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Don't cry for me, sergeant-major
A unique portrait of the Falklands war - from the sharp end.
Very Senior Officers propose, NCOs and fighting men dispose. The Falklands conflict was supremely an "other ranks" war. Here, then, is their side of the story, recorded at the time by two front line journalists. In their own words, often profane, usually funny, always to the point, the men of the Falklands Task Force and those who accompanied them describe what it was actually like to fight an underdog's battle in an icy wilderness 8000 miles from home. Funny, moving, incisive, occasionally bitter, always humorously resigned, this is the story of one war which could be any war, a portrait of the British soldier, in all his mud-stained glory. Here's to him, wha's like him? Gey few, and a lot of them dead.
Very Senior Officers propose, NCOs and fighting men dispose. The Falklands conflict was supremely an "other ranks" war. Here, then, is their side of the story, recorded at the time by two front line journalists. In their own words, often profane, usually funny, always to the point, the men of the Falklands Task Force and those who accompanied them describe what it was actually like to fight an underdog's battle in an icy wilderness 8000 miles from home. Funny, moving, incisive, occasionally bitter, always humorously resigned, this is the story of one war which could be any war, a portrait of the British soldier, in all his mud-stained glory. Here's to him, wha's like him? Gey few, and a lot of them dead.
317 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 12, 2012
Billed as a testament to the humor and fortitude of the British fighting man, this book lives up to is promise. However, I found that virtually every anecdote recounted was reduced to an episode of glib humor, diminishing the event. It leaves the reader with the impression that the Falklands War was little more than a live fire exercise in which the Navy was noble, but fared badly, the Paras and Royal Marines acquitted themselves well enough between quips and gripes, the Gurkhas were one track mindedly bloodthirsty, the SAS and SBS had a jolly good time, the journalists endlessly sought out booze at any cost and the Crabs...let's not even talk about the Crabs. Oh yes, and some people died. As a piece of war journalism, I give it a B-. This book makes the Falklands War seem like an absurd comedy routine.
April 3, 2024
This is an unusual account of soldiers in action (British, Falklands, 1982) compared to all other small unit histories that I've read. Unusual in that the vast bulk of the narrative (provided by two embedded reporters) is replete with witnessed and verbatim experiences of the Paras and Marines across the entirety of the soldier's experiences:
* The long voyage from Southampton to the landing on East Falklands
* The waiting around before being ordered to attack Argentinian positions
* Enduring Argentine air and artillery attacks
* More waiting around
* Advances
* Battles and engagements
* Liberation of Port Stanley and surrender of the Argentines
* Coming home back to Britain
The combat takes up very little of the book and as the authors state, it is deliberately not a military history in the conventional sense. Of course, the general narrative of the war is recounted but only to provide a backdrop for the reporter's observations. What you get are the raw feelings of the young, yet well-trained soldiers who:
* Complain endlessly (and amusingly) about the food and shipboard accommodations (they came in on a passenger liner, the Canberra)
* Complain endlessly (and amusingly) about their bowel movements
* Inter-service taunting (Paras v. Marines)
* Making life miserable for the reporters who were generally regarded as low-lifes.
* Engage in frenzied measures to obtain alcohol with the frequent connivance of the reporters
* Various rude remarks made towards the relatively few females on board the ship
* Marvel at the sang-froid of the Falklanders during air raids
And, the utter cheerfulness of the soldiers despite the hardships on land, the casualties, and the randomness of death at both enemy and accidental hands. Unlike the Argentines who often regarded their officers as incompetent, the Brits were well-led and the men respected their officers by and large. Many had experience patrolling in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
I was trying to think of books like this - The Things They Carried or Dispatches, both about the grunts in Vietnam. But tragedy runs through those books whereas Don't cry for me, sergeant-major is not tragic, just genuine. To borrow a trope - raw, unvarnished.
Two maps (useful), no photos. Recommended for readers interested in deepening their understanding of the Falkland's campaign from the men on the ground. A fairly quick read.
