Billed as 'the ultimate fighting machine', the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter is a US-designed close-support aircraft in service with US forces and, in the UK, with the Army Air Corps (AAC).This is a senior AAC pilot's vivid account of flying this and other combat helicopters in action.

Steve Jones spent twenty-seven years in the military, earned his stripes as a ferocious war pilot, and has been decorated eight times. He fired the UK's first controversial thermobaric missile; helped track and kill Most Wanted Taliban commanders; and taught Prince Harry to wage war from an attack helicopter.

Jones had been the UK's youngest trainee military pilot when he signed up. He went on to serve with the Army Air Corps in the Balkans, in the Gulf War, twice in Northern Ireland, and three times in Afghanistan. Along the way he secured the Queen's Commendation for Bravery after pulling comrades from the burning wreckage of a crashed helicopter. As an instructor, he helped teach Lieutenant Harry Wales to fly and fight the hunter-killer Apache. He tells of mentoring the hard-living prince, of equipping him with skills that would later bring out the best in him in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.