Hall, Matthew C. Between Sand and Sea: Royal Navy Operations 1990-2011. Volume 1: The First Gulf War 1990-1991

A volume from the series "Middle East @ War". For four days in early 1991, Royal Navy Lynx helicopters circled low over the marshes of Shatt-al-Arab in southern Iraq. They were searching for the Iraqi fleet, and as soon as they were spotted, their hulls became targets for state-of-the-art smart munitions. In this British-led operation, known as the Battle of Bubiyan, most of the Iraqi fleet was sunk. When Commodore Paul Haddacks led his task force into the Persian Gulf, such successes were anything but certain. The sailors of the Royal Navy had been moulded by the Falklands conflict and were the only ones in the coalition fleet with experience of modern naval warfare on a large scale. The narrow stretch of water that the Pentagon had tasked Commodore Haddacks with securing was bristling with coastal anti-ship batteries, labyrinthine floating minefields and Iraqi fast attack craft, bringing back unpleasant memories of San Carlos Bay. While other naval commanders were confident, the commanders of the British fleet were concerned. Volume 1 of "Between Sand and Sea. Royal Navy Operations 1990-2011" examines how the Royal Navy overcame these challenges and emerged with renewed confidence in a reshaped world. The First Gulf War is the first of three conflicts covered in this series, which also examines the Second Gulf War of 2003 and the Libyan War of 2011. The three volumes tell the story of a navy in transition. A fleet that was neglected in 1991, repeatedly downsized and filled with mid-century ships, became a modern and dynamic force in 2011: a reborn Royal Navy reimagined for expeditionary warfare in the American age. Each volume is extensively illustrated with contemporary photographs as well as specially commissioned maps and colour profiles.