Fight to Win [Paperback]

Chris Ryan on Combat

This non-fiction book "Chris Ryan - Fight to Win: Deadly Skills of the Elite Forces" I found not to be go as his other non-fiction works "Chris Ryan's Ultimate Survival Guide" and his classic book "The One That Got Away: My SAS Mission Behind Iraqi Lines" about the disastrous SAS patrol during the first Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm). As far as his non-fiction work I have not read any of them to give comparison.

Chris Ryan as a former SAS operator certainly has the credentials to write such a book on elite fighting tactics and skills. However, this book does this fine warrior no credit. I believe that the author could have done a lot more with this book as far as tactical in combat information. The first two chapters of the book cover assessment and selection into elite units specifically the special air service. The following chapter covers training and equipment, focusing on advanced training skills elite warriors' culture and the equipment they use. To the uninitiated is first two chapters do provide some interesting information and insight to the workings and operations of elite special forces. The remaining chapters cover tidbits of various tactical information from air operations to small unit patrolling. Unfortunately there is no real depth to any of this information and this presented in more of an informational magazine article than that of a how-to manual. This however is not a completely bad book, just not the book one would want to use to learn such tactics. I do think that the book has a few gold nuggets and tips of the trade if one is willing to sift through the book for them. I found this book to be similar in format to "McAleese's Fighting Manual" by Peter McAleese and the "SAS Ultimate Guide to Combat: How to Fight and Survive in Modern Warfare" by Robert Stirling, both of which I found to be slightly better than this book. This book is profusely illustrated with color photography I'm practically every page and for the most part information contained within this book is pretty accurate, I personally only have found some minor flaws and mistakes in the text and nothing that I believe that would cost someone their life in combat.

CONTENTS:

-Credentials
-Introduction
Chapter 1: selection
Chapter 2: training and equipment
Chapter 3: going in by air
Chapter 4: going in by other means
Chapter 5: patrol
Chapter 6: observation and surveillance
Chapter 7: assault
Chapter 8: getting up
-Appendix: elite units around the world
-Index
-List of abbreviations
-List of illustrations

(Approximately 240 pages, hard cover)

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review  3.0 out of 5 stars