The National Army Museum here in London recently launched a new exhibition about 3 Para’s deployment as part of 16 Air Assault to Helmand Province, or as they fondly called it “Hell Land”. The exhibit has actually been nominated for The Art Fund Prize.
If you can’t make it down to London to see this excellent exhibition then they do have an online version, which is also great and has some brilliant photos. I’m currently looking into doing a book on the Anglo-Afghan Wars of the 19th century and it does feel a bit surreal reading about the fighting around the Khbher Pass, Kandahar and Kabul – names that are all instantly recognisable because of current news reports. It will be interesting to draw parallels between today’s war and back then.
But on a lighter note it would be fun to do a book on such an archetypal Flashman period and I’ll have to dust off an old copy of that classic war film The Man who would be king. Hope that doesn’t make it onto Mike’s worst war film list!