Fire power

by Chris Dempster, Dave Tomkins

light shelf wear only as seen in pictures

Genres: Military Fiction, Africa

496 pages, Paperback

First published August 25, 1978

Reviews

[C.A. A. Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this back in the early 1980s. It was lent to me by my Brother-in-law. It concerns the British mercenaries out in Angola during the conflict of 1974. A former Portuguese colony is becoming independent and the various factions are fighting one another. The Communists have Cuban and Soviet advisers etc. Another group has predominately British mercenaries. They are led by a man of Greek Cypriot origin. An ex-British Army man who is given the alias of Callen. In a short time, Callen becomes notorious for attacking the Communist coveys and even executing his own men. Then there is the public televised trial. The author, Chris Dempster is also present at this time and he has his own story to tell. As a young kid, I can remember watching the court case on the news and the stories in the newspapers of Callen. The whole thing is well written by someone who was there, but I can't help feeling there is a little bit of the macho bravado aspect to this. A lot of ordinary people on all sides of the conflict died brutal deaths.

[Rusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book that tales about an ill forgotten angolan conflicts and the involvement of a mercenary group. Filled with story of recruitment, bureaucrat, casual warcrime and the sheer monotony of war makes it a rather dull but quite realistic read of actual war and mercenary life.

Other than few inconsistent or rather embellished tales from the author Chris and Dave with their feats, it was indeed a rather ok read that i would recommend to anyone especially to those that are interested in other side of the angolan civil war.

[Harry Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fiasco ! The story of colonel Calen , shotgun Charlie , and the western mercenaries recruited for the Angolan civil war in 1976. Also the poor guys who were recruited as truck drivers , but after arrival handed guns , and expected to fight in suicidal combat roles ..

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firepower covers the amateur efforts of a number of British and American (primarily) mercenaries to assist the forces of Holden Roberto's FNLA during Angola's post-independence power struggle. The book mainly follows the adventurers of an ex-Para and a former safe cracker recruited by John Banks of the company SAS to work in Angola.

The issues with this book are several fold. First, there are few likable characters as no one is really painted in a complimentary light, and some of the authors claims of feat accomplished are likely embellished at the least. This makes it hard to maintain interest in the book, as the reader is not really endeared to the characters. Second, not a whole lot really happens in the book, and in this way it reminded me of Mike Hoare's "Road to Kalamata". The authors recount the near constant redeployments, false steps, waiting, and the like with the end result being a few fleeting contacts with the enemy. The book does little "action" wise than recount the terrible abuses laid upon the locals by "Colonel" Callan, "Shotgun" Charley and the rest of their close group. In this sense, the book does do a good job of portraying th utter lunacy of Callan and his flunkies, and making and account of their crimes. It also accounts with some detail the murder of British mercenaries and the ensuing trial.

Overall, this is one of the few accounts (and perhaps the only in this level of detail) of the Angola mercenary operation , but unless you have a major interest in the Angola conflict and mercenary involvement - I'd pass on this one.

[Rick Brindle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark, brutal book that tells the true story of mercenaries in Angola in the 1970's. Told by two of the notorious 'Colonel' Callan's mercenaries, it pulls no punches. Summary executions, ambushes, booby traps and the uncertainty of serving in a shoestring army with no real back up taken for granted by soldiers of NATO countries. Perhaps the biggest surprise from reading this book is that there were so many British ex- soldiers happy to sign up to this madness.
And madness is what it was. The ineptness with which Callan ran his show is surprising, and yet not surprising. Surprising as it goes against the narrative of all British soldiers being these superior beings, not surprising as what happened was one bad apple grunt who was booted out of one military was made a colonel overnight in another, and shock horror, he didn't know what to do. The lack of discipline and boundaries is obvious, and it makes my former unit look like consummate professionals, which is really saying something.
An interesting look at a little-known piece of history, and as stark warning as any for the adrenaline junkies out there, that decisions have consequences.

[Mousey58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's a true story, there was a lot of corruption going on, a million books can be written on the subject because it's even spread all over Africa now and has spread into Europe even more, the book isn't bad, but could have been written a lot better

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

For anyone that wants to know more about the ill-fated and stupid mercenary mission to Angola and about the Angolan civil war in general.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book back in 1992. Not sure if today I believe all of it as fact but it seemed ok then.