‘Rounds slammed the ground all around the Taliban. He hit the earth face first, vanishing into the foggy confusion of desert conflict. The Apache’s engines rumbled on as we orbited, hoping to see immediate harsh, hard proof that he was no longer a threat.’

Steve Jones is a former senior British combat pilot flying with the Army Air Corps (AAC), and Apache At War is his vivid and uncompromising account of flying ‘the ultimate fighting machine’, the Apache AH1 attack helicopter in action. From patrolling ‘Bandit Country’ in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s, to taking out Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in the mid to late 2000s, with active service in the Balkans and Iraq along the way: Steve Jones offers the taut, gritty, and graphic reality of flying in military service.

Besides his time spent in the air, Steve Jones was also a qualified instructor on the Apache. He brings us a first-hand account of his time spent teaching the then ‘Lieutenant H. Wales’ – Prince Harry – to fly and fight the aircraft. He tells of mentoring the hard-living prince, of equipping him with skills that would later bring out the best in him in Afghanistan, offering insights into Harry the soldier and pilot far removed from the media figure that we all know so well.

Immediate, dramatic, peppered with military insights and laced with laconic humour, Apache At War is a testament to the vital work of combat helicopter pilots, as well as an intimate salute to a truly remarkable aircraft.