- At the end of the Falklands conflict I had no idea that I would become close friends with Sandy Woodward. The “fog of war” had been such that I blamed him personally for the unbalanced treatment that Invincible’s air group had received from the Flagship throughout the war. I had presumed that his personal staff and the Flag Captain’s air staff in Hermes had kept him fully informed concerning:
- the agreed conduct of the air war, and
- the content of the misguided tasking signals from the “Flag” that arrived in Invincible on a daily basis.
- After the publication of his book, “100 Days”, and of my first book, “Sea Harrier over the Falklands”, the Admiral wrote to me a long letter. In it, he was very complementary about my book and stated that “it was a great pity that we were not serving in the same ship”. And he has also written that “Sharkey Ward’s history of the air war over the Falklands is largely correct – except for the fact that he presumed to know what was going on in my mind”.
- I agreed that this presumption was in error and I revised subsequent editions of my first book, publicly apologising for the same and stating that all my references to the Flag were intended to encompass the Admiral’s personal Staff, including the Flag Captain and his aviation Staff. He in turn revised his own book, referring explicitly to the “fast movers” of 801 Squadron in Invincible and the “slow movers” of 800 Squadron in Hermes. He also went on to say that, “Jeremy Black’s formal assessment that ‘Sharkey Ward had made a significant personal contribution to the defeat of the enemy’ was an understatement”.
- It was with this understanding in place that I first met Sandy face-to-face. He was introduced to me by my lifelong friend and Senior Pilot of 801 Squadron during the war, Commander Robin Kent, in the picturesque coastal village of Bosham on the south coast of England. Robin and Sandy were close friends and sailing partners.
- Through the medium of sharing beers in the Anchor Inn and at the Bosham Yacht Club as well as extended and most convivial dinner parties hosted by Robin and Antoinette and by Sandy and Prim, I found myself converted from being an unreserved critic to an unreserved admirer and friend. I had been told that Sandy was “not a person’s person” but this was very far from the truth. He was gracious in the extreme, had one hell of a sense of humour and did not stand on dignity. He insisted from square one that I should never call him “Sir” or indeed any other very senior military officer, including First Sea Lords!
- Our relationship continued as it had started, based on deep mutual respect and recognized expertise. Over the following two decades we became an inseparable team providing innumerable formal inputs to the UK defence debate with the intent of “righting the sinking ship that was the Royal Navy and the Fleet Air Arm”. Sandy had become a strong advocate of naval air power and the strategic importance of strike carriers. I liked to think of myself as his Staff Officer and, de facto, he became my mentor – removing or watering down the hard-headed “Sharkey-isms” in the drafts of all our formal papers.
- I shall reflect upon the work we did together in later blogs.
Sandy my close friend and mentor
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Brilliant blog, and what an amazing outcome.