The Shift

In the history of warfare, there are many diaries written by ordinary infantrymen to military commanders, however, there is no book published in the English language covering the diary of a missile officer in the air-defense unit during wartime. This book is an attempt to correct that gap and bring to the reader first-hand experience of life in the missile battery with all that comes with it. The intention is to try to put the reader into the missile operator's shoes but not only in the missile guidance station but throughout the whole daily life on and off duty.

The book is based on the original war diary by Lieutenant Colonel Djordje Anicic, deputy commander of the 3rd missile battalion, which he wrote on daily basis during the NATO aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - the last full scale war of the 20th century. The diary covers every single day as well as an additional explanation that helps the reader to understand the overall situation in the society, military organization, roles of individual members, and enlighten the events which fell into obscurity and are still covered with some kind of mystery.

The author doesn't spare himself and the superior command and bitterly criticizes some of their decisions and the people involved, for example, drunkness in the Brigade Operation Center and orders to the crew to execute ridiculous tasks or avoiding the duties during the 'hottest' hours when the enemy airplanes are about the attack the battalion position. While other members of his shift and other teams tried to use any time off to catch some rest, the author spent considerable time taking meticulous notes about each day's events, conversations, and sometimes funny stuff as well as bitter ones.
There are plenty of names involved and going through the diary the reader gets familiar with some of them. The diary is also illustrated with original wartime photos. As a base, some of the material explaining the functions of the missile unit is borrowed from the book 'Shooting Down the Stealth Fighter' by the same authors.

The author and associates hope that this book will allow a reader to dive into one unknown segment of warfare and help to understand how the life of an air defense missile unit and its members looks like.
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