Title: 'Four Weeks in May: The Loss of ''HMS Coventry'''. This item is unavailable.Title: 'Four Weeks in May: The Loss of ''HMS Coventry'''

In March 1982 the guided-missile destroyer HMS Coventry was one of a small squadron of ships on exercise off Gibraltar. By the end of April that year she was sailing south in the vanguard of the Task Force towards the Falklands. As diplomacy failed, crisis became conflict. By the time the ship left Ascension Island, its company knew war was inevitable - a war in which they would be in the front line.

For Coventry, the war began in earnest on 1 May. Her job was to be 'on picket' to the north west of the islands. She was to provide early warning of approaching enemy aircraft from the west, and fend off any incoming threat to the highly valuable ships and aircraft behind her. On 25 May, Coventry was attacked by two Argentine Skyhawks, and hit by three bombs. The explosions tore out most of her port side and killed 19 of the crew, leaving many others injured - mostly by burns. Within twenty minutes she had capsized, and was to sink early the next day. In her final moments, when all those not killed by the explosions had been evacuated from the ship, her Captain, David Hart Dyke, himself badly burned, climbed down her starboard side and into a life-raft. This is his compelling and moving story.

David Hart Dyke began his naval career in 1958 as one of the last intake of National Servicemen before entering Dartmouth as a regular officer. After service in ships around the world, he was appointed to several senior posts, among which were a member of the Directing Staff at the Naval Staff College, Greenwich; Commander of the Royal Yacht Britannia; Naval Attache and Chief of Staff to the Commander British Naval Staff in Washington, USA; Director of Naval Recruiting in the Ministry of Defence, and Captain of HMS Coventry in the Falklands War. David Hart Dyke was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 1979 and awarded a CBE in 1990, the same year that he retired from the Royal Navy. Soon after, he was appointed Clerk and Chief Executive of the Skinners' Company, one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. He finally retired in 2003 and lives in Hambledon, Hampshire, where he pursues his main interest of painting in watercolours. He is married to Diana (D) and they have two daughters.
Four Weeks in May was published by Atlantic in 2007.