How fitting to have that which is passing away in the 20-teens surrounding that which passed away in the 1990s. Threats change, evolve, morph, but the mission remains the same: Protect the Homeland.
A rare book review here [the first?]. Harold Coyle is well known for his "Team Yankee" novel, at least in the "right" circles of people. Altho the book cried out for a screenplay it never got it [I can see it now...Sean Penn playing Bannon, Robin Wright playing his wife...maybe it's better it was NOT made into a screen play??]. Having read "The Third World War" by Sir John Hackett when it came out, just before my High School graduation I might add, Team Yankee is a nice piece of nostalgia.
"Sword Point" however is less like nostalgia with Iran acting more stupid than ever [that's saying something]. Still, the timing, the equipment, the details of military hardware, are all 1980s, from when the book was published shortly after TY. This makes it both retro and contempo, and without any effort on its part, relevant in a different era. But that's for the pundits to present. Here, what matters is wargaming inspiration! And inspiring, it is.
BLUF: A hard-hitting military wargame exercise masquerading as a novel, the book presents the material realities of war alongside the Soldier's experience of both sides, Soviet and allied. With relatively thin political motives, the Soviets invade Iran seeking a warm-water port and access to Gulf oil, and the rest is non-history. The US political response is equally thinly presented, just enough so that a case-code-color could be attached to the plot, and then the Soldiers could get moving. If you love 1980s wargame what-ifs...read this book!
OK, so a bit more details now.
There are numerous people and plot lines. However, they are all secondary to the main character of the novel - the modern Decisive Action war. Here, people you meet and quickly like are at risk - some are killed or horribly wounded, and exit stage left while the war continues with some of your other favorite characters. Sounds a lot like war since WWI.
What passes for plot in a typical novel is brutally stomped on here. Coyle leads you on thinking you'll get some of it, then suddenly the plot thread ends, the characters are taken out, and their bodies are removed as the next phase of Decisive Action commences, other characters return into the narrative and become more involved with Decisive Action.
For that pace and forcefulness, I think the book deserves a read. While Atkinson would make more of it all, reflecting and researching, Coyle keeps it focused on how to fight a modern battle against a near-peer, and how deadly it has become. A slight error on someone's part, and a company, battalion or brigade gets trashed.
Overall, I found the book quite inspirational for wargaming purposes, once I realized that Coyle wasn't going to do "novel plot as usual". Think of this book as a "Case Code ________" possibility with the characters fleshed out a bit, then put thru the grinder so that you, gentle reader / civilian, can get a taste of what modern war is like for the warrior clan. Possibly PTSD inducing details without vicarious exploitation, leave this as the most realistic contingency plan inspiring novel in a long time.
Highly recommended as I continue my wargame analysis of Frank Chadwick's "Team Yankee", the authentic and original game, not to be confused with the silly Johnny Come Lately version.
;)
Amazon U.S. gives it 4/5 stars with 29 reviews [not much] but to me that says it suits its intended audience - those who have an interest in preparing / planning / winning the next war. If that's you, I think you'll get something out of this book.
Available at your local library!
I remember reading it decades ago. I read the books after that too. Really great stuff. I seem to remember in the book where the West Germans kicked off against the US expeditionary force, one of the characters painted the Afrika Korps symbol on his M1 Abrams.
ReplyDeleteOf course, like most of the main characters, I'm pretty sure he got killed.
This could possibly be the most outstanding book review I have ever read. I read SwordPoint back during the summer before I shipped off to college. 2 things stuck with me - the Soviet strike on the Corps or Division TOC that killed a bunch of people off in a jiffy, and the Highlanders that went into battle with bagpipes dismounting from their Warrior IFVs.
ReplyDeleteYes!
ReplyDelete"Hesitantly, he got up and peered over the front edge of the trench. Enemy infantry had already dismounted, deployed and were entering the trenches to his left. Small-arms fire and grenades could be heard close to where he was. Added to this was a noise that sounded like a wounded cat crying out in pain. Neboative had read that Scottish troops always played their bagpipes when going into battle, but until that moment he had never believed anyone would do so on a twentieth-century battlefield. The strange, piercing music that cut through the other sounds seemed, to Neboatov, to be a death knell. The end was near." pp375-6.
I'd love to say that the bagpipes thing would never happen ...but I couldn't lol.
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