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Kandak: Fighting with Afghans
Kandak, from Patrick Hennessey, author of the TV Book Club pick, The Junior Officers' Reading Club, is 'a rich depiction of life and death, love and sorrow ... read this brilliant book' Evening Standard
When Patrick Hennessey returned home from Afghanistan, he left behind him the surreal intensity and exhilaration of battle. He also left behind lasting bonds of friendship formed with his Afghan comrades Qiam, Syed and Majhib. Kandak is the story of how, in the heat of the moment between living and dying, unlikely alliances can be forged. Patrick Hennessey tells of their awkward first meetings, mutual suspicion and incomprehension, and how this eventually turned into brotherhood.
'A passionate tribute to the Afghan soldiers he fought alongside in Helmand ... excellent' Sunday Times
'This beautifully-written sequel to his first book tells us much about the bonds forged by combat in the dust and heat and danger, when there was no "them and us"' Mail on Sunday
'His prose is lean and muscular, characterised by dry wit and acute intelligence. He also has a novelist's eye for the vivid image and the telling detail' Daily Mail
'An erudite account ... this topical book, beautifully written, gives important insights at a crucial time in Afghanistan's transition' Daily Telegraph
Patrick Hennessey was born in 1982 and educated at Berkhamsted School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read English. He joined the Army and served from 2004 to 2009 as an officer in The Grenadier Guards. In between guarding towers, castles and palaces he worked in the Balkans, Africa, South East Asia, the Falkland Islands and deployed on operational tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. On leaving the Army he wrote his first book The Junior Officers' Reading Club. He is now a barrister.
When Patrick Hennessey returned home from Afghanistan, he left behind him the surreal intensity and exhilaration of battle. He also left behind lasting bonds of friendship formed with his Afghan comrades Qiam, Syed and Majhib. Kandak is the story of how, in the heat of the moment between living and dying, unlikely alliances can be forged. Patrick Hennessey tells of their awkward first meetings, mutual suspicion and incomprehension, and how this eventually turned into brotherhood.
'A passionate tribute to the Afghan soldiers he fought alongside in Helmand ... excellent' Sunday Times
'This beautifully-written sequel to his first book tells us much about the bonds forged by combat in the dust and heat and danger, when there was no "them and us"' Mail on Sunday
'His prose is lean and muscular, characterised by dry wit and acute intelligence. He also has a novelist's eye for the vivid image and the telling detail' Daily Mail
'An erudite account ... this topical book, beautifully written, gives important insights at a crucial time in Afghanistan's transition' Daily Telegraph
Patrick Hennessey was born in 1982 and educated at Berkhamsted School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read English. He joined the Army and served from 2004 to 2009 as an officer in The Grenadier Guards. In between guarding towers, castles and palaces he worked in the Balkans, Africa, South East Asia, the Falkland Islands and deployed on operational tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. On leaving the Army he wrote his first book The Junior Officers' Reading Club. He is now a barrister.
- GenresNonfictionBiography
377 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2012
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99 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Hennessey
4 books15 followersPatrick Hennessey was born in 1982 and educated at Berkhamsted School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read English. He joined the Army in January 2004, undertaking officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he was awarded the Queen's Medal and commissioned into The Grenadier Guards. He served as a Platoon Commander and later Company Operations Officer from the end of 2004 to early 2009 in the Balkans, Africa, South East Asia and the Falkland Islands and on operational tours to Iraq in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2007, where he became the youngest Captain in the Army and was commended for gallantry. Patrick is currently studying to become a barrister and hopes to specialize in conflict and international humanitarian law.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 1, 2016
Kandak by Patrick Hennessey is an eloquent account of the role that the Afghan forces are playing in battle against the Taliban. It is a considered counterblast to the many official and unofficial Regimental accounts of the conflict which focus on the undoubted exploits of the British forces, whilst glossing over the heroic contribution of the Afghans. In so doing, Hennessey challenges the British Army orthodoxy which caricatures which the Afghan forces as ill-disciplined, untrustworthy and even cowardly.
