Review: ZERO SIX BRAVO
Title: Paranormality
Author: Damien Lewis
Publisher Info: Quercus Publishing Plc, 2013
As stories go, Zero Six Bravo is riddled with potential – the true-life account of a sixty-man British Special Forces platoon led by shoddy intelligence into a life-or-death struggle against a 100, 000 strong Iraqi attack force at the beginning of the Second Gulf War, who escaped without losing a single soldier, only to return home and be branded cowards by British media and by their own fellow soldiers, is without doubt one of the most intriguing tales to come from that much-maligned conflict. It’s a story full of bravery and ingenuity, and suggests some very interesting ideas about media portrayals of war and the public perception of soldiering in general.
Unfortunately, you won’t get any of that in this book.
Instead, what we’re treated to is a sub-Andy McNab Boy’s Own hero story, with tough-talking soldiers barking through storms of bullets thrown by faceless terrorist enemies. Author Damien Lewis, perhaps hamstrung by the fact that many of those involved in the story are still active in the British Armed Forces, chooses to avoid any kind of investigation of how the intelligence the titular squad received was botched so badly, or how the squad came to be known as spineless runaways by the wider world in favour of a partially fictional and, frankly, not very well-written style that fails to deliver on any of the aforementioned potential.
Where it feels like we ought to be learning about the intelligence gathering, or getting more in-depth on the background of the squad and how they were chosen for the job at hand, we are instead given a one-dimensional protagonist named “Grey” who goes from surly grunt to almost Rambo-like soldiering god over the course of the half-novel. His special skill seems to be a kind of military precognition, suddenly thinking of what the squad’s exact situation is despite very little evidence to support it, rendering him little more than a plot device with a big gun.
Grey gets support from a cast of paper-thin token characters – an American, a posh Brit – with whom he forges almost laughable bonds through the medium of dialogue so wooden you could make a garden patio from it. If the conversation that leads to the mission being dubbed “Operation No Return” actually took place in real life, I’ll personally video myself eating my hat.
The whole book is dragged down by this fake approach, and all the interesting elements are made to feel fake with it. Things like the squad having to stop and ask civilians for directions thanks to their poor intel are glossed over in favour of touting the heroic nature of the squad and of Grey in particular. Lewis constantly tries to emphasise this heroism by comparing it to similar situations in other wars, including McNab signature tale Bravo Two Zero, when a detailed examination of what actually went on would make for a much more involving and much less insecure read.
But perhaps worst of all is that the story’s key twist – the portrayal of what amounts to a military miracle as a case of soldiers losing their nerve and running scared, and how this portrayal has haunted those soldiers’ careers – is little more than a footnote at the end that leaves a bad taste in the mouth, especially after slogging through page upon page of forced-sounding blokey stereotypes and endless descriptions of everything from jeeps to travel kettles.
Only two things manage to save it from complete ignominy; the strength of the story itself and the five-or-six chapter stretch that details the 60-versus-100,000 fight for survival. The latter isn’t written any better than the build-up, but Lewis has a nice line in action description, with plenty of helpful detail for the uninitiated reader, and for some reason the repetition of phrases like “smash the enemy” and “certain death” lend the scenes pace and punctuation that serve to paint things in a frantic, thrilling light that’s missing from the rest of the book.
It’s the story itself that’s key to making Zero Six Bravo worth considering as a potential purchase, though. A war of ridiculous odds that’s as much an indictment of how we perceive the military as it is a testament to the skills of those who make up its elite forces. Unfortunately, you’re likely to get a less biased, more informative and more enjoyable experience Googling it yourself than you will from reading the book. If you must pick it up, only do so in the two places it’s acceptable to do so – charity shops and airports.
[easyreview cat1title=”Our Rating” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]
