Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan

By Doug Stanton

From the New York instances bestselling writer of In Harm’s Way comes a true-life tale of yank squaddies overcoming nice odds to accomplish a beautiful army victory.

Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of certain Forces infantrymen who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9-11 and rode to battle on horses opposed to the Taliban. Outnumbered 40 to at least one, they pursued the enemy military around the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a sequence of extreme battles, captured the town of Mazar-i-Sharif, which used to be strategically necessary to defeat their opponent during the country.

The bone-weary American squaddies have been welcomed as liberators as they rode into the town, and the streets thronged with Afghans extremely joyful that the Taliban regime were overthrown.

Then the motion took a totally unforeseen flip. in the course of a quit of 600 Taliban troops, the pony infantrymen have been ambushed by way of the would-be POWs. Dangerously overpowered, they fought for his or her lives within the city’s significant citadel, Qala-i-Janghi, or the home of battle. in danger have been the army profits of the total crusade: if the warriors perished or have been captured, the whole attempt to outmaneuver the Taliban used to be most likely doomed.

Deeply researched and wonderfully written, Stanton’s account of the american citizens’ quest to free up an oppressed humans touches the mythic. the warriors on horses mixed historical recommendations of cavalry battle with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment know-how to accomplish a likely most unlikely feat. additionally, their cautious attempt to win the hearts of neighborhood townspeople proved a invaluable lesson for America’s ongoing efforts in Afghanistan.

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The horsemen shot them as they handed. Mitchell suggestion it used to be a slaughter. He additionally understood that this was once a turning element within the offensive. His task now was once to maintain urgent the enemy. That evening, Atta’s forces, with the help of Dean’s crew, might proceed their attack on Ak Kupruk and catch it. The demoralized Taliban forces could start to fall again virtually as speedy because the Northern Alliance might develop. regardless of reinforcement via hundreds of thousands of volunteers from Pakistani madrassahs and contingents of Al Qaeda forces, the Taliban have been quickly in headlong retreat for the Tiangi hole. the next morning, November 6, Milo, Essex, and Winehouse hit the command bunker back that they’d received and misplaced the day ahead of. once they went as much as check out it, Milo observed something he knew he’d always remember. A Taliban soldier was once mendacity facedown within the dust, his legs mangled. Milo bent right down to examine the unusual sight of the man’s foot. It had no bones within it—it used to be simply epidermis and toenails. No bone, no meat, no ligaments. It lay flopped over like a boot. From that time on, discovered Milo, they’d crushed the Taliban. The day after Essex and Milo have been overrun, Sam Diller used to be trapped in an ambush at his place twenty miles around the mountains to the west. He and his males have been using throughout a hillside while a Taliban gun, situated approximately 800 yards on their left, at the opposing hillside, fired. among them lay a valley—or draw—a part mile lengthy, speckled with grass. Diller was once pissed. The day prior to, his Afghan intel officials had educated him that the bunker was once empty. Diller had desired to point where yet he’d left it on my own. He had inspiration he was once sneaking effectively via Taliban kingdom. Now he wanted he’d bombed where. they'd just one get away path on hand to them, and that used to be up the hill they have been crossing. Diller studied the rocky course, approximately ft vast. They couldn’t cost up the trail en masse. a person could most probably step on a mine. and so they couldn’t lower around the hill and trip down it, as were Diller’s plan. He had notion he was once sneaking effectively via Taliban kingdom. Small-arms fireplace begun pecking on the hillside in the back of them. gentle first and foremost yet collecting like rain. “Get down! ” Diller shouted. after which got here the spiraling whoosh of rocket-propelled grenades. They introduced from wood portals within the bunker and swam quickly around the draw and smashed opposed to the hillside. the hearth was once no longer actual, but when the Taliban bought fortunate, it may be lethal. Diller subsequent heard the grotesque, jacking sound of a large . 50-cal laptop gun open up. the massive rounds beginning knocking bucket-size divots out of the hill. Diller reasoned they'd to climb up the hill to defense. He ordered every body to take disguise at the back of the scattered, tall boulders alongside the trail. after which in teams of 2 and 3 the Afghans and americans started leapfrogging up the hill, from boulder to boulder. It took ten mins for everybody to make it to the pinnacle. Diller was once final. He used to be sporting the eighty-pound satellite tv for pc radio in a pack and he couldn’t stream quick.

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