Hennessey, now a barrister, in putting together his case for the defence, draws strongly on his own experience as a Grenadier Guard Captain embedded as a mentor to an Afghan 'Kandak' (Fighting unit) in Sangin and Helmand in 2007 and interviews conducted in the field on two subsequent visits.
The book falls into two parts; The first is the account of his growing friendship and camaraderie with Afghan soldiers, forged by fighting alongside them in the heat of Op Silicon and the push into the Green Zone. For Hennessey, there was no "them and us" - indeed, he clearly felt a closer bond with the members of his Afghan Kandak than he did with members of other British regiments serving out there at the time. Hennessey's views are not rose-tinted - there is a balanced realism to his apologetic. The result is a passionate account of brave Afghan soldiers who, despite a different approach and some failings, have lost lives and limbs in this attritional conflict in which there really are no winners.
The second part of the book is more reflective, as Hennessey draws on other military authors and press coverage as he grapples with the wider question of the nature, history and lessons learned from the Afghan conflict and the role that the Afghan forces are playing. Hennessey explores with great insight the relationship between the Afghans and their British mentors, a relationship characterised by mistrust on both sides.
One of the strongest and well-written parts of the book is the chapter 'Sex, Drugs and Shades of Grey' (p.252) where Hennessey explores the cultural and moral differences between the British and Afghan forces. It is here that he goes onto the offensive. Perhaps freed up by some distance from the Regiment, he points out the hypocrisy of 'functioning alcoholic [British] officers' banned for drink driving criticising Afghans for taking drugs; or indeed the body-building Paras, and 'pink lacy thong'-wearing Marines calling Afghans 'bender boys'.
Hennessey summarises his intent in his epilogue:
"I wanted to provide a glimpse of men like Qiam, Syed Hazrat, Mujib and the others because they weren't the inept jokers we had thought we would work with in 2007, neither are they Western puppets, neither are they a lost cause or the complete solution. They are what we all were: ordinary solideris doing a difficult, sometimes extraordinary, job. Whatever anyone else thinks . . . the warriors of the ANA, wounded, tired, downbeat though they sometimes were, never doubted that what they were doing was worth the cost." p.366
This book is beautifully written (as befits a Berkhamsted scholar who read English at Oxford) with some wonderful human observation (try the chapter on 'Military Tourism' p.283ff ).
Kandak is a sequel to Patrick Hennessey's first best-seller, The Junior Officer's Reading Club.
Hennessey, now a barrister, in putting together his case for the defence, draws strongly on his own experience as a Grenadier Guard Captain embedded as a mentor to an Afghan 'Kandak' (Fighting unit) in Sangin and Helmand in 2007 and interviews conducted in the field on two subsequent visits.
The book falls into two parts; The first is the account of his growing friendship and camaraderie with Afghan soldiers, forged by fighting alongside them in the heat of Op Silicon and the push into the Green Zone. For Hennessey, there was no "them and us" - indeed, he clearly felt a closer bond with the members of his Afghan Kandak than he did with members of other British regiments serving out there at the time. Hennessey's views are not rose-tinted - there is a balanced realism to his apologetic. The result is a passionate account of brave Afghan soldiers who, despite a different approach and some failings, have lost lives and limbs in this attritional conflict in which there really are no winners.
The second part of the book is more reflective, as Hennessey draws on other military authors and press coverage as he grapples with the wider question of the nature, history and lessons learned from the Afghan conflict and the role that the Afghan forces are playing. Hennessey explores with great insight the relationship between the Afghans and their British mentors, a relationship characterised by mistrust on both sides.
One of the strongest and well-written parts of the book is the chapter 'Sex, Drugs and Shades of Grey' (p.252) where Hennessey explores the cultural and moral differences between the British and Afghan forces. It is here that he goes onto the offensive. Perhaps freed up by some distance from the Regiment, he points out the hypocrisy of 'functioning alcoholic [British] officers' banned for drink driving criticising Afghans for taking drugs; or indeed the body-building Paras, and 'pink lacy thong'-wearing Marines calling Afghans 'bender boys'.
