The Falklands Conflict, Forty Years Later

[Slim]

2nd May, 1982

The United Nations and the government of Peru both present proposals for a peaceful settlement. Foreign Secretary Francis Pym meets UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar in New York. Ideas presented by the UN and Peru closely resemble the final American proposals, which have already been rejected by Argentina.

At Algeciras, Argentine commandos tasked with carrying out Operation Algeciras (see 24th April) observe a high value target, the British frigate HMS Ariadne arriving at Gibraltar. They are refused permission to attack it because this would seriously undermine the possibility of a peaceful settlement arising from the Peruvian peace plan.

In the early hours, a Sea Harrier reconnaissance reports surface contacts to the north-west of the Task Force carrier group, at a range of two hundred miles. It is the Argentine carrier, the Veintecinco de Mayo and her escort of two destroyers. On Hermes, Task Force commander Admiral Sandy Woodward concludes that the enemy intends to launch an air strike from their carrier against the Task Force at first light.

The Argentine carrier has ten A4 Skyhawk fighter bombers, each armed with three 500 pound bombs. The General Belgrano and her two destroyers are situated two hundred miles to the south-west of the British Task Force. Fearing that he is about to become the victim of a classic pincer movement, Woodward decides that he has no choice but to remove one claw of the pincer. He does not have a submarine in contact with the Argentine carrier group, but HMS Conqueror has been tracking the General Belgrano for two days.

Woodward sends the following signal:

From CTG [Commander Task Group] 317.8 to Conqueror,
text priority flash - attack Belgrano group

The Belgrano is presently outside the exclusion zone, and Woodward knows that the present rules of engagement do not allow him to order her to be engaged. Furthermore, he knows that his signal will be scrutinised by British Naval Headquarters at Northwood before it can be received by his submarine commander. But Woodward hopes that the stark, uncompromising delivery of his order will impress upon his seniors the necessity of a change in the rules of engagement to allow the attack.

The British War Cabinet meets at 10:00 and is made aware that an urgent decision is required.  A change to the rules of engagement, allowing Conqueror to attack the Belgrano is quickly agreed.

Woodward arranges his warships in formation to defend against a dawn strike from the decks of the Argentine carrier. But the attack does not materialise. The Veintecinco de Mayo's launch equipment is in poor repair. She can only launch her Skyhawks into a following wind, and the air is too still.

Conqueror raises her communication antenna and receives the order to attack at 17:30. She goes deep and fast to continue her pursuit of the Argentine cruiser. At 18:30 her captain, Christopher Wreford-Brown, judges that the submarine is close enough for a final approach, at a range of just over two miles. At 18:57, he turns in to adopt a firing position, and comes to periscope depth. He checks the distance to the enemy vessel through his periscope, and gives the order to fire a pattern of three torpedoes.

In a previous life as the USS Phoenix, the old warship survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She will not survive the attention of the Royal Navy in the South Atlantic.  The first torpedo blows off her bow. The second penetrates the side of the ship before exploding in the aft machine room, where more than two hundred men are killed instantly or doomed, and destroying the ship's power and communications systems. The third strikes a glancing blow against one of the escorting destroyers, but does not explode.

Belgrano begins to list to port, and sinks towards the bow. Her captain gives the order to abandon ship. Fifteen minutes later, Belgrano's stern rises high into the air. She sinks quickly as Conqueror turns to dive swiftly away. 368 Argentine servicemen die.

It will prove to have been a decisive engagement. The Argentine Navy soon retreats to cower in safe, shallow waters off its mainland, and will never chance its arm against the British fleet again. It has effectively already been defeated.

At 22:00, Woodward directs Glamorgan and her group to bombard positions around Port Stanley once more.

[Slim]

3rd May, 1982

HMS Coventry reports a surface radar contact to Hermes, 70 miles north of the Falklands. The flagship sends a Sea King helicopter to investigate. The British aircraft is fired upon by two 700-ton Argentine patrol boats.

