so I spose ignorance was and is still bliss.

Just on one of the more amazing parts in the story. When one of the delta boys(can't remember his name) got his lower leg blown off while he was firing the .50 cal machine gun on the humvee. He just kept firing and didn't seem to worry about what was left hanging from his leg in the form of tissue and muscle. Now that guy was well trained and just plain brave.

Those Delta guys and the SEAL guys are just made out to be practically invincible in that story. Their performance under pressure is just amazing.

the trailer was ok...looked pretty standard hollywood

OMG That was one of the best (horribly detailed) war stories I have ever read. I think that how they looked after each other (Running through a massive gunfight solo to fetch a humvee for a fallen comrade) was incredible. I can't wait for the movie - I just hope it does the event justice.

Anyone recommend any good online book retailers?

cs is training to become a terrierst

i mean if i was a t' first thing i would do is rip the f***ing beeping thing out of the bomb

or kill the hostages useing a gun that the ct's (usa) would be useing, and do a fake enqquirey about how navy seals fux0rd up again and killed more hostages than they rescued

again

Mibberz: WTF did that have to do with anything?

Trog: Amazon.com are great - reliable, good prices, and even more desirable to Australia since they fixed up their delivery times (Maximum 18days wait on economy mail).

it was in regards to the topic which was USA's envolvement in anti-terriest activities

not a book sale

i belive thats what the subject was about, america realizing that they arnt the best becouse 99% of terrirest are outgunning the anti terrirest orgonizations of usa

and it was also a key mark telling usa to keep there ass's in us of a

gsg9 are still world leaders in anti t's activities, and australian sas are nothing compaired with the sas that have real urban combat experiance from northern ireland

rik

terrirest?

that would be because unlike gsg9 and UK SAS, the aussie SAS arent primarily anti-terrorist, our sas are regarded as the best jungle warfare mofos in hte world though, so give them some credit...