'Naval Commandos in Khorramshahr: Memoirs of First Captain Houshang Samadi,' written by Ghasem Yahosseini and released by Soureh Mehr, breaks three decades of silence from one of the conflict’s key commanders. Drawn from 45 hours of interviews, the book traces Samadi’s life and his leadership of a 600-man battalion deployed to the besieged southern port city.

Khorramshahr, Iran’s main outlet to the Persian Gulf, became a symbol of national resistance after weeks of house-to-house combat against Iraqi forces. The city’s fall in 1980, after a month-long siege, slowed Iraq’s advance and bought Iran critical time to reorganize its defenses. Its 1982 recapture later became a major morale victory.

While volunteer militias are often highlighted in accounts of the battle, the memoir focuses on the Navy’s lesser-documented special operations unit. Under Samadi’s command, the naval commandos suffered around 300 casualties; only 270 members of his battalion survived. Samadi himself was wounded six times but remained in the field.

The memoir opens with Samadi canceling his own retirement on the first day of the war after witnessing Iraqi airstrikes on Bushehr. It recounts the rapid mobilization of his forces and their emotional nighttime departure, as families saw the convoy off and soldiers prepared for heavy bombardment.

Structured in two parts and 21 chapters, the book blends battlefield detail with a wider look at cooperation between naval units, local fighters and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. It documents how an outgunned force managed to delay a major invasion and inflict significant losses.

The publishers describe the memoir as both a personal testimony and an important historical record, aiming to preserve the role of the naval commandos in one of the war’s defining engagements.