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  • Black Hawk Down

  • By: Mark Bowden
  • Narrated by: Alan Sklar
  • Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (242 ratings)
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Black Hawk Down

By: Mark Bowden
Narrated by: Alan Sklar
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Summary

Ninety-nine elite American soldiers are trapped in the middle of a hostile city. As night falls, they are surrounded by thousands of enemy gunmen. Their wounded are bleeding to death. Their ammunition and supplies are dwindling. This is the story of how they got there - and how they fought their way out. This is the story of war.

Black Hawk Down drops you into a crowded marketplace in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia with the U.S. Special Forces and puts you in the middle of the most intense firelight American soldiers have fought since the Vietnam war.

Late in the afternoon of Sunday, October 3, 1993, the soldiers of Task Form Ranger were sent on a mission to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take them about an hour. Instead, they were pinned down through a long and terrible night, locked in a desperate struggle to kill or be killed.

When the unit was finally rescued the following morning, 18 American soldiers were dead and dozens more badly injured. The Somali toll was far worse; more than five hundred felled and over a thousand wounded. Award-winning literary journalist Mark Bowden's dramatic narrative captures this harrowing ordeal through the eyes of the young men who fought that day. He draws on his extensive interviews of participants from both sides - as well as classified combat video and radio transcripts - to bring their stories to life.

Authoritative, gripping, and insightful, Black Hawk Down is a riveting look at the terror and exhilaration of combat destined to become a classic of war reporting.

©1999 Mark Bowden (P)2012 Simon and Schuster
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

" Black Hawk Down ranks as one of the best books ever written about infantry combat." (The New York Observer)

What listeners say about Black Hawk Down

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

This book is so much better than the movie...and the movie is one of my favourites.

Far better critics have left far more eloquent reviews, that said after lostening to it i just have to pass on the enjoyment and satisfaction i got from it.

As a previous soldier i can honestly vouch for the accounts from the Rangers, albeit i have no experiance of combat but i have been to my share of current theatres, the boredom these men felt and the bravado and the natural playfullness of some accompanied with natural maturity of others is something any soldier can relate to. This book does an amazing job of showing the Rangers as being MEN. It takes away the "stormtrooper" mask wich is amplified by hollywood and leaves behind human men with lives that matter to them and their loved ones.

Black Hawk Down the book however does not stop there and instead it even goes as far as to show the humanity of the enemy, something that truly lack in all the modern media. We enjoy seeing our enemies as nameless targets. As soldiers we need this to remain detached to a degree but as humans its great to be reminded of the fact that we are there doing a job and they , the enemy are likewise just doing the job needed to be done.

I think the way the book acheives this is not a fortunate accident instead it is the very thing that is the point of the book, and furthermore its the whole point of what the Rangers in Somalia and other soldiers later in Iraq and Afghan and before in Vietnam and the Great Wars were feeling in their own times. I think that all soldiers since the beginning of time have been MEN first, not namless soldiers with no context of what brought them to their last battleground.

This book does simply a perfect job of bringing humanity back into a story where im sure men on both sides doubted if their was any humanity left on this planet, even down to when the humvee drivers laughed at knocking down the man in the street, its not because its funny to run men over, its because its so obsurd. It leaves wondering whos the good guys here and that because at that moment in time there is no good guys and equally there is no bad guys there is just men trying to survive a few more heartbeats, to just make it to the end of the street and then after that who knows, maybe they will be lucky and survive a little while longer.

I will finish before i end up writing my own book as a review, this book moved me whilst listening to it and im happy for that as it reminds me that I too am a man first and in any of the situations described by the people in this book weather they be US Forces or Somali i would probably of exactly the same as any one of them, I would of been afraid to go back out, i would of been over flowing with rage and needing to go back out to exact revenge, i would of wanted to pull down a Black Hawk from the sky to defeat the Americans seeming to invade my home, i would of tortued men who just killed my countrymen and i would of offered tea to a captive as well as receive it if i was indeed captive.........

We are all MEN first and when the time of words end and action begins then we have to adopt our primitive animal states and do things that no one and everyone can understand.

A truly excellent book depicting a 15 hour window of a conflict that no one cares about on a continent that is forfotten, fought by human beings against human beings which makes it the most relevant story to any culture since the first cultures exsisted.

Thanks to Mark Bowden for his persistent reaserach and to the all the men and women who allowed him to document their accounts for future generations to appreciate.

....Oh ye Alan Skar does an amazing job reading the story too, he truly bring the story to life and i cant imagine another voice that would of done it any justice.

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totally enthralling.

from the very start I hated having to turn it off when I had to go do other things, so caught up in what was happening in the moment, I'd seen the film as I'm sure most folk have but compared to the book it fades into a meager story. loved it.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Bone chilling account of a terrible day the world

Great book and even better choice of narrator, putting an effort into bringing life to the scenes the book tells about. This brings great insight into what happened that day, and the feeling of the men on the ground

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Shame

I really tried I wanted to know what really happens here but the narrator for me was useless I didn't know who was who or what was what I got lost in this very complexed fast paced storey.. a narrator is extremely important and needs to be multidimensional when so many characters are at play

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Black hawk down is one of my most favourite movies so was reluctant to listen to the story as didn’t want to ruin what i thought was true facts in the film but how wrong was I really glad I listened lots of facts you just didn’t find out in the film amazing book definitely well worth the listen

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant Story

What can I say to add any more gloss to such a comprehensive narrative of a deadly mission that went so badly wrong. A modern superpower trapped by armed enraged blood thirsty militia. A gut wrenching story that spares none of the barbaric details and huge loss of life. A truly amazing story. Wow.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A war story well told and written

The story is exceptionally well written with Bowden's critique of US forces as well as providing the Somali view, which I find rare in American war stories. Having said that, this is just a war story, not particularly "American", in a good way. It tells the story as it happens and how it was felt by the soldiers. Very realistic and a well constructed story held me in its grip!
The reader was really good as well. Just enough (a little) acting and a very pleasant voice.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliantly Insightful

Loved the film, but think I love the book more! So much emotion, you could feel every bullet flying! What those guys went through…..!

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Magnificent story

If like me you watched the movie and are wondering if you should spend your credit on the book. Don't the movie is a fairly good representation of the events and the book itself. otherwise this book is an excellent read

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Great story and solid narration

I had seen the movie, this is far better.
The folks who rated this 1-star because they could not follow the different characters probably should have picked a book for junior high kids instead. The narrator makes the story come alive and it’s very easy to follow who is who and where they are.
It’s still a tragic tale of US and UN international strategy going totally awry and creating a situation that was totally avoidable for both sides. The Epilogue is a great summary of where is all went wrong.

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