The Iran-Iraq War - Volume 2: Iran Strikes Back, June 1982 - December 1986

Description

The Iran-Iraq War was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century and accidentally created the current nightmare of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. There have been many books on the conflict, but this is the first detailed military history using materials from both sides, as well as materials obtained from US intelligence circles and British governmental archives. It provides a unique insight into a war which began through miscalculation and rapidly escalated into the longest conventional conflict in the post-Second World War era. Volume 2 takes up the account after Iraq withdrew from Khuzestan and is based upon material from both sides: US intelligence data, British Government documents and secret Iraqi files. Iraq's withdrawal exposed the great southern city of Basra to Iranian attack, but it was shielded by fortifications based upon a huge anti-tank ditch - the so-called 'Fish Lake' - which the Iranians tried to storm in the summer of 1982. This bloody failure left Tehran in a position where prestige prevented a withdrawal into Iran, but the armed forces lacked the resources to bring the conflict to a favourable conclusion. During the next four years, the Iranians tried to outflank the 'Fish Lake' defences initially through the marshes in the north and finally through an attack on the Fao Peninsula, which increased national prestige, but was a strategic failure and paved the way for Iraq's massive victories in 1988. This followed a series of successful defensive battles in which the Iranians were driven back with great loss. This account describes the battles in greater detail than before and, by examining them, provides unique insights and ends many of the myths which are repeated in numerous other accounts of this conflict.

E.R. Hooton is a successful retired defence journalist, including acting as a Jane's Yearbook editor. He is the author of more than a dozen military history books ranging from the Balkans Wars 1912-13, air operations over the Western Front 1916-18, the breaking of the Hindenburg Line 1918, the Red Army 1937-41, air operations 1939-45 and the Communist Chinese victory of 1945-51. Tom Cooper is an Austrian aerial warfare analyst and historian. Following a career in worldwide transportation business - during which he established a network of contacts in the Middle East and Africa - he moved into narrow-focus analysis and writing on small, little-known air forces and conflicts, about which he has collected extensive archives. That resulted in specialisation in such Middle Eastern air forces as of those of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, plus various African and Asian air forces. Except for authoring and co-authoring more than 30 books - including an in-depth analysis of major Arab air forces at wars with Israel in period 1955-1973 - and over 1000 articles, Cooper is a regular correspondent for multiple defence-related publications. Farzin Nadimi is a writer and researcher of the Middle Eastern and Persian Gulf defense and security affairs, with a focus on Iran-Iraq War military history, energy security and geopolitics, economic warfare, and oil and gas industries. He has a Master's degree in War Studies from King's College London and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Manchester. He lives in Washington, DC.

Chilling account of the major Middle Eastern conflict of the 1980s. * Books Monthly * This book is jam packed with excellent information about the Iran-Iraq War. * Military Modelling Magazine *