Facebook X YouTube Instagram Pinterest NetGalley
Google Books previews are unavailable because you have chosen to turn off third party cookies for enhanced content. Visit our cookies page to review your cookie settings.

From the Cold War to the War on Terror (ePub)

The Personal Story of an RAF Armourer and Engineer from Nuclear Weapons to Bomb Disposal

Aviation > Aviation Biography & Memoirs Aviation > Royal Air Force Military > Frontline eBooks > Frontline: Aviation Military > Memoirs Military > Post-WWII Warfare > Cold War

By Sqn Ldr Mick Haygarth
Frontline Books
File Size: 20.3 MB (.epub)
Pages: 200
Illustrations: 20
ISBN: 9781526759351
Published: 4th November 2019

in_stock

£4.99 Print price £19.99

You save £15.00 (75%)

Click here for help on how to download our eBooks

In the press!

As reviewed in The Sun, December 2019: 'This fascinating memoir offers an incredible insight into how hard the Armed Forces work to serve our country, and the terrifying risks they take each day.'

You'll be £4.99 closer to your next £10.00 credit when you purchase From the Cold War to the War on Terror. What's this?
Need a currency converter? Check XE.com for live rates

Other formats available - Buy the Hardback and get the eBook for £1.99! Price
From the Cold War to the War on… Hardback Add to Basket £13.99


Michael Haygarth left home a few weeks before his seventeenth birthday to join the Royal Air Force as a Weapons Technician. At the time, everything seemed very normal and routine, but his thirty-eight-year career turned out to be anything but. From training with other nations all over the world; fast roping out of helicopters with US Army Rangers; being driven around Basra in the back of a beaten-up taxi wearing civilian clothes with a 9mm pistol stuck in his waistband; to convoying at speed around Baghdad with the United States Army looking for unexploded bombs. All of these events were extraordinary and way beyond the usual experiences of an RAF Engineer.

In the early years of his career, Michael was a member of a Buccaneer Nuclear Weapon Loading Team stationed in RAF Germany at the height of the Cold War. He recalls being frequently woken by sirens in the early hours of the morning, rushing to get to work wondering if it was yet another practice or the start of the unimaginable nuclear Armageddon.

After further tours in the UK, Germany and Italy, and having passed his Bomb Disposal courses and been commissioned, Michael was sent to the Falkland Islands. He also served in Kosovo as part of a huge multi-national force tasked with clearing thousands of bombs and cluster munitions, as well as working with the International Crimes Tribunal to clear numerous mass graves. He was responsible for tasking and controlling all UK Bomb Disposal operations in and around Pristina.

Michael’s next operational tour was to Iraq where he was responsible for the policy and plans for all Bomb Disposal operations carried out by the UK armed forces and for helping the US Army to establish a civilian contract team to carry out bulk disposal of explosives and munitions in Southern Iraq.

After promotion to Squadron Leader, he worked in the MoD and then took charge of the RAF’s only Bomb Disposal Squadron as it withdrew from Iraq and was instrumental in reshaping and refocusing the squadron to carry out operations in Afghanistan alongside the Army. His final role, in what was a truly exceptional career, was in charge of the RAF’s only expeditionary Engineering Squadron as it worked through the busiest period in its history during the UK forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan and the escalation of events in support of operations in the Baltic states and Syria.

As featured in

RAF News

As featured in: 'Event marks for Falklands date'

RAF News

As featured in: 'Falkands 40 years on'

Newark Advertiser

The book is extremely readable with masses of great content, although I would have liked to have seen some more photographs from such a long career. It would be great to sit down with the author for a chat over a beer, such is the way his personality comes across. I would have liked most of the stories to have been expanded on, but that may be in his next book/s. Fingers crossed!

Read the full review here

Flight Line Book Review

A fascinating and exciting story of one of the areas of military service that receives very little attention from historians. The photo-plate sections adds to the text with some very interesting images. – Very Highly Recommended.

Read the full review here

Firetrench

Article: 'Michael Haygarth releases new book called From the Cold War to the War on Terror that follows his journey from RAF armourer to bomb disposal' as featured by

Stamford Mercury (online & print), 27th January 2020 – words by Matthew Brown

As featured in Culture Vultures

RAF Association

Rating: 4 Stars

This fascinating memoir offers an incredible insight into how hard the Armed Forces work to serve our country, and the terrifying risks they take each day.

The Sun

As featured in

RAF News

Click here to listen to author interview

NOTE: set cursor to 22:05

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire with presenter Jeremy Sallis, 14th November 2019

Article: 'Bomb disposal expert and RAF man publishes memoir' as featured by

Darlington and Stockton Times, 1st November 2019

Article: 'Squadron leader to have autobiography published' as featured by

The Northern Echo (online & print) – words by Natalie Saunders

About Sqn Ldr Mick Haygarth

SQUADRON LEADER MICHAEL HAYGARTH served in the RAF for thirty-eight years as an Armourer and Engineering Officer. He carried out many of the routine disciplines associated with those roles, but it was the Bomb Disposal specialisation that ultimately defined his career. Born and raised in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, he now lives in Cambridgeshire with his wife Dawn. He is a keen golfer, walker and cyclist.

More titles by Sqn Ldr Mick Haygarth

Customers who bought this title also bought...

Other titles in Frontline Books...