Book Review of
Paradise Afire vol. 2
The Sri Lankan War 1987-1990
Asia@War Series
Author: Adrien Fontanellaz
Helion & Company
ISBN: 978-1-912866-30-4
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-912866-30-4
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.95
HISTORY:
Upon achieving independence from Great Britain in 1948, the stunningly beautiful island of Ceylon, re-named Sri Lanka in 1972, was expected to become a sort of ‘South Asian Singapore’. However, stable political order and bright economic prospects proved insufficient to maintain peace. A host of unsolved ethnic conflicts and social inequalities conspired to erupt into an armed conflict in 1971.
By 1987, the crisis heated up to the point where the government in New Delhi began exercising fierce pressure upon the Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lankan Tamil insurgents to arrive at a peace deal. In order to help maintain peace, the Indian Peace Keeping Force was deployed on the island.
However, with a few weeks, the troops of the Indian Army found themselves involved in a bloody and protracted confrontation with the most powerful of Tamil insurgent movements – the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Elam (LTTE). The peacekeeping operation was thus quickly converted into a military intervention and a bloody quagmire. To make matters even more complex, southern Sir Lanka meanwhile became engulfed in an unprecedented wave of public violence, triggered by the second insurrection of Sinhalese ultra-leftist movement, the JVP.
Calling upon extensive studies of the Sri Lankan War, with the help of first hand sources, official documentation and publications from all of the involved parties, this volume provides an in-depth and particularly detailed account of military operations between 1987 and 1990. It is illustrated by over 74 black and white and 8 color photographs, 6 maps and 12 color profiles and 4 color illustrations of soldiers.
Following on from Helion’s highly successful Africa @War series, Asia @War replicates the same format – concise, incisive text, rare images and high-quality color artwork providing fresh accounts of both well-known and more esoteric aspects of conflict in this part of the world since 1945.
THE BOOK:
Helion & Company is based in the UK.
This book is soft-cover of 64 pages in 8 ½” x 11 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a color photo of troops of the 41st Infantry Brigade, Indian Army, disembarking from the rear of a BMP-1 outside of Jaffna, in October 1987, above a repeat of the color profile in the book of a Indian Air Force Mi-25.
The color profiles consists of: 2 illustrations of Indian Army T-72s, a Indian Army BMP-1, a Indian Air Force II-76MD “Gajraj” transport, a IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping force) II-76 “Gajraj” transport, a Indian Air Force AN-32 “Sutlejs” transport, a Indian Air Force Mi-8 “Ronas” helicopter, a Indian Air Force Mi-17 “Prataps” helicopter, a Indian Air Force Mi-25 helicopter, a Indian Air Force Jaguar jet fighter, a Indian Navy Breguet Br.1050 “Alize” radar searching aircraft, a Indian Navy British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS Mk. 51 jet fighter,
The color illustrations of soldiers include: a IPKF Sikh sergeant and his insignia, a LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) female guerrilla and her insignia, a Indian Gurkha soldier and a Indian paratrooper and his insignia.
There is a list of all the abbreviations used in the book and what they mean.
About The Author
Adrien Fontanellaz, from Switzerland, is a military history researcher and author. He developed a passion for military history at an early age and has progressively narrowed his studies to modern-day conflicts.
He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Pully-based Centre d’histoire et de prospective militaires (Military History and Perspectives Centre), and regularly contributes for the Revue Militaire Suisse and various French military history magazines.
He is co-founder and a regular contributor to the French military history website L’autre cotè de la colline, and this is his seventh title for Helion’s ‘@War’ series.
Highly recommended to modelers and military historians alike.
I sincerely thank Casemate Publishing for this review sample and the folks at Helion & Co.
Casemate is the North American distributor for Helion & Co. books.
All Helion & Co. books can be seen on Casemates web site at:
Upon achieving independence from Great Britain in 1948, the stunningly beautiful island of Ceylon, re-named Sri Lanka in 1972, was expected to become a sort of ‘South Asian Singapore’. However, stable political order and bright economic prospects proved insufficient to maintain peace. A host of unsolved ethnic conflicts and social inequalities conspired to erupt into an armed conflict in 1971.
By 1987, the crisis heated up to the point where the government in New Delhi began exercising fierce pressure upon the Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lankan Tamil insurgents to arrive at a peace deal. In order to help maintain peace, the Indian Peace Keeping Force was deployed on the island.
However, with a few weeks, the troops of the Indian Army found themselves involved in a bloody and protracted confrontation with the most powerful of Tamil insurgent movements – the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Elam (LTTE). The peacekeeping operation was thus quickly converted into a military intervention and a bloody quagmire. To make matters even more complex, southern Sir Lanka meanwhile became engulfed in an unprecedented wave of public violence, triggered by the second insurrection of Sinhalese ultra-leftist movement, the JVP.
Calling upon extensive studies of the Sri Lankan War, with the help of first hand sources, official documentation and publications from all of the involved parties, this volume provides an in-depth and particularly detailed account of military operations between 1987 and 1990. It is illustrated by over 74 black and white and 8 color photographs, 6 maps and 12 color profiles and 4 color illustrations of soldiers.
Following on from Helion’s highly successful Africa @War series, Asia @War replicates the same format – concise, incisive text, rare images and high-quality color artwork providing fresh accounts of both well-known and more esoteric aspects of conflict in this part of the world since 1945.
THE BOOK:
Helion & Company is based in the UK.
This book is soft-cover of 64 pages in 8 ½” x 11 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a color photo of troops of the 41st Infantry Brigade, Indian Army, disembarking from the rear of a BMP-1 outside of Jaffna, in October 1987, above a repeat of the color profile in the book of a Indian Air Force Mi-25.
The color profiles consists of: 2 illustrations of Indian Army T-72s, a Indian Army BMP-1, a Indian Air Force II-76MD “Gajraj” transport, a IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping force) II-76 “Gajraj” transport, a Indian Air Force AN-32 “Sutlejs” transport, a Indian Air Force Mi-8 “Ronas” helicopter, a Indian Air Force Mi-17 “Prataps” helicopter, a Indian Air Force Mi-25 helicopter, a Indian Air Force Jaguar jet fighter, a Indian Navy Breguet Br.1050 “Alize” radar searching aircraft, a Indian Navy British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS Mk. 51 jet fighter,
The color illustrations of soldiers include: a IPKF Sikh sergeant and his insignia, a LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) female guerrilla and her insignia, a Indian Gurkha soldier and a Indian paratrooper and his insignia.
There is a list of all the abbreviations used in the book and what they mean.
About The Author
Adrien Fontanellaz, from Switzerland, is a military history researcher and author. He developed a passion for military history at an early age and has progressively narrowed his studies to modern-day conflicts.
He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Pully-based Centre d’histoire et de prospective militaires (Military History and Perspectives Centre), and regularly contributes for the Revue Militaire Suisse and various French military history magazines.
He is co-founder and a regular contributor to the French military history website L’autre cotè de la colline, and this is his seventh title for Helion’s ‘@War’ series.
Highly recommended to modelers and military historians alike.
I sincerely thank Casemate Publishing for this review sample and the folks at Helion & Co.
Casemate is the North American distributor for Helion & Co. books.
All Helion & Co. books can be seen on Casemates web site at: