Description
Book SynopsisReissued for the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War.
A Sunday Times Bestseller
'Electric... Outstanding.' Guardian
In March 1982 the guided-missile destroyer HMS Coventry was one of a small squadron of ships on exercise off Gibraltar. By the end of April that year she was sailing south in the vanguard of the Task Force towards the front line of the Falklands War.
On 25 May, Coventry was attacked by two Argentine Skyhawks, and hit by three bombs. The explosions tore out most of her port side and killed nineteen of the crew, leaving many others injured. Within twenty minutes she had capsized. In her final moments, after all the survivors had been evacuated, her Captain, David Hart Dyke, himself badly burned, climbed down her starboard side and into a life-raft. This is his compelling and moving story.
Trade ReviewSuperbly frank and unsentimental... The literature of the Falklands War would be much the poorer without this pithy, well constructed and brutally honest account of the fighting at sea. -- Saul David * Daily Telegraph *
Electric... Outstanding. -- John Shirley * Guardian *
[An] honest, poignant and moving book. -- Hugh McManners * The Times *
Lively, direct, human and engaging, this is one of the best personal memoirs of the bizarre and intense Falklands campaign. -- Robert Fox * BBC History Magazine *
A down-to-earth, dramatic account of preparing for war and being plunged into the heart of it. * Glasgow Herald *
A justifiably proud account of HMS
Coventry's war... A vital but measured story. It will appeal not only to those who were there but to a new generation of readers who will be riveted by this insight into the life on board a Royal Navy ship at war, as well as the sheer drama of
Coventry's story... Four Weeks in May is a page-turner, elegantly and tightly written... The tension between his determination to uphold morale, the upbeat letters home, private moments of honest reflection, the self-deprecating humour and what every reader knows will be the disastrous outcome of those four weeks, is compelling... Devastating... Dramatic images of bravery and presence of mind are brilliantly pieced together. -- Alan West * Naval Review *
