The Smack Track

Description

From battling pirates to tracking down gun runners, drug smugglers and terrorists; the high energy exploits and explosive adventures of the Australian Navy in the Arabian Gulf. From Ian McPhedran, best-selling author of The Amazing SAS, Soldiers Without Borders and Too Bold to Die, comes the untold and largely unknown story of how the Royal Australian Navy battles pirates, gun runners and drug smugglers in the seas of the Arabian Gulf and the Horn of Africa along the infamous route known as the 'smack track'. For more than twenty years, Australian sailors have been risking their lives, conducting often fraught and dangerous operations in war and in the battle against terrorism. From braving rough seas to boarding rickety dhows or clambering up the sheer steel sides of modern day supertankers looking for contraband, The Smack Track tells a thrilling, eye-witness story of grit, courage, ingenuity and sacrifice.

Ian McPhedran is the award-winning bestselling author of six books. Until 2016, he was the national defence writer for News Corp Australia and during his extensive career as a journalist he covered conflicts in Burma, Somalia, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. In 1993, he won a United Nations Association peace media award and in 1999 the Walkley award for best news report for his expose of the navy's Collins class submarine fiasco. McPhedran is the author of several bestselling books including The Amazing SAS and Too Bold to Die. His most recent book is The Smack Track (2017). He lives in Balmain with his journalist wife Verona Burgess.