Through Fire and Water: HMS Ardent: The Forgotten Frigate of the Falklands

The average age of the 200 men on board HMS Ardent was 23 in May 1982 when she made a lonely midnight run into Falkland Sound, an hour ahead of the British amphibious group about to retake the Islands. In the crucial hours that followed, her naval gunfire support kept enemy troops and aircraft pinned down at Goose Green and Darwin. However, out of the gathering dusk, the HMS Ardent came under the most concentrated attack of any ship taking part in the landings. She was hit 17 times in 22 minutes and a quarter of her ship's company was either killed or wounded. This resource tells the frigate's story from Christmas 1981 in Amsterdam to her sinking in Falkland Sound—and beyond. Followings the families who waved off sons, lovers, brothers, husbands, and fathers as she left the dockyard, this examination explains what it was like for British sailors in the Falklands and how it felt for those waiting at home for news. With reflections on the sickening fear of being in a defenseless warship singled out for destruction and the feeling of despair of those on board as they tried to save their ship and their mates as bomb after bomb came crashing down, this is the first book to document the dramatic true story of the forgotten frigate.