Four Weeks in May
Author | : David Hart Dyke |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 312 |
Release | : 2007 |
ISBN-10 | : 1407410024 |
ISBN-13 | : 9781407410029 |
Rating | : 4/5 (24 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: In March 1982, the guided-missile destroyer HMS Coventry was one of a small squadron of ships on exercise off Gibraltar. By the end of April that year, she was sailing south in the vanguard of the Task Force towards the Falklands. On 25 May, Coventry was attacked and hit by three bombs. The explosions tore out most of her port side and killed nineteen of the crew, leaving many others injured. Within twenty minutes, she had capsized, and was to sink early the next day. In her final moments, when all those not killed by the explosions had been evacuated from the ship, her Captain, David Hart Dyke, himself badly burned, climbed down her starboard side and into a life-raft. This is his compelling and moving story.