No Way Out by Major Adam Jowett (Book Review)

Book Reviews

No Way Out

I

AS A Nation, as a group of nations around the world and as part of the Commonwealth, we acknowledged our gratitude in commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion on June 6, 1944,

It is imperative that we remember our present Armed Forces: the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Marines, our Special Forces, and the Royal Air Force.

The R.A.F. is now in its 105th year.

Our Special Forces are a vital part of our overall military commitment, their forebears from which they take their very proud title, being the wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE) formed at the personal instigation of Winston Churchill during the Second World War. Their remit from him was not defensive. It was offensive, aimed at conducting operations throughout occupied Europe and enabling the French Resistance to equip and become an effective insurgency against the occupying forces.

Although we are currently "at peace", our Armed Forces are serving in many parts of the world, often in very dangerous combat zones, undertaking heavy combat operations. Many duties are through the auspices of the United Nations Charter (UN); others are through the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

At the moment, our troops are engaged in evacuating British nationals from Sudan. It is fraught. The negotiated ceasefire is not holding.

Today's Armed Forces remind us that whilst we owe our freedom to those who served before them, we owe our present Armed Forces an enormous debt of gratitude, in this century alone, for the hundreds who were killed in action during the Second Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. It would be remiss not to mention as regards US Forces, that as of May 1, 2019, at the time this review was penned this stands at 1,856 killed as a result of hostile action, and with 20,230 US soldiers wounded.

If anyone wonders about today's Armed Forces, and whether they measure up to their forebears, an outstanding book will give a very well-informed reply:

"No Way Out" by Major Adam Jowett

II

Afghanistan started out as a peace-keeping mission. This was not the objective of the Taliban.

The British general public only slowly woke up to the reality of the War in Afghanistan when the townspeople of Wootton Bassett near, what was then RAF Lyneham, received with incredible dignity, the regular return of the Fallen - those killed-in-action - in fighting, as brutal as that waged in Europe in 1944-1945 and in Korea in 1950-1953.

Not since 1909 has a royal title been extended to a town and community. Only three towns carry the royal title today, in 2019.[i]

The book, superbly written, recounts the singular task of denying the Taliban the Compound in Musa Qala. The Compound’s OC, Major Adam Jowett, narrates an hour by hour account of the siege. His company command comprised the Barossa Platoon of the Royal Irish Regiment and men from 3 Para - “Easy Company”.

I learned much from this book about modern warfare.

I also learned with great dismay, the tawdry treatment of all of these men upon their return. It does not sit well with me. It is a stark reminder of the coldness of the civilian population once danger has passed them by.

We hear often that old slogan "the fortunes of war”.

The closing page is not a good ending either for the soldiers or for the townspeople they were defending against a mediaeval ideology, literal in its thinking, its reading, its interpretation of a spent-out, corrupt, moribund and indefensible interpretation of the Islamic faith.

Just as there are famous works from both the First World War and the Second World War – No Way Out should be required reading now at Sandhurst, Cranwell and Dartmouth.

III

I emphasise that Major Jowett, every man who served with him with distinction, and every family of those men, deserve our recognition, our thanks and our practical support. That is what a freedom-loving liberal democracy must always do for the men and women they are happy to send off to war zones to do that which they would prefer not to do themselves.

This is not an “I sat down in one sitting cover to cover” type read. I have no patience with such an approach.

This is serious, hard-hitting, brutal, and sometimes fatal.

I say again, it is brutal.

Taking one's time means then obtaining the opportunity to understand the bravery encountered on every page, the dread on every other page, the hair-raising attempts with Case-vacs and on one occasion, the great lumbering Chinook being aborted by Major Jowett at the very last moment, just feet from the ground in a massive upsurge of sand from the rotor blades fore and aft, even as the rounds are ricocheting off its fuselage.

We learn from this book of battlefield support - too often not reported - of the artillery in the desert; likewise Air Power: the Apache helicopters, the A10s, the Chinooks.

Above all, evidence that the public often hear the Armed Forces speak of, but which they cannot always quite connect with - that sense of family, of being at one, of having a common task and a purpose to fulfil. Above all, the absolute refusal to give way to the enemy.

The mistreatment of these men, back here in Britain, hands the British Public the cloak of shame. That cloak of shame is never easily thrown off.

[i] Royal Wootton Bassett (2011), Royal Leamington Spa (1838), Royal Tunbridge Wells (1909), and Royal Sutton Coldfield (1528)

Kenneth Thomas Webb

29 April 2023
All Rights Reserved

LIVERPOOL

© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb

Written 1 May 2019
Sharpened as we sharpen the bayonet 29 April 2023