Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: jjb%sequent.uucp@RELAY.CS.NET (Jeff Berkowitz) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Falkland Islands war Keywords: Book review RAF Harriers at sea Message-ID: <8349@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 17 Jul 89 02:02:24 GMT References: <8172@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc Lines: 40 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Jeff Berkowitz In article <8172@cbnews.ATT.COM> nelson_p@apollo.com writes: > >From: nelson_p@apollo.com > > What are some good books on the Falkland Islands War? I own numbers 134 and 135 from the "Men-at-Arms" series: "Battle for the Falklands (2) Naval Forces" Text by Adrian English and Anthony Watts "Battle for the Falklands (3) Air Forces" Text by Roy Braybrook These are published by Osprey of Londen, edited by Martin Windrow. I don't recall where I found them. Each is soft cover and about 40 pages in length. They contain fairly detailed operational descriptions and numerous photographs, some in color. They lack table of contents AND index, being organized as chronological narratives. I found one tidbit particularly interesting. The task force faced a shortage of Sea Harriers, so RAF GR.3 Harriers were hurriedly converted for sea duty. Their Ferranti FE541 inertial navigation systems could not be aligned on a moving deck (the Sea Harrier had been designed with a completely different system). Replacement of the aircraft equipment in the required time frame was impossible, so Ferranti produced a trolley mounted inertial platform "to act as an on-the-deck reference". This equipment was apparently produced in response to the need, and therefore under enormous time pressure. The book states that final software for the calibration system was transmitted to the Hermes by satellite after the task force was already at sea! If anyone is aware of other details about this incident, I'd love to hear them. It's this type of thing that wins, IMHO. -- Jeff Berkowitz N6QOM uunet!sequent!jjb Sequent Computer Systems Custom Systems Group