In to the Jaws of Death.

I was very tempted to purchase. "Into The Jaws of Death" by Col: Mike Snook from my local book shop. However after flicking through the page that would have been from page 35 I quickly changed my mine, when I started reading sentences like "Charlie Pope wasn't laughing" what I read was like reading a fictional account of what might of or what the author thought took place. The author seems to have got himself on to a personal level with the troops writing as though he was present at the battle. Then going into great detail about a Sgt Shaw and his little band of brothers joining together to form a red what ever in a sea of black. Its a shame because the book cover certainly caught my eye.

Mr G. Firstly the whole concept of Mikes books is to take the reader on a journey.

You say

Quote :

The author seems to have got himself on to a personal level with the troops writing as though he was present at the battle

Well if you thought that your half way there. All you need to do now is put yourself in the authors place and you to could be taking part in the Battle of Isandlwana. And I don't expect anyone was laughing that day.

Here's a tip. Try going to your local book shop before the pub.

Hi MrGreaves.
Have you read Mike Snook's ' How Can Men Die Better ' ?. I finally weakened and on Springbok's recommendation
I purchased it a while ago . Although light on footnotes to back up his Theory of Isandlwana and what happened
on that day , he no doubt in my mind transported me back to that time and place with his excellent narrations . Although
as I said light on factional evidence , one has to be impressed with his BattleField narrations , and he having been a
Lt - Col in that same Regt describes through a Soldiers eyes what he thinks did indeed take place . I thoroughly enjoyed
it .
cheers 90th.

Mr Greaves
The opening preamble in Into the Jaws of Death is merely a an extension of HCMDB do give the reader a flavour of the frequent tight spots the British infantryman found himself in, and those final desperate moments when raw steel and adrenalin come together.

ITJOD is the perfect book to open up other horizons beyond the Zulu war bubble, the same soldier, with the same weapons and sadly the same leaders, Maiwand, Abu Klea, Majuba, Ingogo, Spion Kop and all those other debacles the poor old foot sloggers found himself in and in many cases is a quite valid critical look at how we ended up in as many disasters and lop sided punch ups, where Tommy Atkins, poor old Tommy Atkins paid the price for cr@p stewardship.

Mikes strong point is he's extensively travelled the areas involved, and looked from a Military perspective, how many authors have stood on the spot Burnaby was killed and where the Gardner gun stood at Abu Klea or Khig, the village that the last remnants of the 66th fought and died in the dying moments at Maiwand.

What it does do, it makes the understanding of what went wrong at Isandlwana come more into perspective, as it was by no means unique, Maiwand is extensively covered, and it brings several interesting things to light, why for example was there no complaints about Rifles Jamming, ammo boxes being hard to open etc etc etc, by the same calibre of Soldier, with EXACTLY the same weapons in an environment far more harsh that Zululand, and where there were a good number of survivors of the 66th?, whereby at Isandlwana, No front line tommy lived to tell the tail..... with that draw your own conclusion, but ITJOD gives a ready, concise overview of those things which if it could go wrong, it probably did.