Glasgow and Coventry launch their Lynx helicopters to attack the enemy vessels with their Sea Skua missiles, from a range of eight miles. One missile sinks the first patrol boat immediately following a massive explosion. Another finds the bridge of the second, killing eight Argentine sailors including the captain as it explodes, putting the craft out of operation.

Conqueror returns to make contact with the remnants of the Belgrano battle group, with a view to attacking one or both of the destroyers. She finds them conducting search and rescue operations. The British submarine slips away, leaving them to continue their unhappy task unmolested.

An Argentine Aermacchi light attack aircraft crashes in bad weather returning to Stanley airfield. The pilot is killed, and the aircraft destroyed.

Galtieri rejects the Peruvian peace plan.

Now that hostilities have broken out, Máximo Nicoletti, leading the team of Argentine commandos tasked with sabotaging a British warship at Gibraltar, requests permission to claim to be acting under orders of the Argentine military in the event that he and his men are caught. This is refused, but Nicoletti is ordered to carry out the attack.

[Slim]

4th May, 1982

A second Vulcan bomber raid is mounted from Ascension against the airfield at Port Stanley. It is less successful than the first. All twenty-one bombs miss the runway. Two Argentine soldiers are wounded.

Harriers from 800 Naval Air Squadron attack the airfields at Port Stanley and Goose Green once again. One Harrier is shot down by radar-controlled anti-aircraft cannon at Goose Green. Its pilot, Lieutenant Nicholas Taylor, is killed instantly.

The Sun newspaper publishes what remains possibly its most famous, or infamous cover, featuring a photograph of the Belgrano displayed under the headline GOTCHA.

The British War Cabinet meets, and discusses the reaction to the sinking of the Belgrano.

At Algeciras, Antonio Latorre and Héctor Rosales, part of the Junta's four man commando team ordered to sabotage a British warship in Gibraltar, are arrested by the Spanish authorities. The owner of a car rental business used by the Argentine commandos had considered their behaviour suspicious and called the police. The other two men are also arrested. In spite of their orders, they declare themselves to be Argentine agents.

The four men are taken to Madrid, from where they are returned to Buenos Aires secretly without being questioned or charged with an offence. Spain has recently become a member of NATO, and does not want uncomfortable questions to arise.

The Type 42 Guided Missile Destroyer HMS Sheffield, having relieved HMS Coventry from defence watch, is hit by a French-built Exocet missile, fired from an Argentine Super Étendard aircraft, skimming the ocean surface to avoid radar detection at a range of eight miles. The French-built weapon detonates eight feet above the waterline on Deck 2, causing a split in the hull. The crew had just five seconds warning that the missile was incoming.

A missile from a second Super Étendard is fired at HMS Yarmouth, but fails to find its target. On Sheffield, thick, acrid smoke begins to fill the lower decks. Before long fire is raging. Casualties are evacuated as the men fight to contain smoke and flames, but after four hours the situation is assessed as hopeless. The ship's electrical generator systems have been destroyed, preventing anti-fire mechanisms from working properly.

Captain Sam Salt gives the order to abandon ship. Arrow comes alongside the vessel and men jump from ship to ship. Others are winched aboard by helicopter. Twenty men have been killed and another twenty-four are wounded.

The news is met with shock as it breaks at home. The BBC political commentator, John Cole, responds to the news on the BBC's evening news bulletin with emotional disbelief.

MPs rush into the House of Commons to hear Defence secretary John Nott announce the loss, a visibly shocked Mrs Thatcher standing beside him.

[Matt2112]

A personal footnote here, if I may - my brother, in the Royal Signals at the time, was on leave at home after a few months being stationed in Belize.

On seeing HMS Sheffield being struck, he expected he'd be sent to the Falkland Islands and, sure enough, he soon got the call: he was to fly out to Ascension Island, where he would be transferred by helicopter on to the QE2.

