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Ambush Alley: The Most Extraordinary Battle of the Iraq War Hardcover – August 30, 2005

by Tim Pritchard (Author)

106 customer reviews

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March 23, 2003: U.S. Marines from the Task Force Tarawa are caught up in one of the most unexpected battles of the Iraq War. What started off as a routine maneuver to secure two key bridges in the town of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq degenerated into a nightmarish twenty-four-hour urban clash in which eighteen young Marines lost their lives and more than thirty-five others were wounded. It was the single heaviest loss suffered by the U.S. military during the initial combat phase of the war.

On that fateful day, Marines came across the burned-out remains of a U.S. Army convoy that had been ambushed by Saddam Hussein’s forces outside Nasiriyah. In an attempt to rescue the missing soldiers and seize the bridges before the Iraqis could destroy them, the Marines decided to advance their attack on the city by twenty-four hours. What happened next is a gripping and gruesome tale of military blunders, tragedy, and heroism.

Huge M1 tanks leading the attack were rendered ineffective when they became mired in an open sewer. Then a company of Marines took a wrong turn and ended up on a deadly stretch of road where their armored personal carriers were hit by devastating rocket-propelled grenade fire. USAF planes called in for fire support play their own part in the unfolding cataclysm when they accidentally strafed the vehicles. The attempt to rescue the dead and dying stranded in “ambush alley” only drew more Marines into the slaughter.

This was not a battle of modern technology, but a brutal close-quarter urban knife fight that tested the Marines’ resolve and training to the limit. At the heart of the drama were the fifty or so young Marines, most of whom had never been to war, who were embroiled in a battle of epic proportions from which neither their commanders nor the technological might of the U.S. military could save them.

With a novelist’s gift for pace and tension, Tim Pritchard brilliantly captures the chaos, panic, and courage of the fight for Nasiriyah, bringing back in full force the day that a perfunctory task turned into a battle for survival.

"Ambush Alley" is a gut-wrenching account of unadulterated terror that's hard to read yet impossible to put down. London-based journalist and filmmaker Tim Pritchard, who was embedded with US troops during the initial stages of the American-led invasion of Iraq, paints a compelling picture of one of the costliest battles of the Iraq war that will at turns anger, horrify, and sadden, regardless of one's political views."
--The Boston Globe

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Editorial Reviews

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“Pritchard’s excellently reported narrative details the bloodiest American military operation of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the fight for Nasiriyah. Impossible to put down, it is a gripping account of SNAFUs, chaos, and heroism in a savage fight between U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces in the heart of a densely populated city, with several hundred thousand civilians caught in the crossfire. Ambush Alley offers a disturbing view into the down-and-dirty level of warfare which at the time was largely hidden from the American public.”
–Evan Wright, bestselling author of Generation Kill

“Tim Pritchard writes about men in war like very few dare to try. By the tenth or so page into his book you are no longer simply observing the action from your couch potato ass, you are with the young Marines, riding along with them in the back of an AMTRAK troop transport, sensing the ‘feel’ of combat, taking indiscriminate RPG rounds, and fired on by misdirected, fearsome A-10 ground attack jets. Ambush Alley truly takes you into the crucible of battle. It gives a new meaning to ‘kicking ass’ and true sensitivity to the term ‘fear factor.’ ”
–Richard Marcinko, bestselling author of Rogue Warrior

About the Author

Tim Pritchard is a London-based journalist and filmmaker who has made several award-winning documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, PBS, and the Discovery Channel. This is his first book.

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Presidio Press; 1st edition (August 30, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0891418806
ISBN-13: 978-0891418801
Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
Average Customer Review: 106 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,955,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #760 in Books > History > Middle East > Iraq
- #1720 in Books > History > Military > Iraq War
- #3035 in Books > Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Writing > Journalism & Nonfiction

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Bound to be made into a Movie

