Conflict Reporter – Dodge Billingsley

Recommendations for further understanding around the subject / theme:

Film:

Fronteira da Grandeza (trailer 60 secs)

An original documentary film that tells the storied history of Brazil’s national expansion and current efforts to secure its borders. From Iguaçu to the edges of the Amazon and through the centers of power in Brasília and São Paulo, see this vast country anew and learn from Brazilian voices why its people see a bright future amidst challenges–including those that come across its borders. Trailer

Review by Gerhard Haas

Unfortunate Brothers: Korea’s Reunification Dilemma (trailer 2 mins)

“Even though I live in South Korea, my heart is in North Korea. The [North Koreans] are not strangers, but my brethren.” These words spoken by Mr. Lee, the film’s main character, reveal an internal conflict in the national psyche of the Korean people that despite ongoing tension continues to exist since the division of Korea at the conclusion of the Second World War.

 

Bamako, Mali (1.04 mins)

Bamako is the capital of Mali. It is a beautiful city with lots of vibrant colours that fade into the large Niger River.

Footage from the documentary for the Lift Each Other NGO.

 

Shah-i-Khot: Valley Redoubt – by Dodge Billingsley – Combat Film & Research (trailer)

Shot by war correspondent Dodge Billingsley while embedded with US and Coalition forces in March 2020, Shah-i-Khot: Valley Redoubt tells the story of the first conventional battle of the US led war in Afghanistan – Operation Anaconda. Set against the backdrop of the rugged Afghan-Pakistani frontier, Shah-i-Khot features exclusive combat footage and brings to life the complexities of war and the reality of men in battle.

 

Photography:

Red Paint Collections – Facebook Page

Audio:

BYU Kennedy Center Lecture:

Ordinary Men: A Profile of the Chechen Insurgents and their Tactics

New Media:

We hosted an in-conversation with Dodge Billingsley at 01.00am on Sunday 3rd May.

Website https://www.combatfilms.com/

Book: Operation Anaconda

 

One Day of War: Wires from the frontline

18^th May 2004: ‘Across the world today, millions of people are caught up in conflict. BBC filmmakers follow 16 different characters in 16 different war zones over a 24-hour period.’

Private Juan Alvarado (19 years)

Dodge Billingsley, Video Producer in Iraq dispatch: “There was an ‘accident’ today and a soldier was killed so the mood has changed and plans may change.”

Transcripts of telephone calls, text messages and e-mails between Dodge Billingsley in Iraq and Will Daws, series producer in London, record Dodge’s remarkable journey

 

Books on guerrilla war are seldom written from the tactical perspective and even less seldom from the guerrilla’s 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 book’s 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.

Book: Fangs of the Lone Wolf