[dom]

There's a really good BBC Radio 4 drama called "Belgrano".  It's set a couple of years after the war and centres on Clive Ponting the civil servant who decided to leak information surrounding the sinking of the Argentinian warship to the Labour MP Tim Dalyell

Here's Part 1 if you're interested...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016x8x

[Slim]

I can imagine very well the spin the BBC will have put on that, so I'll pass - but thanks for the heads up anyway.

[dom]

I can imagine very well the spin the BBC will have put on that, so I'll pass - but thanks for the heads up anyway.

Pity! I pictured you listening to it on one of your long spins

[Slim]

OK, I will listen to it then.

[pdw1]

I have been enjoying your day by day write up Slim.
Keep going

[Slim]

5th May, 1982

The British Cabinet meets in an emergency session to discuss the loss of Sheffield, and the fleet's vulnerability to similar future attacks. The Peruvian peace plan is considered. The cabinet does not find it particularly appealing, even in the wake of the loss of one of its destroyers - but a response is necessary.

[Slim]

6th May, 1982

Two Harriers flying Combat Air Patrol duties disappear from radar and fail to return to Invincible. Lieutenant Alan Curtis and Lieutenant Commander John Eyton-Jones are assumed to have collided in cloud, converging to investigate a radar contact.

The loss of the two aircraft in addition to the Harrier lost over Goose Green means that 15% of the battle group's air cover has now been lost, along with three experienced pilots.

The Prime Minister states in the Commons that the Government had made a "constructive response" to the Peruvian peace proposal. But later that evening the military Junta in Argentina, emboldened by its success against Sheffield, rejects the Peruvian plan - stating however that it will consider proposals from the United Nations.

[Slim]

7th May, 1982

In heavy fog, the Task Force battle group sits out to the east of the Falklands, out of reach of Argentina's air bases.

Two Harriers are scrambled to intercept a possible air raid from the west. It turns out to be a Neptune reconnaisance aircraft with fighter escort, but rapidly departs to the west. The two British aircraft are recovered to deck with some difficulty: Invincible manages to keep station with a gap in the fog to allow them to land.

Britain now declares that the total exclusion zone is extended to twelve nautical miles off the Argentine coast. Any enemy vessel encountered anywhere outside Argentine territorial waters is liable to be attacked without warning.

UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar discusses peace proposals in New York with British and Argentine delegations.

A review of the "South Atlantic Crisis" is sent to all US diplomats in Latin America, with copies to diplomats in NATO countries, plus the Southern Command and the Atlantic command. It includes the comment:

Summary: Popular opinion throughout Latin America has supported Argentina's claim to the Falkland / Malvinas islands, but hemisphere governments have been reluctant to legitimize the use of force. With the announcement of US support for the UK April 30 and the sinking of General Belgrano May 2 Latin sentiment for Argentina has solidified. The Anglo-Argentine conflict has divided Spanish speaking countries from the English speaking Caribbean, jeopardized the Inter-American system, provided Cuba the opportunity to repair relations with Argentina and adopt the mantle of Latin American solidarity, ignited nationalist feelings throughout the hemisphere, and revived latent anti-Americanism, which has yet to erupt widely in public but is simmering beneath the surface.

President Reagan admits to reporters that he is concerned about the extension of the exclusion zone, but adds "I don't want violence to break out again. I'm hoping that we can have this ceasefire and the removal of all forces".

[Slim]

8th May, 1982

The British War Cabinet takes the crucial decision of the war: to send the landing force south from Ascension Island. The Task Force does not yet have air superiority and remains concerned about the remaining Argentine submarine, so it is a considerable risk. However with the the South Atlantic winter approaching, delay presents the risk of failure.

Canberra sails from Ascension at 22:00, with 3 Commando Brigade aboard. The slower logistics landing ships have already departed.

Task Force Commander Admiral Sandy Woodward makes plans to harass and attack Argentine positions on the islands with a combination of naval gunfire and air attacks, at a meeting of senior staff.

