Abandon Ship

PAUL BROWN

The Falklands War was not only a test of modern ships, fighters, defence systems and troops, it was also responsible for changing the political landscape. The Navy had been lined up for savage cuts by Defence Minister John Nott. On 2 April 1982, the same day that shipyard workers received their redundancy notices, Argentina invaded. Those cutbacks were scrapped as a fleet was assembled to take the Islands back. Paul Brown has pieced together various reports to come up with this account of the sinking of the Argentine Belgrano and the six British ships. Even now, some details are still classified, as the decision made little military sense, but carried enormous political ramifications.

There’s a history of what provoked the invasion, then each ship gets a chapter on its destruction – so it isn’t an overall guide to the Falklands War. This is a well considered look into how and why each ship was lost.

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• Osprey Publishing

• ISBN 978-1-4728-4643-3

• 324 pages • Hardback • £20