‘Thunder Run’ tells is inside story of one of the most brutal and decisive battles in combat history. It tells of how, with fewer than a thousand men, and facing dug-in Iraqi forces, the Second (‘Tusker’) Brigade of the Third Infantry Division punched a hole through the heart of Baghdad with a high-speed charge to Saddam Hussein's Presidential Palace and Republican Guard headquarters. The result is a riveting account of how soldiers respond under fire – and how human frailties are magnified in a war zone. It is widely believed that in April 2003 Baghdad was taken with a minimum of effort. But for the Tusker Brigade this was a cruel and terrifying three days of urban warfare.

This compulsively readable book, written by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist David Zucchino, does for the battle for Baghdad what Mark Bowden’s best-selling ‘Black Hawk Down’ did for the firefight in Mogadishu. It is a riveting portrait of the face of battle, and an unputdownable first-hand account of how a single armoured brigade of fewer than a thousand men captured an Arab capital defended by one of the world’s largest armies.

David Zucchino
Paperback 336 pages 2004

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