Link to Amazon Kindle, where the book is now on sale:

https://t.co/1EkiJBj5yN

The 40th Anniversary of the Falklands Conflict commences on Saturday 2nd April, the date of the Argentine invasion. It will continue for 74 days.

We will be marking the occasion by serialising the book that we spent nine months writing last year. Our experiences during the conflict are featured, as are a number of outstanding questions that we don’t feel have ever been addressed and answered.

Part ONE: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/03/27/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-one/

Part TWO: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/03/29/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-two/

Part THREE: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/03/30/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-three/

Part FOUR: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/01/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-four/

Part FIVE: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/04/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-five/

Part SIX:

https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/05/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-six/

Part SEVEN:

https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/08/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-seven/

Part EIGHT:

https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/12/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-eight/

Part NINE:

https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/19/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-part-nine/

Part TEN: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/23/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-ten/

https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/24/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-eleven/

We’ll be listing all of these on the blog in the weeks and months to come, along with links and images.

We’ll begin by reproducing the foreword to the book…

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If you scroll down, you will find all the links needed to purchase eBook or printed versions of the book.

Foreword

Back in the safety of her London bunker, Margaret Thatcher surrounded herself with men. “But”, we were reassured, “she’s the one wearing the trousers.”

8,000 miles away, we also wore trousers, but we risked our lives on the front line, bailing Thatcher out. 

The year 2022 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Falklands Conflict. 1982 was itself the 40th anniversary of the two Battles of El Alamein, where British soldiers and their allies risked their lives to push back Rommel, keep control over the operation of the Suez Canal and influence over the oil fields of the Middle East. As a nation, our need to preserve strategic waterways and far-flung resources beneath a banner of patriotism and service of country had been well established.

 Here’s a link to my original Falklands War Diary, handwritten on location [password: 1982345654321982].

I put pen to paper in the MCO (Main Communications Office) of HMS Yarmouth in between Argentine air raids, calls to action stations, false alarms, naval gunfire support bombardments and rescue missions.

Like a sudden change in the weather, it felt natural to be on a warship in harbour one day and sailing to a far-off place the next. We were young Royal Navy volunteers after all and like freshly fallen autumn leaves settling on a river, we were captured and carried along on the stream. It didn’t matter where we ended up. We had no choice in our destination.

These trials were brief, gruelling at times, but life-affirming. The sometimes precious, sometimes crushing wisdoms gained would endure for the rest of our lives.

I remember how, at the HMS Mercury training base in Petersfield, Hampshire, during the scorching summer of 1976, my overriding concern was; “Would the milkman visit soon, dishing out ice cold drinks?” By spring 1982, this had changed to; “Would an Exocet missile visit soon, dishing out death?”

So that year, it hit us like a sledgehammer that wars kill, maim, or mentally damage their participants, giving few a second chance. With this to the forefront of our minds, we were hyper-vigilant as we watched peace proposals being ignored, viewed as worthless, treated with contempt, or used cynically as tools to distract the British or Argentine public.

I should state at the outset, here I am with a book out, one that’s stuffed with facts and opinions. Much of the content here isn’t so hard and fast and will be questionable – which goes with the territory – and it won’t be easy for readers to discern truth. Upon completing the book, please feel free to go with your own gut feeling and to reach your own verdict on the authenticity of the content.

In the diary, you will see how I reported the events unfolding around me quickly, objectively and without jotting down any private thoughts. I didn’t venture into day-to-day life on the ship or the interactions between the crew because I hadn’t the time, and post-conflict, hadn’t the inclination!

Within the 1982 diary text I’ve enlarged upon the old content by including links to online news articles, websites, and videos. Some thoughts giving more context are in italics. These are here to help you if you’re new to the subject, or if not, to refresh your memory on these rapidly receding events. Some photos are included. Contemporary thoughts of mine were added in 2021. The content is now being published as an eBook and as a printed book. Hyperlinks are included as numbered footnotes. 

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https://paulcardin.substack.com

Here’s the links where you can purchase the eBook and printed versions of “Return to Bomb Alley 1982 – The Falklands Deception”:

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-912680-81-8
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-912680-82-5

Paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912680815

Ebook on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09WJD7PVZ

Universal ebook link: https://books2read.com/u/4ElOXl