02 July 2018
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falklands_gunner
A day-by-day personal account of the Royal Artillery in the Falklands War
Author: Tom Martin
Reviewed by: Duncan Evans
Artillery is rarely at the forefront of heroic tales of battle but it plays an absolutely essential part in winning any conflict, as can be seen from this tale of a junior officer and his deployment to the Falkland Islands. Starting out as a personal diary, it has been expanded out by incorporating the comments and thoughts of Tom Martin’s fellow gunners. Now, I have to say that the production standards on this book on the Frontline imprint are first rate. Glossy pages from start to finish means that photos, orders and illustrations are used liberally throughout.
It’s a pity then that the start is so all over the place. It tries to wedge an introduction onto a diary and to incorporate details of battery composition, abbreviations, a photo of the battery, and a map, all at the start. The result is a disjointed mess. The other problem is that the life of any soldier consists of lots of waiting for things to happen, interspersed with violent activity. Martin attempts to put political and military oversight between the diary entries to flesh it out but there are still patches of carefully described tedium. If you want to know the life of a gunner in the Falklands though, then this does a good job of describing the entire experience.
Purchase your copy directly from Frontline Books here
• 292 pages • Hardback • £25
As reviewed in The Armourer August 2018
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