Hors
de Combat: The Falklands-Malvinas Conflict in Retrospect
Edited
by Diego F. García Quiroga and Mike Seear
Date of Publication: 1 August 2009
Hors de Combat brings together contributions from the University of Nottingham's 2006 International Colloquium, The Falklands-Malvinas Conflict Twenty-Five Years On. The initiative to hold such an historic event led to the coming together for the first time since the 1982 War of ex-combatants from both sides, in dialogue with specialist historians, media sociologists, lawyers, literary critics and psychiatrists, as well as with veterans of other wars. Their contributions, edited by Diego F. García Quiroga and Mike Seear, who themselves served in the War, are published here as a written record of what, for many, had been a unique moment of peace and reconciliation.
This is a revised and expanded version of the book first published in 2007 as Hors de Combat: the Falklands-Malvinas Conflict Twenty-Five Years On.
Mike
Seear, co-editor of Hors de Combat, discusses his book with Margaret
Thatcher at the Union Jack Club, London, on 4 November 2007, the eve of
departure on the SAMA82 and Combat Stress organisation's Pilgrimage to
the Falkland Islands. (Click picture to see full size image.)
You
can preview the
front
papers of this book, comprising contents page and editors'
introduction (PDF, 202Kb). You can also view the publicity
flier (PDF, 280Kb)
You can also hear the BBC Radio Nottingham interview with contributors to the book of 15 June 2007 (MP3, 5.7Mb).
“The work that the Nottingham-Malvinas Group has done in reconciling veterans has been nothing short of amazing, and the collected memories in Hors de Combat make it one of the best and most rounded books on the War ever produced. It is a story of men in battle, a tale of the consequences of conflict in their later lives and an uplifting journey of veteran reconciliation in one volume. A unique collection of viewpoints from both sides, this is a compelling account of war in the South Atlantic.” Cliff Caswell, Assistant Editor, Soldier (Magazine of the British Army)
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DETAIL
ISBN
978-1-905510-25-2
(Paperback,
220 pages)
£14.99
(posted free by air to anywhere in the world)
Diego F. García Quiroga As a First Lieutenant with the Argentine Naval Special Forces, he was shot and wounded by Royal Marine Commandos on 2 April 1982 during the action against Government House in Port Stanley, where the officer commanding his assault group was killed and the group's corpsman seriously wounded. As a result, García Quiroga became the first combatant of the conflict to be casualty-evacuated from the Islands for treatment of his wounds received in combat. After months in recovery, he was able to return to active duty. Having held command at sea and in the Naval Special Forces, he retired in 1999 with the rank of Capitán de Fragata (Commander) whilst serving as Commandant of the Argentine Naval Academy. He now lives in Geneva.
Mike Seear Originally commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport, he transferred to the Light Infantry in 1971. He served in numerous emergency tours of duty in Northern Ireland counter-terrorist operations during that decade and, having been seconded to 1st Battalion, 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles in March 1982, was Operations and Training Officer in the Falklands War. Serving also in other parts of the UK, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Canada, Germany, USA and Norway, he retired from the British Army in 1988 with the rank of Major to join Scandinavian Airlines in Norway as Head of Security and Emergency Response. Since 1996 he has been a crisis management consultant, and is the author of With the Gurkhas in the Falklands. A War Journal (Pen and Sword, 2002).