Dodge Billingsley - Fangs of the Lone Wolf: Chechen Tactics in the Russian-Chechen Wars 1994-2009

Books on guerrilla warfare are seldom written from the tactical perspective and even less seldom from the guerrillas perspective. Fangs of the Lone Wolf: Chechen Tactics in the Russian-Chechen Wars 1994-2009 is an exception. These are the stories of low-level guerrilla combat as told by the survivors. They cover fighting from the cities of Grozny and Argun to the villages of Bamut and Serzhen-yurt, and finally the hills, river valleys and mountains that make up so much of Chechnya. The author embedded with Chechen guerrilla forces and knows the conflict, country and culture. Yet, as a Western outsider, he is able to maintain perspective and objectivity. He traveled extensively to interview Chechen former combatants now displaced, some now in hiding or on the run from Russian retribution and justice. The military professional will appreciate the books crisp narration, organization by type of combat, accurate color maps and insightful analysis and commentary. The civilian reader will discover the complexity of simple guerrilla tactics and the demands on individual perseverance and endurance that guerrilla warfare exacts.

The book is organized into vignettes that provide insight on the nature of both Chechen and Russian tactics utilized during the two wars. They show the chronic problem of guerrilla logistics, the necessity of digging in fighting positions, the value of the correct use of terrain and the price paid in individual discipline and unit cohesion when guerrillas are not bound by a military code and law. Guerrilla warfare is probably as old as man, but has been overshadowed by maneuver war by modern armies and recent developments in the technology of war. As Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines and Chechnya demonstrate, guerrilla war is not only still viable, but is increasingly common. Fangs of the Lone Wolf provides a unique insight into what is becoming modern and future war.

Dodge Billingsley, is the Director of Combat Films and Research, a fellow at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at Brigham Young University, and a senior faculty member at the Naval Post Graduate Schools Center for Civil Military Relations.

A long time observer of many conflicts, Mr. Billingsley has spent considerable time in the Caucasus where he first became familiar with Chechen insurgent/separatist forces during Georgias war with Abkhaz separatists 1992-1993. He has produced two documentary films based on his experiences with Chechen combatants and recently conducted a number of interviews of former Chechen combatants for his current work, Fangs of the Lone Wolf: Chechen Tactics in the Russian-Chechen Wars 1994-2009.

Mr. Billingsley has also spent extensive time in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He was present at the Qala I Jangi Fortress uprising in November 2001 and won both the prestigious Rory Peck and Royal Television Society awards for Best Feature for his footage in the film House of War. Months later he landed with US troops in the Shah i Kot Valley in eastern Afghanistan for Operation Anaconda. His film Shah I Khot: Valley Redoubt, which accompanies Operation Anaconda: Americas First Conventional Battle in Afghanistan, co-authored by Mr. Billingsley and Mr. Les Grau, is a result of his coverage of that operation.

In 2003 he embedded with 3/7 Marines for the invasion of Iraq and his subsequent film Virgin Soldiers was again nominated for the Rory Peck Best Feature category. He embedded with 3-2 Stryker Brigade in Mosul in 2004 for the BBC and in December 2011 he accompanied 4-6 Infantry for the closure of Al Asad Air Base and the final withdrawal of US forces from Al Anbar Province, western Iraq.

His most recent film (2013), Unfortunate Brothers: Koreas Reunification Dilemma, examines the prospects of Korean reunification through the testimony of experts and the experience of a North Korean defector living in Seoul.

Mr. Billingsley lectures extensively to both academic institution and military installations and is a long time contributor to Janes Intelligence Review. He has a BA in History from Columbia University and a MA in War Studies Kings College, London.

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Published by Helion & Company 2013

Cover designed by Euan Carter, Leicester (www.euancarter.com)
Printed by Lightning Source, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

Text, photographs & maps Combat Films and Research

ISBN: 978 1 909384 77 4
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 911096 76 4

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Contents

: Lester W. Grau

List of images

Black and white in book

Photographs in colour section

List of maps

Foreword

There are a lot of books published on guerrilla warfare, but few record the guerrillas perspective. Of these, some are written by participants for a political and/or autobiographical purpose (Che Guevarra, Guerrilla Warfare; Mao Tse-tung, On Guerrilla Warfare; T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom). There are others that are written to record guerrilla history (Edward Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride; Robert Asprey, War in the Shadows; Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace). There are even works of fiction about guerrillas (John Steinbeck, The Moon is Down; Ken Follet, Lie Down with Lions; Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls). What is lacking in the literature about the guerrilla perspective are collections of the combat experiences of the rank and file guerrillas and their tactical leaders. These people seldom leave written records, yet theirs are often the most interesting accounts.

In 1994, Ali Jalali and I traveled to Pakistan to meet with Mujahideen combatants of the Soviet-Afghan War. Ali is a former Afghan Army officer, Mujahideen combatant and Voice of America journalist. We traveled, talked to numerous Mujahideen, drank gallons of tea and produced a series of vignettes that showed the tactics used by the Mujahideen. The resulting publication was a US Government book entitled The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War. Eventually 100,000 copies were printed for allied forces in Afghanistan, with another 8,000 copies published in Dari, one of the principal languages of Afghanistan. I do not know how many unauthorized copies were published, but they are out there with remarkably shoddy black and white maps.

Dodge Billingsley and I have known each other for almost two decades. Dodge is a fellow historian and a video journalist who heads Combat Films and Research in Salt Lake City. When I was writing articles about the Russo-Chechen War, Dodge was wrapping up graduate school having already spent considerable time in the Caucasus. Dodge returned to the Caucasus upon completion of his studies and entered Chechnya during the chaotic interwar period where he connected with Shamil Basaev and combatants under his command. Dodge accompanied these men, and teenagers in some cases, through out Chechnya and eventually produced his first of two documentary films on Chechnya. He has since produced a number of other films based on his work in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Korean Peninsula.