Already a classic of war reporting and now reissued as a Grove Press paperback Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowdens brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War. On October 3 1993 about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavilyarmed Somalis. The following morning eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly wounded. Drawing on interviews from both sides army records audiotapes and videos some of the material is still classified Bowdens minutebyminute narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern combat ever writtena riveting story that captures the heroism courage and brutality of battle. show more