Hennessey summarises his intent in his epilogue:
"I wanted to provide a glimpse of men like Qiam, Syed Hazrat, Mujib and the others because they weren't the inept jokers we had thought we would work with in 2007, neither are they Western puppets, neither are they a lost cause or the complete solution. They are what we all were: ordinary solideris doing a difficult, sometimes extraordinary, job. Whatever anyone else thinks . . . the warriors of the ANA, wounded, tired, downbeat though they sometimes were, never doubted that what they were doing was worth the cost." p.366
This book is beautifully written (as befits a Berkhamsted scholar who read English at Oxford) with some wonderful human observation (try the chapter on 'Military Tourism' p.283ff ).
Kandak is a sequel to Patrick Hennessey's first best-seller, The Junior Officer's Reading Club.
April 22, 2021
This book is up there as one of the most moving books I've ever read.
In short, the book is about the author's, Patrick Hennessy's, experiences and eventual bond with the Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers he served with in Afghanistan - a bond forged through combat - despite seemingly being world's apart.
The book starts with the author's build up training and deployment to Afghanistan in 2007; meeting the ANA for the first time; charting the history of the ANA along with his own personal reflections; and his two returns to Afghanistan to meet up with his old friends in the ANA; in effect, part memoir, part history and part journalism.
Hennessey is very sympathetic to the Afghan soldiers, often fighting for years on end and receiving little thanks throughout. However he is rather critical of the ANA as an organisation, a messy beast from the outset, largely a result of NATO muddling and the legacy of soviet officer training - over centralised and discouraging initiative from the ranks - NATO often having to draw on these former pro-soviet soldiers and officers for lack of recruits.
I highly recommend this book to those interested in the Afghan conflict and, I suppose, those into modern history too - it seems only a matter of time now before our War in Afghanistan passes into the annals of history.
In short, the book is about the author's, Patrick Hennessy's, experiences and eventual bond with the Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers he served with in Afghanistan - a bond forged through combat - despite seemingly being world's apart.
The book starts with the author's build up training and deployment to Afghanistan in 2007; meeting the ANA for the first time; charting the history of the ANA along with his own personal reflections; and his two returns to Afghanistan to meet up with his old friends in the ANA; in effect, part memoir, part history and part journalism.
Hennessey is very sympathetic to the Afghan soldiers, often fighting for years on end and receiving little thanks throughout. However he is rather critical of the ANA as an organisation, a messy beast from the outset, largely a result of NATO muddling and the legacy of soviet officer training - over centralised and discouraging initiative from the ranks - NATO often having to draw on these former pro-soviet soldiers and officers for lack of recruits.
I highly recommend this book to those interested in the Afghan conflict and, I suppose, those into modern history too - it seems only a matter of time now before our War in Afghanistan passes into the annals of history.
August 23, 2024
This book sets out to provide an insight into the life and operations of the soldiers of the Afghan National Army. It seeks to redress the plethora of British Army books on Afghanistan that do not mention the ANA.
He aims to find the soldiers from the ANA that he served with and collect their stories. Sadly the despite the author's best attempts half of the novel is self-aggrandising his operation our as mentor and only in the later part does he focus on who these soldiers are and what they have been through.
This book is easy reading. It does at times take a very similar form to many of the recent autobiographical accounts of life in Helmand. The author attempts to add some distance between himself and his military past by returning as a civilian but he is not far enough removed from British Army for this to make a difference. Basically his window into Afghanistan and the ANA is too limited leaving a narrative on how he collected his story rather on the stories.
I feel the author makes a genuine attempt to find out more about the ANA but his task was herculean and it would take much greater time and more cultural awareness for the book to fully deliver.
This book should be called "Kandak- My Trips Back to Afghanistan".
