Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad by David Zucchino
Thunder Run is the story 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 product of dozens of interviews with commanders and men from the Second Brigade, it is more than just a book about a single battle. It is a riveting account of how soldiers respond under fire and and how human frailties are magnified in a war zone. Many people believe that Baghdad was taken with a minimum of effort. But for the Tusker Brigade it was a cruel and terrifying three days of urban warfare. Thunder Run tells the inside story of one of the most brutal and decisive battles in combat history and the biggest armoured battle involving American troops since the Vietnam War. It is an unputdownable, unforgettable 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.