Larry Jeram-Croft
Author
The story of two remarkable aircraft
​by those who flew them
This book tells the story of an incredibly capable naval aircraft. It is based primarily on the words of those who flew and maintained it. Starting from entering service in 1976, it moves on to its remarkable performance in the Falklands War where it was used in both its primary roles of anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare as well as several others for which it had never been designed, including Airborne Early Warning and anti Exocet missile counter measures.
Lynx have been employed in the Gulf from 1980 until the present day. What is not generally known is that three aircraft were responsible for effectively destroying the Iraqi navy, sinking over fifteen warships in a matter of a weeks.
Also included are accounts of operations around the world, including anti-drug interdiction, Arctic deployments, Search and Rescue, hurricane relief as well as a few mishaps. Also described, is the development of the aircraft from the Mark 2 to the current Mark 8 (SRU).
Although only a snapshot, the stories narrated here should give a reader a true understanding of what a capable aircraft it has been over its remarkable service life.
If sinking ships is a Navy’s primary job, then arguably the Lynx has been the RN’s most succesful weapon system since WW2.
Note: All proceeds from this book got the charity 'Navy Wings' to support the Royal Naval Historic Flight aircraft.
This book tells the story of the first helicopter in the world designed from the outset to be deployed at sea, in Destroyers and Frigates. It is primarily based on the words of those who operated it. Designed from the outset to cope with the restricted space of a warship both for stowage and flight operations it proved an immediate success. Its original role was to act as a weapon carrier to launch torpedoes and depth charges on submarine contacts out of range of the parent ship’s weapons range. Soon, it also took on a second primary role of air to surface attack using wire guided missiles. The flexibility of the machine was such that it was able to conduct a plethora of secondary roles from visual search to collecting the all-important ship’s mail. Wherever the Royal Navy was deployed on operations a Wasp was there. The book has accounts of operations around the world particularly during the Cod War of the Seventies and the Falklands War where amongst other things it had the honour of being the first RN platform ever, to fire a guided missile at a surface target.
However the story doesn’t end there. Although the aircraft went out of service in the Royal Navy in 1988, it continued to operate with other navies around the world. To this day there are still several airworthy examples flying. The second part of the book gives accounts of these machines and brings the story of the Wasp completely up to date.