The Royal Navy Lynx – Larry Jeram – Croft
That the Royal Navy is happy with this book is proven by whom has written the foreword: HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Admiral Sir George Zambellas. Both gentlemen have also been Lynx – helicopter pilot at the Royal Navy. The author himself has 30 years of piloting experience with helicopters, i.e. on the Lynx during the Falkland conflict.
The Lynx is for an important part the product of a dramatic event just after the 6 day war in 1967 between Israel and i.e. Egypt. The Israeli – ex British- torpedo boat hunter Eliat was then sunk by rockets from the Soviet Union, which were fired by Egyptian patrol boats. At once it was clear that large surface ships with conventional armament could not operate safely anymore. N.B: in 1963 something similar had occured with the taking down of an American U2 spy plane by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile. Also then it was understood immediately that high flying bomber were something of the past.
The British answer to this threat for their surface fleet was the development of a helicopter with a rocket arms system which, from then on, had to protect the ships against this kind of attacks: the lynx helicopter with the Sea Skua anti-ship rocket system. It would however not be until 1976 before the Lynx with contributing arms systems was taken into use by the Royal Navy. But in time for the Falkland conflict.
The Lynx was, apart from anti-ship defence, also used for various other tasks, like submarine control. The Dutch Navy has also flown with 22 Lynx helicopter from Navy air base Valkenburg, with as tasks submarine control, detecting and rescue services. In British service the Lynx has taken part on 3 battlegrounds the Falkland conflict and 2 Gulf wars. She has proven her operational worth more than enough! This book tells primarily the experiences of the Lynx crew during these 3 wars. With unemotional humour and therefore easy to read! The book contains also excellent photo material and sufficient cartoons of those days. For fans of a gripping book about piloting experiences, absolutely recommendable!
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