Phoenix Squadron: HMS Ark Royal, Britain's last Topguns and the untold story of their most dramatic mission (Paperback)

Rowland White (author)

£10.99

Paperback 544 Pages
Published: 01/04/2010

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Synopsis

January 1972: the tiny outpost of British Honduras is threatened with imminent invasion by battle-hardened, US-trained Guatemalan paratroops. Britain's response must be immediate and decisive. But there is only one deterrent the government can offer: HMS Ark Royal, once the Navy's most powerful warship, now a white elephant on the verge of being scrapped.

To save the small colony, she must launch a pair of Buccaneer fighter bombers on an unprecedented long-range mission. But first the old carrier must make a high-speed, 1,500 mile dash across the Atlantic towards the Gulf of Mexico. The odds of arriving in time are very slim indeed...

Drawing on extensive first-hand accounts and previously unseen, classified documents, Rowland White has pieced together one of the most audacious and thrilling missions of post-war British military history.

Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9780552152907
Number of pages: 544
Weight: 367 g
Dimensions: 198 x 127 x 32 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

Aircraft carriers, jet fighters and a crisis on the other side of the world. Who could ask for more? It takes an obscure corner of British military history and weaves a story as gripping as any Tom Clancy thriller. It's completely riveting -- Jeremy Clarkson
From the cockpit of a fighter jet to the violently pitching deck of an aircraft carrier at night, Rowland White combines pulse-pounding tension with riveting detail. If only all military history was written like this... -- Andy McNab
[A] page-turning thriller of a book... White's obvious passion infuses every page and is highly infectious, while the level of detail should send any budding Tom Clancy rushing to the bookshops -- James Holland * Daily Telegraph *
Reads like a Patrick Robinson or Tom Clancy novel...This is a cracking read * Navy News *
A gutsy, you-are-there true story that throbs with the sound and fury of carrier operations. Military history as it ought to be told -- Robert Gant