Phoenix Squadron

HMS Ark Royal, Britain's Last Topguns and the Untold Story of Their Most Dramatic Mission

By: Rowland White

Narrated by: Roy McMillan

Brought to you by Penguin.

January 1972: the tiny outpost of British Honduras is threatened with imminent invasion by battle-hardened, US-trained Guatemalan paratroopers. Britain's response must be immediate and decisive. But there is only one deterrent the government can offer: HMS Ark Royal, once the navy's most powerful warship, now a white elephant on the verge of being scrapped.

To save the small colony, she must launch a pair of Buccaneer fighter bombers on an unprecedented long-range mission. But first the old carrier must make a high-speed 1,500-mile dash across the Atlantic towards the Gulf of Mexico. The odds of arriving in time are very slim indeed....

Drawing on extensive first-hand accounts and previously unseen classified documents, Rowland White has pieced together one of the most audacious and thrilling missions of post-war British military history.

©2009 Rowland White (P)2022 Penguin Audio