HMS Ark Royal was the most powerful warship the Royal Navy had
ever put to sea, her Air Group of Phantoms, Buccaneers, Gannets and
Sea Kings a match for anything else in the sky. But, by the end of
January 1972, she was also the last of her kind, the sole remaining
British aircraft carrier, kept in service to help face down the
threat from the powerful Soviet Navy.
Then intelligence reached Whitehall that British Honduras – now
Belize – was under threat of imminent invasion from neighbouring
Guatemala. The little colony was all but defenceless in the face of
battle-hardened, US-trained Guatemalan soldiers and airmen. Until
Ark Royal was ordered to 'Proceed with all despatch'...
Drawing on many hours of interviews with the participants and
previously unseen, classified documents in the UK and overseas,
Phoenix Squadron pieces together this remarkable episode for the
first time. And in doing so brings to life a unique, unfamiliar and
fascinating period in British military history.