He was most enthralled by the flag officers who commanded fleets in the wars between England and France in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The son of a banker, Sandy Woodward entered the Royal Naval College in 1946 at age 13, where he imbibed the history of the victorious seagoing commanders of the Royal Navy. More than this, he knows precisely where he fits into the tradition of the Royal Navy. Before turning 50, he indicates, he had thoroughly mastered the intricacies of a complex profession at every level - from standing deck watches through command of a submarine to strategic planning in the Ministry of Defense. Horatio Nelson wrote his instructions to his captains on the eve of Trafalgar.Īdmiral Woodward is very much an officer of the old school, in which seamanship, technical competence and tactical ingenuity matter more than suavity. With his fascinating, smoothly written memoir, "One Hundred Days," Admiral Woodward (with the author Patrick Robinson) provides the finest primer on how to lead a fleet into battle since Adm. This was the most dramatic and politically significant success of any British fleet since the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. The Royal Navy alone lost 89 officers and men, two destroyers, two frigates, a large container ship, a landing ship, 24 helicopters and 10 Harrier jet aircraft.īut Admiral Woodward's battle group drove the Argentine fleet to cover, landed an expeditionary military force, neutralized the Argentine Air Force and induced the Argentine troops in the Falklands to surrender. A total of 250 men from all the services died, by far the worst British death rate in any action since World War II.
Admiral Woodward's force of 31 warships, numerous auxiliaries, 13 air squadrons and contingents of Royal Marines and Army units fought in deadly earnest for exactly 100 days. John (Sandy) Woodward commanded a Royal Navy battle group that retook the Falklands (Malvinas), which Argentina had invaded on April 2, 1982, in an attempt to establish its claim to the islands through arms. ONE HUNDRED DAYS The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander.
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