On October 3, 1993, Task Force Ranger was dispatched to seize two high-profile lieutenants of a brutal Somali warlord in a mission that was meant to be over within an hour. Instead, they quickly found themselves surrounded and under heavy fire. With two Black Hawk helicopters shot out of the sky, and a hastily organized relief column many hours away, the American troops faced a desperate struggle for survival.

Drawing on recently declassified documents and interviews with veterans going on record for the very first time, each stage of the close-quarters battle is retold in extraordinary detail. With in-depth analysis of events on the ground and in the air from those who were there, this is the definitive military history of Operation Gothic Serpent: the Battle of Mogadishu.