Carrier

by John Wingate

Using his intensive knowledge of the royal navy and the men who serve in it, the author has created a dramatic and realistic picture of modern sea warfare. Focusing on the role of a sea king helicopter, "Carrier" describes a week of gruelling raids and attacks involving choppers, sea harriers and the aircraft-carrier 'Furious', culminating in a devastating conflict.

Genres: Military Thriller

192 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1988

About the author

John Alan Wingate DSC was a successful novelist with some twenty-five books to his credit. Many of these had a naval theme. Frequently involving the submarine service, they gained much authenticity from Wingate’s personal wartime experiences

Reviews

[Tomasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

So: Pascoe Trevellion, a Bible-bashin' bumbler (and former fixed-wing pilot, no less!) who should not be allowed to drive a car, far less command a warship, gets an aircraft carrier to command, after having a frigate shot out from under him in the first engagement of the war.
Yeah, I can see how the Argentinians managed to comprehensively humiliate the Royal Navy.

[Andrew Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping storyline.

Excellent portrayal of life in the Royal Navy and the crews who sail in her ships.
The author has brought to life the professionalism and dedication that the officers and men who serve in the fleet pride themselves on,they may not be in the biggest navy but they are beyond doubt the best trained and dedicated.
The scenarios depicted in this novel may be fictional but they are actually very close to what could happen in the future.

[stephen conn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrier

The "Cold War" just got hotter for those of us who grew up in the 1960's and and 70's this is what we all feared
Once again John Wingate as created a varied cast of character's who fought with what they had got after successful government's had cut budgets.
But the British sailors got on the job

[ALAN PATERSON · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an ex RN Wessex & Sea King Aircrewman, in the 60’s and 70’s I thank God that my generation did not have to experience anything as horrendous, and that it should never come to pass in the future . But a good read nevertheless, may be due to the fact that was familiar with most of the abbreviations!

[Mr John Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

A story about a fictional naval war

The story is a relatively straight forward one. However the jargon and abbreviations are incomprehensible to anyone not familiar with naval affairs.

[Chaplain Stanley Chapin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different and interestingly story

I had anticipated a flying story line, but was unprepared for helicopters. I have flown on them many times as a passenger. This story gave me a lot of information about flying one in war action

[Larry B Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome Book

Another outstanding adventure and action packed installment in this naval series. The author did a great job of developing his storyline and especially his characters. I really like this book and I highly recommend it.

[William Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting scenario of war between NATO and the USSR in around the 1980, as a guess. The story's details are probably easiest to follow by RN watchstganders. Maps showing the named locations would have been appreciated

[Anthony King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fury

4 stars, would have been 5 but for the inexplicable siting of the glossary - right at the back of the book!! Otherwise a 'reet good tale telt!'

[Ian McIntyre Ian McIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read

[R L Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read.

Exciting and realistic action. Too many anachronisms for a landlubber like me! Looking forward to reading the third and final part - Submarine.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent enough read. Very British vernacular. I am not as familiar with the vernacular and struggled a bit. I will read the third book, because the ending of this book teased me sufficiently.

[William Blume · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well Done

Written some what in the same style as C. S. Forester, which is to say uses a story line and correct terminology.

[Melspence · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyable chewing gum for the mind

The second in the trilogy which picks up the plot from the first, Wingate gets the mechanics of late 80s ASW quite well.

[Trina · Rating 5 out of 5]

gripping

Second book in the series a follow on from frigate. Read how the follies of war reaps upon the British navy.

[michael holguin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read.

[Roger Rea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A world war I would not want. But a good reminder of one that could happen at sea. Excellent read.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-stop action

2 more of the characters from Frigate lose their lives, Mick Foulgis being no loss.
Once again the allies,losses are severe but the Soviets suffered even more

[Ernie Benoit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book

Too much British language. Hard to understand a lot of the material in the book. It is nice to read it on a device that can look up the meaning for many of the words.

[Charles H Berlemann Jr · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second book in a trilogy of books, with the first one being Frigate and the last one being Submarine. This is still a "fun to read" book but not into the "have to pass it on". It is here that we have a couple of the characters from the first book carried over into the crew of this Royal Navy Carrier. There is a pilot who was last seen being shot down in the cold Norwegian Sea when the ship he is assigned to as a Lynx pilot is attacked by a Soviet submarine. Now the same pilot is back as the senior pilot in a detachment of Sea Kings on a Royal Navy carrier. We also see the return of the commanding officer of the same frigate, even when this officer was severely hurt after his frigate is sunk by the Soviets. Now he is in charge of a carrier and not hurt at all in the space of a few weeks between the sinking of his frigate and not commanding the carrier. Here now the war in Norway is heating up, the rest of NATO is looking steely eyed at each other across the Intra-German Border and the threat of the war expanding is great. Now it is time to get Europe Reinforced and a major convoy into Norway to reinforce the fighting up there. All while this carrier, which I am going to assume is modeled on the HMS Hermes is carrying some Sea Harriers and a majority of the flying is done by Sea King helicopters. There is a setup of a big naval battle being spoiled for and the way the author presents things, as if there is a repeat of the Phoney War where the majority of the fighting is going on at sea. The first thing that threw off the story for me was that the Royal Navy (and by extension NATO/USA) were using nuclear depth bombs because it is approval doctrine. I know this is an early 80s and late 70s era book, but that seems wrong and outdated for the doctrinal changes. Even though this author spent time with some big wigs in the Royal Navy establishment. Anyhow, this use of nuclear weapons leads to the Soviets to use nuclear missiles against one of the convoys. Boom, somehow the threat is deescalated from being something that would lead to more nukes and soon the ICBMs. The final fight is something to be believed and sort of anti-climactic as well since it happens in quick chapter and jumps between some of the major characters view in the books. This all causes it from being truly grasped as to how dangerous the battle out to sea was. In the end the book ends again with some deaths, but for the most part the major characters being able to dodge death again and the closing sends up the third book in the series that is the Submarine.
The whole thing was a slog in the middle with the chops between characters and the short chapters (sometimes as short as two pages) with the lost of what was going on due to the large amount of acronyms and UK English idioms being used for this American reader. It again wasn't up to Bond, Clancy, or other techno-thriller writers level; heck I don't even think of it like soft military action books like McLean or others. This was just something else that is hard to classify and harder still to completely recommend as a must read or must have for the book shelf.

[Steve Switzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd in an excellent brit cold war naval saga

Author seems to know the technical stuff and can spin a convincing
yarn based on a likely scenario

[Michel Boucher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Much more realistic than most 3rd World War novels. Part of a Trilogy including Frigate and Submarine.