* The long voyage from Southampton to the landing on East Falklands
* The waiting around before being ordered to attack Argentinian positions
* Enduring Argentine air and artillery attacks
* More waiting around
* Advances
* Battles and engagements
* Liberation of Port Stanley and surrender of the Argentines
* Coming home back to Britain
The combat takes up very little of the book and as the authors state, it is deliberately not a military history in the conventional sense. Of course, the general narrative of the war is recounted but only to provide a backdrop for the reporter's observations. What you get are the raw feelings of the young, yet well-trained soldiers who:
* Complain endlessly (and amusingly) about the food and shipboard accommodations (they came in on a passenger liner, the Canberra)
* Complain endlessly (and amusingly) about their bowel movements
* Inter-service taunting (Paras v. Marines)
* Making life miserable for the reporters who were generally regarded as low-lifes.
* Engage in frenzied measures to obtain alcohol with the frequent connivance of the reporters
* Various rude remarks made towards the relatively few females on board the ship
* Marvel at the sang-froid of the Falklanders during air raids
And, the utter cheerfulness of the soldiers despite the hardships on land, the casualties, and the randomness of death at both enemy and accidental hands. Unlike the Argentines who often regarded their officers as incompetent, the Brits were well-led and the men respected their officers by and large. Many had experience patrolling in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
I was trying to think of books like this - The Things They Carried or Dispatches, both about the grunts in Vietnam. But tragedy runs through those books whereas Don't cry for me, sergeant-major is not tragic, just genuine. To borrow a trope - raw, unvarnished.
Two maps (useful), no photos. Recommended for readers interested in deepening their understanding of the Falkland's campaign from the men on the ground. A fairly quick read.
January 24, 2025
A journey of nostalgia for me, I was a 13 year boy living in Southampton when the war started, me and my mates cycled over the new bridge to the docks and watched in awe as The Canberra sailed to the Falklands. I was glued to the TV news and radio for the next 3 months so this book brought all this back and what actually went on out there. Fantastic read loved this book .
April 16, 2019
This is typical British writing, with gallows humour. It shows the unpleasantness of war, yet with a human shape. This is the true history of the Falklands War, without a political slant or bias, viewed up close and personal
October 13, 2017
War is always a tragedy but this book makes it in strange way hilarious, although most of the humor is rather dark.
January 26, 2025
Probably one of the best books about the Falklands war that I have read
January 29, 2019
Living in the UK during the Falklands War, I saw as much of the BBC, ITV, etc coverage as possible - and this was a great antidote to that reporting as the author gives us the squadies' eyeview of the war in his own vernacular. An acquired taste perhaps, British soldier humor, but this is some of that at its best.
October 9, 2013
This book first came out long before the current trend of military books chronicling the plight of the average Tom, and the impact it had on me when I first read it is still with me. The prologue sums up the tone of the book perfectly. If you put two men together in a room for long enough, eventually they will make each other laugh.
Put a few thousand soldiers and marines together and you will have stories that will last a life time. And they do. Because it has not been written by serving soldiers like today’s books often are, we get to see the soldiers’ high and low points from a slightly more detached viewpoint, and somehow this adds to the power of the tales. This isn’t a book about the whys or wherefores of the Falklands, it’s a book filled with the little moments, the special moments of ordinary soldiers at war; although there is nothing ordinary about them.
Every page is filled with detail, but not the boring military technical babble so often used to pad a chronology, but of these brave men’s moments. It is a roller coaster that will have you crying throughout; mostly with laughter, but unfortunately, sometimes with sadness.
This book stands up to repeated reading, and the stories of these men over 8000 miles from home, engaging in the last colonial war the UK ever fought, make you realise that the humour of the British squaddie is unique. Thankfully so.
Put a few thousand soldiers and marines together and you will have stories that will last a life time. And they do. Because it has not been written by serving soldiers like today’s books often are, we get to see the soldiers’ high and low points from a slightly more detached viewpoint, and somehow this adds to the power of the tales. This isn’t a book about the whys or wherefores of the Falklands, it’s a book filled with the little moments, the special moments of ordinary soldiers at war; although there is nothing ordinary about them.
Every page is filled with detail, but not the boring military technical babble so often used to pad a chronology, but of these brave men’s moments. It is a roller coaster that will have you crying throughout; mostly with laughter, but unfortunately, sometimes with sadness.
This book stands up to repeated reading, and the stories of these men over 8000 miles from home, engaging in the last colonial war the UK ever fought, make you realise that the humour of the British squaddie is unique. Thankfully so.
June 10, 2012
A book which perfectly describes the Falklands conflict with a combination of horror and humour.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews