Larry Jeram-Croft
Author
The Jon Hunt Series
The modern Royal Navy
Patrick O'Brian brought up to date and a British ‘Top Gun’.
Royal Navy Lynx helicopter pilot, Lieutenant Jon Hunt, is thrust into the maelstrom of the Falklands War. He is ordered to fly a secret mission into Argentina to contact a French engineer to convince him to sabotage Argentina's deadly Exocet missiles.
As the war hots up, Argentina desperately tries to make their missiles more effective and the British try just as desperately to develop countermeasures. Meanwhile, Jon Hunt discovers what it’s really like to fly in combat.
Eventually, the French engineer and his Argentinian girlfriend find themselves in the Islands just as the British are closing in. In appalling weather, Jon undertakes a rescue attempt which culminates in a desperate encounter in the mountains surrounding Port Stanley just as the final fight for the Islands takes place around them.
The book is based on the author's own experience of flying his Lynx from HMS Andromeda in 1982 and many other true stories from the Falklands War that have never been told before.
This is the first in the best-selling 'Jon Hunt' series about the modern Royal Navy and the momentous events of the end of the twentieth century. Not just military fiction but thrillers in their own right, they are all based on the author’s own military experience.
1983, one year after the Falklands War. Lieutenant Jonathon Hunt has been appointed to a Commando Helicopter Squadron operating in Northern Norway. It is the height of the Cold War and the Soviets have discovered a secret NATO submarine listening station hidden in the Arctic Ice. They would like to do something about it but cannot come up with a method of attack until they decide on the use of an Ekranoplan. This massive machine known as the ‘Caspian Monster’ can get them in and out fast enough to give them the deniability they need. Caught up in events, Jon and his Observer Brian Pearce, find themselves flying a Sea King Mark 4 helicopter from HMS Illustrious up in to the ice in an attempt to stop the Soviets before tragedy occurs. Based on real events of 1983,
‘The Caspian Monster’ weaves a story around a year in history that most of the world never realised actually brought us to the brink of all out nuclear war.
America is being flooded with drugs and the US Coast Guard can’t find out why. HMS Chester is in the Caribbean conducting trials and is tasked to aid a new anti drugs Task Force. Helicopter pilot, Lieutenant Commander Jonathon Hunt and his Observer Brian Pearce become involved when it is decided that the war needs to be taken to the enemy. The strength of the British and American military is pitted against the ingenuity of the Columbian drug smuggler cartels and results in a dramatic confrontation off the coast of Columbia.
Beirut, a city in chaos. After their embassy is bombed, the British decide on a full evacuation and call on the newly formed 844 Naval Air Squadron of Sea King helicopters led by Lieutenant Commander Jonathon Hunt, to conduct the operation.
Embarking on the experimental Royal Fleet Auxiliary ‘Arapaho’, the squadron almost complete their dangerous task when Jon Hunt’s aircraft is shot down and he is taken hostage. Although a rescue is mounted, events move swiftly as a British Cruise ship is seized at sea bringing about a confrontation which only Jon and his squadron can resolve.
Based on real events of the 1980s and the author’s own military experience, Arapaho is the fourth novel about Jon Hunt, Brian Pearce and the modern Royal Navy.
The Gulf at the end of the eighties is a powder keg. The war between Iran and Iraq may be over but tension in the whole region remains high. Having been forced reluctantly to the negotiating table, Iran is still looking for revenge. The Frigate HMS Prometheus is tasked to maintain the safety of British interests in the area as part of the Armilla patrol. Now commanded by the newly promoted Commander Jonathon Hunt with his friend Brian Pearce as his Operations officer, they are thrust into a situation that requires all their courage and ingenuity. The threat of ‘Bog Hammers’, small armed speedboats that can cause chaos far in excess of their size, as well that posed by shore based missiles puts Jon and Brian in a precarious position as they try to counter an audacious attempt by an Iranian faction to bring chaos to the whole region.
Three days in 1991 that changed the world. Commander Jonathon Hunt has been appointed as Assistant Defence Attaché to the British Embassy in Moscow just as President Gorbachev’s reforms are causing a constitutional crisis. That summer, a coup whilst Gorbachev is on holiday, nearly destabilises the whole world. Jon, together with his colleague Rupert Thomas from MI6 are caught up in a race against time to help end the Cold War forever.
1995, the vicious war in the fragmented former Republic of Yugoslavia is moving to an end game. The United Nations have troops and observers in the country but are finding it impossible to act. Thrust into the maelstrom of rape, murder and ethnic cleansing, the newly promoted Captain Jonathon Hunt joins the UN Protection Force UNPROFOR and finds himself being drawn into the struggle. The only way the war is going to end is if the might of NATO becomes fully committed to stop the fighting. Jon plays a major part in the momentous events that finally convince the world that the war has to end. At the same time, investigations by MI6 allow him to finally discover the truth about why his wife died so tragically three years earlier. In both cases, retribution is called for.
HMS Formidable is the Royal Navy’s newest aircraft carrier. Captain Jonathon Hunt has been given command. He faces the uphill struggle of getting a new and untried machine of war into service and then is almost immediately faced with a major crisis. A major mineral discovery in a small African republic has led to a potential confrontation. With both Navy and Air Force Harriers embarked, Jon and his new ship are the only hope for a group of innocent hostages.
The terrorist attack in New York on 9/11 starts a chain reaction that alters the balance of power in the Middle East.
Jon Hunt, having left command of the Formidable and newly promoted to Commodore is thrust into the middle of events just as the allies invade Iraq looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction. But do they even exist? Why is the British Government so convinced that they do? He is given the task of finding them despite his personal misgivings over the war. What he discovers is a conspiracy going right to the top.
Will he intervene to stop an even greater tragedy taking place?
