Pride and Fall

Pride and Fall tells the story of the British Army and Royal Marines (and more broadly Defence) campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan 2001-2014. It mixes high-level discussions with strategy with tactical vignettes. It offers a highly readable, highly credible history of the period.

This book is bloody brilliant. We highly recommend it. 

From people who served in Afghanistan to warfare experts to those with a casual interest, Pride and Fall will help anyone understand. Miller’s clarity coupled with a deep understanding of what happened during the campaign make this highly readable. He does it with an engaging style and sense of wit that few can match. 

Blow by blow account?

In many ways Pride and Fall is a blow by blow account of the land campaign in Afghanistan. Its chapters are chronological, dealing with the campaign as it happened. It offers tactical details with a clear narrative of events.  But you would be mistaken if you thought this was a narrative history. Miller brings out the personalities of the commanders and their preparations to show how they impacted the conduct of the war. For example, ‘mowing the lawn’ of early campaigns and ‘clear hold build’. It also charts how the campaign developed – or didn’t – and questions why.

This analysis alone makes it a useful reference for future study. Miller identifies and explores named individuals to the level of critical analysis that he does, which is something few others have done as effectively. A veteran British reader will recognise many (now senior generals) in their formative years.  

The title of the book gives away the general argument about the conduct of the war. Miller’s text charts the good and the bad of British strategy. Pride and Fall considers that the war lacked a strategy. But he is not entirely dismissive of Britain’s efforts. The rise and increasing effectiveness of intelligence is a key success. The conduct of Op HERRICK 13 is a high point of success, one let down by a lack of resources to exploit it before the drawdown. Just because some things were bad, not all of it was. His ability to assess the relative merits and offer a nuanced view of the campaign sets it apart from more traditional ‘good or bad’ narrative history. 

Reading it from a doctrine perspective, Pride and Fall adds historical context from which to judge the effectiveness of Britain’s new counter-insurgency doctrine.  We might conclude, crudely, that Britain had ‘all the ideas none of the gear’. But Miller wouldn’t quite put it like that. Miller’s wider points about how to be better should be grasped by a modern Army facing similar challenges in the future.  

Strategy and tactics

Another theme is the interaction between strategy and tactics. The pressure on resources balanced against the reliance on the US is key throughout. London, Miller shows, struggled to stay relevant despite the commitment of British blood and treasure. Multiple Defence Secretaries, changing generals, the home front. How these big hand themes played out on the ground, and notably the C2 challenges it created, offers new angles to consider. 

But Pride and Fall doesn’t only deal with the science of war. There are long sections detailing the ground reality. These moments offer a glimpse into the human struggles. For example, the role of Company Sergeant Major ‘Billy’ Roy who straps antlers to his quad bike to deliver Christmas dinners, or the more human details about living outside the wire (or more crudely, taking a **** whilst freezing on a mountain). Not to mention more relevant examples of long insertion tabs, coalition tensions, human relationships that actually win campaigns. Pride and Fall combined these tactical and human moments with a sense of how they contributed to the wider mission. It brilliantly demonstrates the British soldier (and Marines) sense of humour. 

Who is the author?

Sergio Miller is a former Intelligence Corps officer and a regular Wavell Room contributor. His analysis of the war in Ukraine is second to none, as is this book. Miller applies critical thinking and builds evidence from the ground up. In Pride and Fall, in particular, his ability to combine war diaries, blog posts, and personal experiences with the science of war adds enormously to readers’ understanding. History at its best. 

Should I read it?

Yes. It’s brilliant. 

In our view, it will become one of the seminal history books of the campaign in Afghanistan. For sure, there are holes. He could have looked more at air or other parts of warfare. It’s as much as the Royal Marines as it is the British Army. From veterans to academics, to casual readers, it’s worth reading. 

Pride and Fall The British Army in Afghanistan by Sergio Miller is available from Osprey. A copy was provided to The Wavell Room