Through Fire and Water: HMS "Ardent" - The Forgotten Frigate of the Falklands War

Unfortunately “Through Fire and Water” seems to have been written from the viewpoint of every single sailor on board the ship. It’s as if the author interviewed all the survivors exhaustively and felt compelled to include every last detail of every minute of every day – from HMS Ardent’s deployment to The Netherlands and Norway before the Falklands War started.

And it’s a pity – because the story should be fascinating. While the ship was detailed to provide “Naval Gunfire Support” (i.e. an artillery barrage) for the landings of the British troops on East Falkland, she was attacked by Argentine aircraft, hit 17 times and sunk. The story describes what happened from the viewpoint of the men on deck. This is quite different to all the other books that I’ve read on the subject in that most of them were written from a strategic viewpoint.

The other reviewers on Amazon.co.uk rate the book very highly – but they seem to have been intimately involved either with the crew or the navy itself and therefore have a different basis from which to judge the story.

I, as an outsider, would have preferred a more concise version. I think the author could and should have been able to capture the personal stories of the sailors without such vast volumes of words being the result. There are so many characters in the book that I couldn’t remember who they were and I was therefore unable to feel much involvement with them. This was made worse by the writing style – the sailors’ characters aren’t developed and the narrative jumps with bewildering rapidity between places and people.

I ended up frustrated and annoyed; the sailors went through hell and their story deserves better.


The fog of war   October 6, 2002
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

This book is a moving account of the exploits of HMS Ardent during the Falklands War of 1982. Written mainly from the points of view of the ordinary crew-members, it graphically illustrates how they were affected by the loss of their ship and their friends.

As someone who was familiar with the ship and knew some of those who died, I read this book with great anticipation and was not disappointed. If you ever wanted to find out how ordinary people deal with life-threatening situations and with the aftermath, then this book is a good place to start.

There are a few minor technical inaccuracies, but they do not detract from the narrative. My one main criticism is that there is no diagram of the ship's layout. Anyone unfamiliar with the Type 21 frigate would struggle to orientate themselves - then again, maybe that was the author's intent - to put the reader in the same position as the crew as they fought fires in compartments turned to scrap by Argentinian bombs.


Memories came flooding back   July 31, 2001
susan.goldfinch@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk (Torpoint, Cornwall)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

As the ex-wife of one of the main characters in the book, I found it a very honest account of those terrible days. It bought the emotions of those dark days flooding back. The author has also captured life on board, and the matelots sense of humour extremely well. Overall the book is a roller-coaster of emotions and a romping good read!


A compassionate account of those forgotten Falklands men.   February 17, 2001
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is a fine book in so many ways. The author was clearly not aiming for the arid approach of the military historian; his writing is about the life and death issues that faced these men, many of them little more than boys when they went to war. That they did more than their duty is clearly chronicled but they were forgotten by those who should have known better.This book is meticulously researched in every way.Most importantly of all he gives voice to those men who went through this ordeal. From the hundreds of hours of transcripts, individual voices speak directly to us and yet the ties that bind these men are also presented to us with clarity and compassion.It would take a very cold `fish` sitting in the safe confines of their home who would not be engrossed and moved by this fine book. Highly recommended.