When I was researching the corpsmen figures for the pack. still one more to come by the way, I came across this article. First sigh of relief was confirmation of the toy octopus in the helmet
What struck me about this article was that it confirmed to me the danger of journalistic 'media' based history books as opposed to well researched books, which tend to be a lot drier when reading and some a cure for insomnia . Bowden's book on Hue is a must read. It is in the spirit of Band of Brothers and I highly recommend it . There were and I presume still are plans for HBO to make it into a min series. Hope so. However Bowden's journalistic style, that makes it so readable, (similar to Ambrose.) does unfortunately contain mistakes and dare I suggest creative writing to make the facts fit the story. Shame on me . In the context of the book they are not really an issue for the reader but as a piece of historic research it may be a problem. I have found a number of stories that are told in Bowden's book that are from other books, memoirs etc that have been tweaked to fit the Bowden book. Phase Line Green has had a number borrowed. There is nothing wrong with this and I still whole heartedly recommend the book but to the researcher one has to tread with care.
This story I find quite sad and I suspect the inaccuracy will now become the acknowledged truth. When this pack is released it will become our Empress Miniatures icon for the range and I will be acknowledging the true identities on the site
Similar criticisms can be levelled at his Escobar book (
Killing Pablo). Fitting the narrative around the facts and narrowing the focus to create heroic characters that readers will be drawn to. That said, It’s a good read, like all of his books.
Guests of the Ayatollah is a less pacy read than the earlier works but I still enjoyed it.
Whatever demerits he may earn in terms of an absolute commitment to objective fact over narrative he makes up for with good writing. Compare and contrast Bowden’s Hue with the execrable prose of Nolan’s B
attle of Hue.