[Tomvart]

A very fair point Jim, I suppose war is a good thing to improve service budgets - and the lessons learnt meant vast improvements all round, its just a shame it was caused by poorly thought out defence cuts and an incompetent FCO.

I suppose I find myself particularly annoyed that politicians like Nott are rewarded (with a knighthood in this case), whilst outstanding leaders of men such as Nick Barker (HMS Endurance)- who stuck his neck out through loyalty and a sense of duty, making lots of noise about the build up, handling his ship with skill and bravery, first in and last out of all of the Task force ships, and he essentially had his career finished by the very politicians he was working for.