Falklands Hero

At the height of the bitter battle for Mount Longdon during the Falklands War , 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiments assault has stalled in the face of determined resistance. With his platoon held up by an Argentine machine gun, it falls to Sergeant Ian McKay to act. The machine gun has to be silenced to break the deadlock. Gathering a small group together, Ian McKay leads them in a headlong dash into the teeth of a withering fire. One by one they fall until only McKay is left, charging on alone towards the Argentine gun and a place in history. His was the final act of a man who lived, breathed and was shaped by the Parachute Regiment: an act which earned him a posthumous Victoria Cross. This is the story of Ian McKay: the last British hero of the Twentieth Century.

The Falklands War, which may prove to be the last 'colonial' war that Britain ever fights, took place in 1982. Fought 8,000 miles from home soil, it cost the lives of 255 British military personnel, with many more wounded, some seriously. The war also witnessed many acts of outstanding courage by the UK Armed Forces after a strong Task Force was sent to regain the islands from the Argentine invaders. Soldiers, sailors and airmen risked, and in some cases gave, their lives for the freedom of 1,820 islanders. Lord Ashcroft, who has been fascinated by bravery since he was a young boy, has amassed several medal collections over the past four decades, including the world's largest collection of Victoria Crosses, Britain and the Commonwealth's most prestigious gallantry award. Falklands War Heroes tells the stories behind his collection of valour and service medals awarded for the Falklands War. The collection, almost certainly the largest of its kind in the world, spans all the major events of the war. This book, which contains nearly forty individual write-ups, has been written to mark the fortieth anniversary of the war. It is Lord Ashcroft's attempt to champion the outstanding bravery of our Armed Forces during an undeclared war that was fought and won over ten weeks in the most challenging conditions.

In 1982, 8,000 miles from home, in a harsh environment and without the newest and most sophisticated equipment, the numerically inferior British Task Force defeated the Argentinian forces occupying the Falkland Islands and recaptured this far-flung outpost of what was once an empire. It was a much-needed triumph for Margaret Thatcher’s government and for Britain.Many books have been published on the Falklands War, some offering accounts from participants in it. But this is the first one only to include interviews with the ordinary seamen, marines, soldiers and airmen who achieved that victory, as well as those whose contribution is often overlooked – the merchant seaman who crewed ships taken up from trade, the NAAFI personnel who supplied the all-important treats that kept spirits up, the Hong Kong Chinese laundrymen who were aboard every warship.Published to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the conflict, this is the story of what ‘Britain’s last colonial war’ was really like.

This book examines the debate which has long raged in Britain about the meaning of the Falklands War. Using literary critical methods, Monaghan examines how the Thatcherite reading of the war as a myth of British greatness reborn was developed through political speeches and journalistic writing. He then goes on to discuss a number of films, plays, cartoon strips and travel books which have subverted the dominant myth by finding national metaphors of a very different kind in the Falklands War.

'A remarkable book - a worthy tribute both to the man John Wilsey calls "an unusual hero" and to the ethos of the British Army in which he lived and died.' John Keegan in his ForewordThis is the biography of the Falklands War hero whose death in the battle for Darwin and Goose Green was one of the turning points in the whole campaign. It is written with the consent of H Jones's widow, Sara, and is published to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of his death at the climax of the Falklands War. It is the story of an emblematic but complex war hero whose family history was unusual, whose army life included exposure to most of the military problems which Britain has encountered since the Second World War (including security in Northern Ireland, where H Jones was responsible for the search for Robert Nairac), and whose dramatic death and subsequent posthumous VC symbolised an extraordinary campaign which was truly the end of an era.

Reasons in Writing tells Southby-Tailyour's story of the Falklands War largely through the medium of diaries and letters written during his peacetime tour of duty in the seventies and the war itself. Reasons in Writing, is unlikely to be rivalled for its immediacy, insight and deep and genuine feeling for the Islands themselves, based on experience gained (unlike any other participant civilian or service) before, during and after that fateful winter of 1982.

"The real story of the Falklands War in the words of those who were there"-- Front cover.

Vast and brilliant white, P&O's flagship the SS Canberra was a final salute to a bygone era of opulence even as she embarked on her maiden voyage, For a decade she carried passengers between Britain and Australia, a 90-day voyage of pampering and decadence. But in March 1982, Britain went to war to defend the Falkland Islands and the SS Canberra found herself, surreally, requisitioned as a troop ship to carry the Marines and Paratroops into battle. Against all odds she surived, playing a vital role as a hospital ship, At the end of the war she arrived back in Southampton to a heroes welcome, where she became fondly known as the Great White Whale. This is the extraordinary and, as yet, untold story of how the crew of a luxury ocean liner: waiters, cooks, nurses and cleaners, found themselves suddenly thrust onto the front line. A Very Strange Way to Go to War is a candid and captivating story, drawing from first hand accounts and previously unpublished archives, of the heroic courage of ordinary British men and women in the face of great adversity, at the outpost of empire.

Parsons relates the background of the Falklands conflict and the events of the war itself, assessing different perceptions of the whole affair and reviewing developments since 1982.

The author of Falklands Hero follows the Third Parachute Battalion through a ferocious battle to secure a key strategic position during the Falklands War. This, the first in a series on Special Operations, tells the story of Three Para and the often-neglected struggle for Mount Longdon. It was a battle that tested the discipline, comradeship, and professionalism of the Paras to the limit; it was a battle that witnessed another posthumous Victoria Cross; it turned out to be the bloodiest battle of the entire Falklands Campaign. “Like many a fascist state before them the Argentine Junta thought they could steal territory that belonged to someone else who they considered weak. It came as a shock when Britain rapidly assembled a Task Force and sent it 8,000 miles to eject the Argentine bandits. . . . It was a victory of British military skill and courage in spite of the neglect by politicians. . . . The author has told the story with skill and insight.” —Firetrench.com