Unapologetic unassuming & forthright the combat exploits of Executive Outcomes in Angola & Sierra Leone are recounted for the first time by a battlefield commander who was physically on the ground during all their major combat operations From fighting the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola for critical oil installations & diamond fields to the offensive against the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone to capture the Kono diamond fields & the palace coup which ousted Captain Valentine Strasser van Heerden was at the forefront. He tells of the tragedy of child soldiers illegal diamond mining & the curse of government soldiers who turn on their own people; he tells of RUF atrocities the harrowing attempt to rescue a downed pilot & the efforts to recover the remains of soldiers killed in action. Coupled with van Heerdens gripping expose hitherto unpublished photographs order of battle charts & battle maps offer unprecedented access to the major actions as they took place on the ground during the heydays of Executive Outcomes.