This fascinating and insightful book tells the thrilling story of the
SS Canberra, the luxury passenger liner which was requesitioned as a
troop transport in the Falkands War.
Vast and brilliant white, P&O's flagship the SS Canberra was a final
salute to a bygone era of opulence even as she embarked on her
maiden voyage, For a decade she carried passengers between Britain and
Australia, a 90-day voyage of pampering and decadence.
But in March 1982, Britain went to war to defend the Falkland
Islands and the SS Canberra found herself, surreally, requisitioned
as a troop ship to carry the Marines and Paratroops into battle.
Against all odds she surived, playing a vital role as a hospital
ship, and at the end of the war she arrived back in Southampton to a
hero's welcome, where she became fondly known as the Great White Whale.
This is the extraordinary and, as yet, untold story of how the crew
of a luxury ocean liner -- waiters, cooks, nurses and cleaners -- found
themselves suddenly thrust onto the front line.
A Very Strange Way to Go to War is a candid and captivating story,
drawing from first hand accounts and previously unpublished archives, of
the heroic courage of ordinary British men and women in the face of
great adversity, at the outpost of empire.
