A Tom’s Tale: Mount Longdon 1982 is a gritty, down to earth account of one Tom’s story from his childhood through to joining the Junior Parachute Company and then onto joining the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment.
 
In 1982 the 3rd Battalion (3 Para) was called upon to go ‘down south’ as part of the Task Force, with the aim of retaking the Falkland Islands which had been invaded and occupied in April of that year. 
 
A Tom’s Tale relates Frog’s story, concentrating on the voyage south on the Canberra, the time at Ascension Island, then landing at Port San Carlos in May. At this time he was a member of 4 Platoon, B Company and he was the platoon runner. His platoon sergeant who had not been in post long was Sergeant Ian McKay, Frog often shared a trench with him down south and they became close. As we know 3 Para was destined to take part in the bloodiest fight on the Falklands and that was to take Mount Longdon. As you will read the Platoon was decimated on the unforgiving slopes of Mount Longdon and this book details the fight by Frog and the rest of 4 Platoon to get on. Frog was the last man to see and hear Sergeant Ian McKay as the two of them attacked an Argentinean machine gun position on Longdon. Ian, who was killed doing this,  was awarded the last Victoria Cross of the 20th Century.
 
The account is illustrated by a number of photographs taken in 1982–many of them never published before–and ones taken in 2024 when the two authors undertook a pilgrimage to the places connected with 1982. 
 
We hope this book will strike a chord with those who were there on Longdon, and for those who will struggle to get down south, we hope the book will help you paint a picture of what it was like.
 
The book will be around 240 pages long and is complemented by around 100 colour photographs, documents and maps. Foreword by Major General Jonathan Shaw and Afterword by Captain Adrian Logan. ISBN 978-1-917120-22-7.