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  • Sea Harrier over the Falklands

  • Cassell Military
  • By: Sharkey Ward
  • Narrated by: Sharkey Ward
  • Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)

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Sea Harrier over the Falklands

By: Sharkey Ward
Narrated by: Sharkey Ward
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Publisher's Summary

Sharkey Ward commanded 801 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Invincible, during the Falklands war of April to June 1982 and was senior Sea Harrier adviser to the Command on the tactics, direction and progress of the air war. He flew over 60 war missions, achieved three air to air kills, and took part in or witnessed a total of 10 kills; he was also the leading night pilot and was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry.

Those are the bare facts though they do no sort of justice to this remarkable and outspoken book nor to its author. For what after all could 20 Sea Harriers operating from a flight deck bucketing about in the South Atlantic do against more than 200 Argentine military aircraft flown by pilots who, as the raids against British shipping proved, displayed enormous skill and gallantry? The world knows the answer now, as it knows the debt owed to the author and his fellow flyers. What is puzzling therefore is this book's truthful depiction of the attitudes of some of the senior non-flying naval officers and of the RAF towards the men and indeed the machines that made possible the victory in the Falklands.

This extraordinary firsthand account charts in clear and forthright detail the naval pilots' journey to the South Atlantic and how they took on an triumphantly conquered the challenges they faced. It is a dramatic story leavened with brilliant accounts of air to air fighting and of life in a squadron at sea and on a war footing. But it is also a tale of inter-service rivalry, bureaucratic interference, and the less-than-generous attitudes of a number of senior commanders who should have known better. Indeed, some of them might even have lost the campaign through a lack of understanding of air warfare - particularly if all the instructions had been followed to the letter and without question. The author puts the record straight - no one interested in the Falklands or in aircraft and air combat as a whole can afford to miss this marvelous book.

©1992 Commander N D MacCartan-Ward DSC AFC RN (P)2020 Commander Nigel MacCartan-Ward DSC AFC

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Authors should leave their audio book performance

At first sight, this first hand pilot account of the Harrier in the Falklands war was promising. However good the content good delivery should be a key component.

I listened to the first two chapters but then found the performance was flat and badly enunciated.

The external noises of mike clicks, dog barks and traffic did it for me I'm afraid.

The detail and content, as far as I got, seemed interesting but the standard of any audio book should consider the performance. Unless the author is already an accomplished voice actor the reading should be left to a professional. The cost would be worth it.

I would be happy to give it a go if the book was re-read. I will now return the book.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Officer and a gentlemen

The best book written about the Falklands war in the air and at sea.Brilliant narrator . thank you.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Terrible narration by a grizzled author

I read this book years ago and thought I’d give the audiobook a go as I’m working my way through books about The Falklands. I’m only about 2hr into and I can’t listen anymore. The Author has a chop at just about everyone else that he had anything to do with - who were all operating under exceptional circumstances. It gets tiring pretty quick.

This is all delivered by the author himself as narrator and it is terrible. The audio has plenty of mouse clicks, dogs barking and other random noises in the background. He also painfully reads the text and you can tell it’s not his wheelhouse. It’s kind of ironic given the bollocking he is dishing out to everyone in the book for not being perfect, while he himself claims to be close to that. Should have paid for a professional narrator.

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