The e-book was re-published in 2014 and is an updated edition of a book first published in 1992. Since its first publication in 1992, The Scars of War has been included on the required reading lists for many Military and War Studies courses – including The Army Staff College Camberley. It is a powerful and wide-ranging report from the front, which had a profound effect on many aspects of military thinking. The Scars of War carries on where John Keegan’s classic The Face of Battle left off. Case histories of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the Vietnam, Falklands and Gulf Wars are sympathetically explored, as are army, navy and air force attitudes to the problem. Hugh compares the ways in which the British Army, the US Army and the Israeli Defence Force motivate their peacetime soldiery and train their special forces to ‘do business’ he shows how the power and range of today’s weapons – and the ability of technology to eliminate darkness so that fighting can take place around the clock – makes modern war more stressful than ever before and he looks at the long-term psychological and emotional effects of combat, including the guilt of survivors. What really happens on the modern battlefield? How do today’s professional soldiers prepare for, and cope with, the physical and psychological hardships of combat? How do individuals behave under extreme conditions? And what happens when the combatants return to normal life? War is by far the most traumatic ‘life event’ any human being can experience – a devastating combination of danger, uncertainty and horror.

I go to bed each night aiming to only read for a short while, and the next time I look at the clock an hour has passed!’ About the book Haven’t finished it yet, but it won’t be long. It is also probably the most horrific book I can remember in that it describes war as it is in reality, and by extension also the effects of physical and psychological violence on human beings.’ Totally serious, without an iota of cheap sensationalism, intelligent and absolutely fascinating.

‘This is without a shadow of a doubt a great book, I have never read non-fiction that is better than this work.

– Len Deighton From readers’ reviews of the book: ‘The most compelling, moving and disturbing book that I’ve read in a very long time. ‘A noble and courageous approach to an aspect of war concealed too often and too easily… Hugh McManners has made a valuable and important breach into the citadel of a subject which has been guarded in silence for too long’ This book explores the brutal realities of warfare that are often glossed over in official history books, autobiographies and regimental diaries, with remarkable and revealing candour.

Do you want to know what war is really like?

Citadel upgrade shadow of war