The Iran-Iraq War

The Iran-Iraq War was one of the bloodiest and longest conventional conflicts of the twentieth century – and one that, accidentally, created the current nightmare of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. There have been many books on the conflict, but Helion’s Iran–Iraq War mini-series was the first detailed military history using materials from both sides, as well as materials obtained from US intelligence circles and British Governmental archives. It provided a unique insight into a war which began through miscalculation and rapidly escalated into the longest conventional conflict in the post-Second World War era.

Combining the four @War volumes previously published on this topic, The Iran-Iraq War: The Greatest Land War of the Late Twentieth Century details the origins of the conflict and how Saddam Hussein decided to invade; how the hamstrung Iraqi Army was able to conquer only a narrow strip of territory of Iran’s southern province of Khuzestan; the constantly growing Iranian counteroffensives that first recovered Khuzestan before invading Iraq and nearly breaking the back of its armed forces; the warfare between Iran and Iraq on the Central and Northern Fronts, and final Iraqi victories that forced Iran into accepting a UN-mediated cease-fire. 

This special edition features an extensive quantity of new material that does not appear in the individual volumes, including detailed appendices providing the organisational structure of the protagonists’ armies and their equipment holdings. It is lavishly illustrated with colour photographs as well as colour artworks of the vehicles, aircraft and soldiers involved, a number of which have been specially commissioned for this edition. 

The Iran-Iraq War: The Greatest Land War of the late Twentieth Century is the most detailed military history of this conflict available, and a unique, single-point source of reference on this topic.

"If you’ve seen any of Helion & Co’s @War series of softback books, you’ll know they are fastidiously researched. So, it must have taken quite the effort to pen this exhaustive 415-page tome, on what was the longest conventional war of the 20th century – even if authoring duties were shared. If you are in any way interested in modelling Middle Eastern subjects active on land or in the air, this new study is invaluable (even waterborne assets are explored though). The Iran-Iraq War is a vast theme, for which many different aircraft, vehicles and vessels can be constructed. There’s an enormous amount of reference material in this study, which offers a wealth of full-colour imagery throughout.....If you want to explore this conflict in detail via the many possible builds, and understand its entire history, this mammoth study (it weighs just over 1.5kg) is worth every penny." KeyModelWorld.com

"....a compilation of the 4 previoulsy published books which have been updated and enriched in a beautiful volume of 400 pages....strongly recommended." Vae Victus Magazine No 166 Feb 2023 (Translated from French)

"The longest running conventional war of the 20th Century with large numbers of casualties on both sides. Often seen as a conflict involving Warsaw Pact weaponry on one side and Western weaponry on the other. From my memory of the time we didn't see extensive news coverage of the war so I found a lot to learn in this one, and all covered in the one book. Modellers will enjoy the colour profiles and possibly prompt a new theme for a collection." Robin Buckland, Military Model Scene

"The Iran-Iraq War, fought from 1980 to 1988, was one of the bloodiest and longest wars of the twentieth century, and one that inadvertently created the nightmare of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. There have been many books on the subject, but Helion's Iran-Iraq war mini-series was the first detailed military history to utilise material from both sides, as well as information obtained from US intelligence circles and British Government archives. It provided a unique insight into a war which began through miscalculation and rapidly escalated into a protracted conflict....This is a fascinating book, telling a story of an influential conflict that in fact very little is known about outside the Middle East. The book is thoroughly recommended to historians, enthusiasts and of course to modellers, for whom its pages contain a wealth of information and detail." IPMS Magazine, No 5, 2025