'Too Few Too Far' by George Thomsen (2008, Amberley Press ppbk 2012)

Wed, 02 May 2012 11:55:00 +0100

This note falls short of a full review but I am sure that a Service readership would find this book, which I found in my local public library, very interesting.

Marine Thomsen had just been made up to lance corporal when he found himself sent out in 1981 to join NP8901 on Falkland. Years later a civilian friend, Malcolm Angel, insisted that he put his story into print and helped him do it.

A Village at War by John Callcut

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:33:00 +0100

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This is the story of Newdigate, a small Wealden village, on the Surrey/Sussex borders during the period of World War One.
The author says�.� This book was born in the summer of 1984 when the Rector of Newdigate, the late Rev. Dennis Parker, gave the Newdigate Local History Society a set of Parish magazines for safekeeping. At the time my youngest son was seriously ill in Great Ormond Street Hospital, so- to while away the interminable hours sitting next to his bed - I gradually read the magazines one by one. I soon realised that here was an informative store of information about the village covering the First World War period.

S-T believes, with Ratty, that there is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Although he has also served in sandy places and Northern Ireland, S-T has deliberately chosen an employment path that any career-conscious Royal Marines Officer would normally avoid, effectively specialising in Landing Craft operations. What he has to say about these is seminal, and this book should be required reading for anyone either interested in or employed in amphibious warfare. What we have here is not just an action-packed tale of the amphibious part of the Falklands War, set against all the other background events, but many details of how we got into that expensive mess.

The book opens with an eerie

One Hundred Days by Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:12:00 +0100

Admiral Woodward swallowed the anchor on retirement from office as CINCNAVHOME in 1989. This is the third edition; the first was published in 1992, which attracted sufficient comment for a second edition to appear in 2003. At that stage Woodward dealt with many received, or elsewhere printed, comments and applied some hindsight (his word). The preface to the second edition gives a ringing endorsement to Sharkey Ward both in achievement and analysis and emphasises how essential to global reach is organic maritime air power. The preface to the third edition says very little, except to explain, via Woodward�s 1982 Report of Proceedings, how our Government had comprehensively baited the hook for Galtieri.

�Beyond Endurance� by Captain Nick Barker

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:50:00 +0100

Si vis pacem, para bellum

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De Re Militari, book 3

�What war?�
Anthony Williams, HM Ambassador to Argentina, 1.4.82 (allegedly)

There will be many books published and re-published to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of our victory in the Falklands. This is the one to start with.
Command of the Ice Patrol Ship must have been the most unusual Captain�s job in the Royal Navy. Besides

The white house connection by Jack Higgins

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:13:00 +0100

This book, being my first glimpse into the world of Sean Dillon, seemed to be a little too slick. Maybe if I had started reading the �Sean Dillon� books when they were first published, I might have a better understanding of the mind set of the characters involved. As it is I was left trying to understand the motivations behind the plot.

An elderly Lady, armed with a Colt .25 fitted with a silencer, going around the streets of Manhattan. Two men attempting a rape, the dispatch of these two guys with well aimed shots, her stroll back to her Chauffeur driven limousine�. All in the first eight pages of this thriller.! This was going to be some journey.

In 1994 the author was a Sea Harrier pilot in 801 Squadron aboard HMS Ark Royal in the Aegean. Responding to a request for support from the ground, he was shot down over Bosnia on 16^th April. This is the gripping story of the events leading up to that, and of his subsequent escape from a country hostile on every side, told by a man with his neck on the line both in the air and on the ground. It is a brilliant example of the can-do spirit of the Fleet Air Arm. It is also a salutary reminder of the usefulness of fixed-wing maritime air power.

Richardson rightly

Home

'Too Few Too Far' by George Thomsen (2008, Amberley Press ppbk 2012)

A Village at War by John Callcut

One Hundred Days by Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward

�Beyond Endurance� by Captain Nick Barker

The white house connection by Jack Higgins