January 30, 2025
Hennessey sets out on a worthy task with this book but unfortunately does not quite go the distance. He does not shy from the double-standard between the way coalition and ANA soldiers are viewed and treated, nor from his own earlier assumptions. His genuine efforts to understand the men he worked with and the bond that he formed with them are undeniable and deeply touching. Yet he still seems to be only just sinking through the wave-tops of a deeper understanding. There is still a sense of distance in his writing - that he can't quite grasp the world of Qiam, Syed and Majhib. Well worth a read but I can't help wishing that Hennessey had been able to spend more time with these men, to delve deeper into their lives.
July 19, 2021
Pre - Sandhurst essential reading.
February 10, 2013
I found this very enlightening, and thought it conveyed the nuances of the Afghan National Army very well. This is actually a much-needed book, as precious little of any depth has been written about the ANA, and their individual stories are almost completely untold.
Hennessey takes a straightforward and very personal approach in structuring his book, ordering it around his own encounters with the subject, starting with his 6 months of mentoring the ANA when he was in the army, doing a review of what has been written about the ANA, and recounting the findings of two subsequent journalistic visits to find out the fate of "his" kandak, conducting interviews with its soldiers and officers, plus a visit to the Kabul Military Training Centre, where the ANA is trained. Throughout this, one comes away with an understanding of the best and the worst of the ANA, and many of the problems of ISAF's approach to developing it (notably a generally patronizing approach and the turnover of mentoring units every 6 months or so). The individual stories convey long experience of fighting, extraordinary bravery, patriotism, the "Afghan approach" to counter-insurgency (eg not much focus on hearts and minds), the ethnic divisions (including much suspicion of the smaller numbers of Pashtuns in the ANA), the incidence of drug-use, some resentment at ISAF's condescension, bemusement at other times of ISAF's approach, and a short discussion of the green-on-blue insider threat, which is not nearly as common as portrayed. One thing that really surprised me was how heavily the Soviet influence lived on in the ANA, evidently a result of just how many ANA soldiers and officers are veterans of the Soviet-sponsored Afghan army of the 1980s. There is a real pathos to the human stories too, particularly as some individuals get wounded or killed. Whereas British units do a 6-month tour of duty in Helmand, the kandak in Hennessey's book have been fighting there without break for over 5 years now - that has taken its toll.
Considering how important the ANA is to ISAF's exit strategy, it's terrible that so little has been written about the ANA, and Hennessey's efforts go a long way to plugging this gap and addressing the many stereotypes and misconceptions. This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the war in Afghanistan.
Hennessey takes a straightforward and very personal approach in structuring his book, ordering it around his own encounters with the subject, starting with his 6 months of mentoring the ANA when he was in the army, doing a review of what has been written about the ANA, and recounting the findings of two subsequent journalistic visits to find out the fate of "his" kandak, conducting interviews with its soldiers and officers, plus a visit to the Kabul Military Training Centre, where the ANA is trained. Throughout this, one comes away with an understanding of the best and the worst of the ANA, and many of the problems of ISAF's approach to developing it (notably a generally patronizing approach and the turnover of mentoring units every 6 months or so). The individual stories convey long experience of fighting, extraordinary bravery, patriotism, the "Afghan approach" to counter-insurgency (eg not much focus on hearts and minds), the ethnic divisions (including much suspicion of the smaller numbers of Pashtuns in the ANA), the incidence of drug-use, some resentment at ISAF's condescension, bemusement at other times of ISAF's approach, and a short discussion of the green-on-blue insider threat, which is not nearly as common as portrayed. One thing that really surprised me was how heavily the Soviet influence lived on in the ANA, evidently a result of just how many ANA soldiers and officers are veterans of the Soviet-sponsored Afghan army of the 1980s. There is a real pathos to the human stories too, particularly as some individuals get wounded or killed. Whereas British units do a 6-month tour of duty in Helmand, the kandak in Hennessey's book have been fighting there without break for over 5 years now - that has taken its toll.
Considering how important the ANA is to ISAF's exit strategy, it's terrible that so little has been written about the ANA, and Hennessey's efforts go a long way to plugging this gap and addressing the many stereotypes and misconceptions. This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the war in Afghanistan.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews