Scimitar into Stanley: One Soldier's Falklands War

Written by Roger Field

Narrated by Kerry Hutchinson

In May 1982, Captain Roger Field, The Blues and Royals, attached to HQ 5th Infantry Brigade, sailed on the Queen Elizabeth 2 as part of the second wave to liberate the Falkland Islands. Surprised by what he saw at Brigade HQ, he started writing a diary.

His journey took him to Fitzroy as the Argentinean aircraft struck the landing ships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram. A chance meeting led him to fighting alongside the Commanding Officer of 2 Para at the Battle of Wireless Ridge. When the commander of one of the four attached armoured cars of The Blues and Royals was knocked out part way through the battle, Roger took command of that Scimitar. Next day his Scimitar was at the very tip of the spear as 2 Para and The Blues and Royals led the victorious charge into Port Stanley.

‘Revisionist’ in places and always refreshingly candid, this account is unique as it describes the War from the viewpoint of a staff officer, infanteer and armoured vehicle commander. A gripping listen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: B7 Productions/Spokenworld Audio/Ladbroke Audio Ltd
• Release date: Jun 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781914169960

Reviews for Scimitar into Stanley

[kamakirinoko · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

There are a couple of minuses with this book: first, his use of the historical present tense ("I wake up and discover all my whiskey's been stolen.") which always inserts a jarring note to any narrative supposed to be a memoir or a historical document, at least if you want to be taken seriously. The second is the annoyingly insouciant tone with which he narrates this book—one almost expects to see the words "hijinx" and "laff riots"—not a tone with which I associate with a narrative about a shooting war in which almost 1,000 men lost their lives.

His first few chapters about his luxurious cruise on the QE2 have more of the characteristics of Animal House—sneaking off board to get hard liquor— "hilarious!"—watching hard core stag films with the boys—"wacky!" and laddish jokes too common among men of a certain age who went to public school in Britain in the 60s and 70s, are completely unnecessary, and add nothing to the story.

If you want to write comedy, write comedy. It just has no place here.

[Andrew Hajewskyj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely fantastic book. Really good to hear from this soldier giving his first hand account of his war.