The Royal Navy Wasp

This book tells the story of the first helicopter in the world designed from the outset for deployment at sea in destroyers and frigates, its design taking specific account of the restricted space available for stowage and flight operations. Those of us who remember the 60’s Tribal Class frigates will recall asking ourselves in our initial ignorance “where on earth does it go?”, only to discover, and marvel, that their compact hangar’s roof doubled as the flight deck. The Wasp’s original operational role was to carry torpedoes and depth-charges beyond its parent ship’s own anti-submarine weapon range, the acronym “MATCH” standing for Medium Range Anti-Submarine Torpedo-Carrying Helicopter, but it soon acquired a much wider set of roles: air-to-surface attack with missiles and/or guns (ably demonstrated during the Falklands War), reconnaissance, search-and-rescue, medevac, stores and mail carrier and airborne captain’s barge, to name but some. The book is in two parts, the first: “Wasps in Royal Navy Operational Service”, covers the aircraft’s conception, development, introduction into service and subsequent operation, from its early years to the Cod Wars of the 1970s and further operation worldwide, the Falklands War, and beyond that to its eventual withdrawal from RN service in 1988. The chapter on the Falklands War reveals not only just how many Wasps were there, flying from the many frigates - and other ships too - but also the wide range of tasks they were tasked to perform, HMS Endurance’s Wasp’s participation in the disabling of the Argentine submarine Santa Fe perhaps just the best-known. The many colourful anecdotes in the following “Personal Accounts” chapter contribute further to the book’s readability. The story doesn’t end with the Wasp’s withdrawal from the RN however, as the second part: “Service Overseas And In Retirement”, goes on to tell of its service with other navies worldwide, of which the Royal New Zealand Navy, perhaps the best known, is but one example; it lists the operational life and fate of every airframe and the extension of life still enjoyed by some in “retirement”. That there are several airworthy examples of “the budgie” still flying means there’s now something extra to look out for at air displays and the like. This is a thoroughly researched, well-written and absorbingly readable book, superbly illustrated to boot, that tells readers absolutely everything they might want to know about this sturdy, versatile and long-serving little flying workhorse. Both authors clearly know the Wasp inside out, to the extent that what they don’t know you could probably write on the back of a postage stamp, but it’s the manner of their telling the story that lets me recommend this book to a readership beyond that of aviation enthusiasts alone.