ByG. H. Chapmanon August 1, 2011

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

Tim Pritchard has caught in the pages of his book the raw meat and grit of one of the worse 24 hour periods in the Iraq war. There was a lot of mistakes made, bad Intel, heavy equipment failure,confusion and lack of communication. Somehow Pritchard kept track of all the chaotic activity and mayhem and broke it down into a systematic way so as to not lose the reader. When two story buildings end up blocking communications and the brass has no clue as to what is happening on the field, that indicates to me extremely poor planning and downright incompetence. (It just boggles the mind with it's high level of dumbness - trying not to use inappropriate military lingo here...... even though it is more accurate)
The whole time I'm reading the book I was wondering why there was no AWAC planes (or even helos) available to assist in comms and to help coordinate the mission. I was furious reading of our guys dying in one hellish 24 hour period all basically due to a lack communications. When the brass saw that there was a problem getting comms they could have sent an aircraft up from Saudi Arabia and it would have been there in two hours or less.
Air support could have been used more effectively, artillery in between sortes, and troop movements made more effective if only the radios worked.
I liked this book a lot for the way it told our brave Marine's story. And anyone interested in what our men and women go through in war will appreciate the story. But from my own military background I know at a very basic level what could have and should have been done for mission success. Unfortunately, like Black Hawk Down it shows how politically managed operations end up being one big SNAFU. Happens all the time - and when they make a movie of it, the average person ends up coming out of the theater marveling at how we manage to win any wars, and thinking less of the poor guys lying on the battlefield. This book may end up being a movie someday. Hopefully if enough people see how missions micromanaged by pinhead politicians get screwed up things could change. But then again .... I doubt it.

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Highly lucid account of a chaotic and exciting battle

ByM. Hoyton August 19, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Amazingly well written book. The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Marines, consisting of three companies (Alpha, Bravo and Charlie) plus a National Guard Tank team and other associated assets were tasked with capturing the town of of Al Nasiriyaah and especially the bridge across the Euphrates at the southern approach to town and the other bridge across the Saddam Hussein canal at the northern end. The initial plan was for one company to cross the first bridge and establish a secure presence, then the second company to cross the first bridge and swing east of town then head for the northern bridge with the third company to follow in their footsteps and reinforce the position to the north. This plan avoided sending any of the Marines up the main road connecting the two bridges, a road that ran straight through town and had already been dubbed "Ambush Alley" by the Marines.

Things did not go according to plan. The Companies got out of order, the tanks were sent back to refuel at an inopportune time, communications broke down, one company was strafed by USAF pilots in a "blue on blue" incident and ultimately the Marines ended up making several trips up and down Ambush Alley, including a stand at building in the middle of the route they called "The Alamo".

It's exciting stuff, but the part that makes this book stand out for me is how clearly laid out everything is. The Author does an amazing job of describing the confusion and chaos the individual Marines are experiencing, while never leaving the reader confused. I was able to clearly follow the action and understand who was where throughout the engagement, which was something none of the participants were able to do. Being able to build and hold a mental image of the battlefield really enhanced this book for me. That Tim Pritchard was able to do it with only one map is a real testament to his writing skill.

But while the reader can maintain situational awareness, the book also conveys how impossible that was for the participants. Their fear, confusion and frustration comes through clearly, and it's easy to see the causes and chain of events that made things so difficult. As the tragedy of the blue on blue unfolds, it's all too clear to the reader what is going to happen, while all too easy to emphasize with the individuals operating on their limited, and sometimes, faulty intelligence.

The only thing this book lacks is a good After Action Review. While the book gives you the facts as they happened, well arranged so you can follow the chronology, there is no analysis. The list of things that went wrong is long and it would be interesting to read both how the participants and the Marine Corps itself looks back on this day and what lessons can be learned. But that is left to the reader, or perhaps other authors, this is just a straight forward reporting of what happened. And darn good reporting at that. Highly recommended

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All plans are perfect until they meet the enemy

ByManfred Rikkerhausenon February 18, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I purchased the Kindle version of Ambush Alley: The Most Extraordinary Battle of the Iraq War after I had read Pathfinder by David Blakeley. Then I read them both twice again.

The action in both books pivots around the allied attack on Nasiriyah in southern Iraq. The British Pathfinders were tasked with establishing a landing zone in a small airbase north of Nasiriyah. The US Marines were tasked with seizing and holding two important bridges in city itself.

I recommend reading both books in tandem. They create many interesting perspectives on tactical thinking, kit and differences between the UK and US forces. Both actions involve immeasurable courage and resourcefulness. They also illuminate how crucial communications are in actions of this type. The Brits missed a scheduled transmission and had problems with lack of air evacuation. The marines suffered a serious blue on blue through lack of accurate information and communications. The Brits were critical of their kit and deeply admired the resources and armour of the US forces. The marines were just as crtical of the unsuitablity of their own kit. The Americans heavy armour became impossibly bogged down with tanks and APVs at the start of their action and were ground to a standstill. The UK Pathfinders zoomed up and down roads behind the lines in Iraqi territory using speed, daring and aggression as defensive ingredients. Both the Pathfinders and the Marines ended up admiring the properties of each other.