| PHOENIX SQUADRON HMS Ark Royal, Britain's Last Top Guns and the Untold Story of Their Most Dramatic Mission |
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HMS Ark Royal was the most powerful warship the Royal Navy had ever put to sea, her Air Group of Phantoms, Buccaneers, Gannets and Sea Kings a match for anything else in the sky. But, by the end of January 1972, she was also the last of her kind, the sole remaining British aircraft carrier, kept in service to help face down the threat from the powerful Soviet Navy. Then intelligence reached Whitehall that British Honduras - now Belize - was under threat of imminent invasion from neighbouring Guatemala. The little colony was all but defenceless in the face of battle-hardened, US-trained Guatemalan soldiers and airmen. Until Ark Royal was ordered to 'Proceed with all despatch' … Drawing on many hours of interviews with the participants and previously unseen, classified documents in the UK and overseas, Phoenix Squadron pieces together this remarkable episode for the first time. And in doing so brings to life a unique, unfamiliar and fascinating period in British military history. Phoenix Squadron is published in hardback by Bantam Press on 9th April 2009, priced £18.99 and is available for pre-order now from amazon.co.uk at a discount of 40% off the cover price. |