Hellfire

Hellfire
Ed Macy

May 2006. Pilot Ed Macy arrives in Afghanistan with a contingent of the Apache AH Mk1. It’s the first operational tour for the deadly machines and confidence in the cripplingly expensive attack helicopter is low. It doesn’t help that for their first month ‘in action’, Ed and his mates see little more than the back-end of a Chinook.But when the men of 3 Para get pinned down during Op Mutay, reservations about the fearsome new attack helicopters are thrown out the window. In the blistering firefight that follows, Ed unleashes the first ever Hellfire missile in combat and what had been rumoured as a £4.2 billion mistake quickly becomes the British Army’s greatest asset, as the awe-inspiring Apache is dramatically redirected to fight the enemy head-on.As a young paratrooper, Ed’s dreams of fighting on the front line rested with the SAS rather than the Army Air Corps, but a brutal accident abuptly ended any chance of SAS selection. Learning to pilot and fight in an attack helicopter was Ed’s route back. In ‘Hellfire’ Ed describes the amount of determination and rule-bending it took to make it as one of the best.In this gripping account of war on the ground and in the skies above the dusty wastes of Helmand, Ed recounts the intense months that followed Op Mutay: the steep learning curve, the relentless missions, the evolving enemy and the changing Rules of Engagement.Ed will need every ounce of willpower and skill to succeed over the long, hot Helmand summer, as he and his colleagues find themselves on trial for their lives and for the reputation of a machine on which the British government had staked a fortune. The crucible of fire that awaited them would cement the fate of man and machine forever.

Ed Macy

Hellfire

In memory ofmy grandparentsand their unconditional love

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u787b51a8-4881-5032-94a9-6e0439dc1119)

Title Page (#ua4d05579-4963-5e82-a700-0182504c9f96)

Dedication (#u57b62e27-d45e-5eba-83ce-ee69956bd647)

Prologue (#uafe9600f-72b4-543f-89ae-22ccb4996576)

Air Attack, Air Attack (#ue4af855c-713a-5b4b-a055-e596aae2c9f4)

Arrested and Tested (#u08cfef3b-04c0-5d68-8595-feaae94a18c3)

Skylined With No B Ackup (#ub549c3f0-3575-557f-90b6-f1a6c5993551)

Chopp Er Palmer’ S Wings (#u08b9aa9e-a2d9-55c6-8c35-f890ce622aba)

Booby-trapped In Northern Ireland (#udb9c7ea7-a3c6-540a-bd4e-78ca359e325b)

Bombing Freddie Mercury (#u544d35e5-6292-5f5c-9709-0f25c74b6345)

Facing Tommo (#ub5719e56-ceef-564f-b60c-dbb5911b742b)

One On One (#u74514c9d-6319-5ef4-a469-d1fae2fd060f)

The Hunter (#uc7b58afb-35fa-5a2d-8e4c-0b0ce3c72698)

The Killer (#litres_trial_promo)

Learning To Fly - Learning To Fight (#litres_trial_promo)

Dusty Hellfire (#litres_trial_promo)

Mo Ose Time (#litres_trial_promo)

Wildman Of Helmand (#litres_trial_promo)

Visiting The Shrine (#litres_trial_promo)

The 7 Ps (#litres_trial_promo)

Go-go-go (#litres_trial_promo)

Late (#litres_trial_promo)

Embarrassingly Late (#litres_trial_promo)

Operation Mutay (#litres_trial_promo)

Signed, Sealed and Delivered (#litres_trial_promo)

Scramble (#litres_trial_promo)

Broken Arrow (#litres_trial_promo)

The Plan (#litres_trial_promo)

The Anti-aircraft Gunner (#litres_trial_promo)

Hellfire (#litres_trial_promo)

Siege (#litres_trial_promo)

Operation Snakebite (#litres_trial_promo)

Sniper Team (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Afterword (#litres_trial_promo)

Glossary of Terms (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

PROLOGUE (#ulink_600c21cd-7350-52dc-a75f-8bc05c602b91)

TUESDAY, 4 JULY 2006

Camp Bastion, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan

2255 hours local