In 1982, eight young Guards officers in their twenties found themselves suddenly on the way to the Falklands 8000 miles away from Britain. Some four decades later, they realised that no one had written the history of this unique war in Britains history from their side - including coming under Argentine fire on Sir Galahad on 8 June, the most dramatic day in Britains military history since the second world war. Crispin Black tells their story and casts a startling new light on what happened to them, using the latest official documents. Even basic facts have remained hidden to this day.
Crispin Black served as platoon commander of the Welsh Guards in the Falklands and survived the bombing of the HMS Sir Galahad. He was moved to Northern Ireland and Germany before joining the Ministry of Defence as COBRA intelligence liaison. A Colonel, he is a Fellow of Chatham House and has written for The Times, Guardian and Telegraph and commented on intelligence on the BBC, Channel 4, Sky and ITV.
Introduction
1. What dreams may come
2. Doubts
3. Untune that string
4. The Navys Private Army
5. Mortars and All That
6. South
7. The Waiting Room, 2nd June
8. March to Nowhere
9. Towards Bluff Cove, June 4-6th
10. Eyewitness: Jan Koops
11. Exocets and All That
12. Eyewitness: Jan Koops - Port Pleasant/Fitzroy
13. 10:26am, 8th June
14. Eyewitness: Jan Koops - Air Raid Warning Red
15. Eyewitness: Hugh Boddington
16. Eyewitness: Johnny Strutt
17. The valiant taste of death but once.
18. Eyewitness: Captain Koops - Upsetting An Apple Cart
19. Stirrings
20. The Southern Flank
21. The Devil in the Detail
22. 2nd June
23. Basics
24. Eyewitness
25. The New Plan: Major Guy Yeoman
26. The Death Knell
27. Shambles
28. A Sound of Revelry by Night
29. The next morning, 8th June
30. The Inquiry Board: Major Sayle
31. Squandering Half a Battalion
32. Admiral Fieldhouse
33. Fieldhouses Fingerprints
34. General Jeremy Moore
35. A Swiss Cheese
36. Army Doctrine
37. The Darkest Day: 14th July 1982
38. Eyewitness: Captain Koops - Walk on Wales
39. Return South
Postscript
* https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/04/sitting-ducks/
* MAIL ON SUNDAY news article 26 Mar
* DAILY MAIL two page spread 25 Mar
* BBC WALES TV interview title credit 16 Mar
* bbc.com/news/uk-wales-64941328 16 Mar
*“For his new book about the attack, Too Thin for a Shroud, he found new documents in archives”
* DAILY TELEGRAPH letters ‘Sir Galahad disaster’ p19
* DAILY TELEGRAPH review ‘How was this allowed to happen’ p16
* telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/how-idiotic-falklands-commanders-left-welsh-guards-sitting-ducks/
* SUNDAY MIRROR news p25 page feature, cover and credit 5 Mar
* SUNDAY PEOPLE news p25 page feature, cover and credit 5 Mar
* THE TIMES news p41 17 Nov
* THE TIMES MAGAZINE 7-page extract 17 Nov
‘[A] new light… His book also marks a new trend… of junior officers coming to question the hierarchies into which they were schooled” Professor Helen Parr
DAILY MAIL, ‘Haunting… you are plunged at the heart of the action.’
DAILY TELEGRAPH, SIMON HEFFER ‘An important new book… a repository of damning facts.’
DAILY TELEGRAPH, ‘a powerful case for a public inquiry.’ General Thompson, Admiral Larken
THE TIMES, ‘Reveals how mistakes and prejudice led to an avoidable tragedy.’
ROGER ALTON, former Editor Observer and Independent, ‘Full of heroic characters, a remarkable story that has lain hidden for too long… A terrific document about war, that will be studied in staff colleges for generations to come. The top brass’s passing the buck afterwards is appalling.’
PHIL ROBERTS, CAPTAIN GALAHAD, Falklands ‘A weight has been lifted off my shoulders’
CAPTAIN ROBERT LAWRENCE, Scots Guards ‘gruesome detail, what a bunch wankers the top commanders were.’
GENERAL MICHAEL SCOTT, Falklands DSO, Commander of the Scots Guards in the Falklands ‘Forensically dissects what went wrong.... his story is compelling and disturbing.’
MARK CORETH, Blues and Royals Troop Leader in the Falklands ‘I implore you to read this compelling and important book.’
GENERAL SEBASTIAN ROBERTS ‘Compelling, focused and incendiary.’
MIKE HERMANIS, WELSH GUARD, Falklands ‘Genius.’
IAN DUNCAN SMITH, MP ‘I am delighted Crispin Black has written Too Thin for a Shroud… ensuring that those who suffered and died, fighting for the freedom of others shall not be forgotten.’
Amazon No 1 Falklands books
Amazon No 2 Military History of Military Intelligence & Espionage
