Storm Command - Gen. Sir Peter de la Billiere

You don’t mess with Peter de la Billiere. If the granite face and manifest toughness of this former 4 star general, Knight of the British Empire, SAS CO and 40 year professional soldier doesn’t tell you that, the piercing blue eyes certainly will. A shade lighter and they’d belong to a madman, but these tell you very clearly that if this man wants anything you have, you’d better hand it over right quick.
Don’t think that de la Billiere is a mere knuckle-dragger though; there is a keen mind behind those eyes and a ready humour, though I suspect that you’d have to work hard to find yourself worthy of either. And in the Saudi desert in 1990/1991 he needed every bit of both that he could get.
He used it, too.

'Storm Command' recounts the whole of what is known in the British Army lexicon as Operation Granby, to the Americans as Desert Shield/Desert Storm and to everyone else as The Gulf War (1). It was, as the book recounts, somewhat hectic - hardly helped by the fact that halfway through deployment the emphasis changed abruptly from defensive preperations to offensive ones.
Co-ordinating all the British forces in theatre from the Army tankers of the Desert Rats through the RAF Tornado's scattered up and down Saudi Arabia to the ships of the RN taskforce plying the Gulf itself, Billiere's command stretched over an area roughly double the size of the Southern UK. At the same time there was a strong diplomatic element as well, from dealings with the inimitable and often irascible Norman Schwarzkopf and the military men of other Coalition Forces to the gaggle of rulers and other chieftains throughout the Arabian Peninsular.
Equally there was the aspect of the media to contend with; this being the first 'War by TV' for the British since the rather restricted coverage of the Falklands. Inbetween that and the Gulf, 24 hour rolling news channels such as Sky, BBC and CNN had become a regular fixture, requiring delicate handling. Add to that an attitude amongst politicians that he himself describes as the 'arm in the mangle' and the dethroning of Margerat Thatcher and installment of John Major and there was enough on his plate to keep ten generals occupied.

There is an undeniable pace to it all - deployment, build up, operations and return in a somewhat short 300 odd pages - andt’s a little dry in parts but that’s the reflection of the man. Always keep in mind that this is not someone contemplating a far off battlefield from the comfort of a study, this isn’t a scratching biography by an armchair warrior, this is the man’s own reflections. This is what he thought, what he felt, what he valued. Yeah, it’s dry and a touch stilted, maybe a touch arrogant at times but what did you expect? Generals, British Generals in particular, do not rush around like a civilian with his head cut off; they’re not expected to, they’re not meant to and they’re damned well not paid to. And if you’ve done the kinds of things he has then you have every right to be a teensy bit proud of yourself, haven’t you?

5 and 3/4’s out of 10