Ordeal by Exocet (HMS Glamorgan and the Falklands War 1982), by Ian Inskip, Chatham Publishing. 2002, ISBN 1 86176 197X
Anyone with any interest in naval warfare and in the Falklands campaign MUST read this book. It's 3 AM here and I'm just off to bed. Apart from a 3 hour nap this evening, and that only because I’m unwell right now, I have read the book from cover to cover. Having studied naval history for 50 years, I cannot think of another historical account that I have embraced quite like this one. The book was written by the Navigating Officer of Glamorgan based on a journal he kept at the time and the notes and diaries of other veterans of the ship he was given access to later. While extensively covering the day-to-day life of a ship at war, he still finds time to add items of interest about the families of the crew and how they coped back in the UK.
It is written in a style that is easy to handle, easy to understand, and never bogs down in technical details the non-naval person might not understand. Glamorgan was one of the first ships on the scene and did not depart until after the surrender, despite having been hit by an Exocet missile and severely damaged. It is full of “truth.” The author does not attempt to turn the daily life of her crew into heroics, although it is so obvious to the reader that these men were an incredible team. He writes, warts and all, of equipment failures, false contacts and real contacts, and the crew are real under his pen. They make mistakes, get things right, and learn as they become battle-hardened.
The ship was not hit until almost the end of the campaign, so although entitled “Ordeal by Exocet,” the drama of the missile hit and fight to save the ship only occupies a small portion of this history. How close the ship came to being lost is clear and able to be understood by the layman, through the author using descriptive terms that anyone can understand.
The confusion of the incoming missile at night, against a backdrop of explosions and artillery fire on land...the uncertain radar contacts...confusion over what the contact is.....the deadly realization of what it is....the tactics adopted to try to evade, the poor position of the ship relative to the threat.....the threat coming from other than where it was expected.....all in 30 seconds or so, is dramatic. The impact, the fight to save the ship, the losses and the horror of losing friends, the self-blame and questioning of what could have been done better, is all told with a level of skill and personal feeling that I must admit brought tears to my eyes. As usual, the humor of the Royal Navy comes through continually, even at the worst of times, making the book all that much more human, especially as one sees the way these men lived out the war, or in some cases died, against a background of unfolding political events and the war on land.
Even if you are not interested in naval matters, this is still a book worth reading. Although talking about events twenty years ago, it nonetheless gives an insight into modern military equipment, its failings and its uses. Certainly it leaves one with the understanding that equipment is operated and maintained by flesh and blood people. Sometimes it performs as the manufacturer claims and sometimes it does not. In some cases, such as the use of Seaslug missiles in an improvised ground attack role, it shows how human ingenuity will often find ways of making equipment do things the manufacturer never dreamt of or provided for.
Glamorgan, although recently refitted at the time, and considered in top fighting trim, keeps the crew continually at their wits’ end, keeping her weapons, electronics and machinery working under conditions of war and nature that would test any ship or crew to the limit. That they consider themselves “still combat capable” after the Exocet hit is remarkable. Instead of complaining about what they don’t have working, Inskip is full of praise for what the crew do have working. One is left with the impression that even had she come into contact with an Argentine warship, after the major damage she suffered, Glamorgan would have still fought though and succeeded.
BT
Back to The Naval Sitrep # 24 Table of Contents
Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2003 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history and related articles are available at http://www.magweb.com