In a letter to The Times, the Archbishop of Canterbury notes that it is a cardinal principle of the Just War theory that the cost of every action should be counted. "It is possible for a war to be waged at such a high cost as to entail so much suffering that this would out-weigh any attainable good", he opines.

But although in the Middle Ages the church was regarded as an authority on the question of whether armed conflict was justified, that's not really the case in 1982.

[Slim]

9th May, 1982

Admiral Woodward and senior staff scrutinise plans to land the British ground force on the islands. Carlos Water is favoured as a location for the landing. It is partially protected from air attack by hills and mountains, and has two main entrances from open ocean.

Yarmouth takes the abandoned Sheffield, still afloat but burned out following an Exocet strike, in tow. The intention is to take her to South Georgia for salvaging.

In the early hours, a Harrier from Invincible delivers flares to illuminate each of the airstrips on the islands. The idea is to give troops on the ground the impression that a landing is underway, to spread fear and chaos, and keep them awake. This appears to have the desired effect. The Argentine government announces that an invasion by British troops has begun at Darwin and Fox Bay.
Coventry and Broadsword close to within twelve miles of Stanley.

Alacrity engages Argentine positions around Port Stanley with her 4.5 inch gun.

Coventry detects an incoming Hercules transport, escorted by two Skyhawks. She fires Sea Dart missiles. The two Skyhawks disappear from radar, but the Argentines will claim that they crashed in bad weather. In any event, both pilots are killed.

Later, Coventry detects a contact at a range of thirteen miles, and fires Sea Dart again. The Argentine Puma helicopter which is its target is destroyed, and her crew of three are killed.

Two Harriers from Hermes detect a surface contact, fifty miles south-south-east of Stanley. It is an Argentine fishing trawler, the Narwal. She has already been warned away once. Woodward assumes she is engaged in intelligence-gathering activities, and orders her to be attacked. One Harrier strafes the trawler with 30mm cannon fire. The other attacks with a bomb. It is fused for high altitude delivery so does not explode, but is still a potent enough weapon to immobilise the vessel and kill one unfortunate member of the crew, Omar Alberto Rupp.

Rupp's last words, spoken to his captain as he lies dying, will become famous in Argentina: Capi, no voy a poder ver a mi hijo ("Chief, I will never know my son").

An SBS team is dispatched by helicopter to board the trawler, carrying combat knives, garrotes and sub-machine guns. They are instructed to use minimum force to take over the vessel and capture its occupants. The crew do not resist. The first SBS man down from the helicopter above finds one of the crew steadying the rope for him.

All but one of the trawler-men are fishermen. The other, a younger man, is an Argentine Naval Intelligence officer.

The prisoners are taken to Invincible. The fishermen are reluctant to believe that they have been taken there, as Argentinian national news has reported that Invincible has been sunk. They are accommodated on one of the mess decks.

The Argentine officer, having been captured out of uniform in a war zone, asks for permission to write a last letter home to his wife and children before his execution. The ship's captain, Jeremy Black, sends the Roman Catholic Padre down to assure him that his captors have no plans to shoot him. Unfortunately, the sight of the Padre turning up for a chat has the opposite effect.

[Slim]

10th May, 1982

Admiral Woodward decides to check Falkland Sound, the stretch of water between West and East Falkland, for mines, in advance of sending ships there to land and supply ground forces. But he has no minesweeper available, so sends his Type 21 Frigate HMS Alacrity, his most expendable warship, to circumnavigate East Falkland. Woodward records that Captain Christopher Craig accepts what is a potential suicide mission with dignity and bravery.

HMS Sheffield begins to sink under tow, six days after being struck by an Exocet missile. Yarmouth releases her to her final resting place.

Argentina declares the entire South Atlantic to be a war zone.

The Task Force is briefed about the plans to establish a beachhead at San Carlos, now agreed by the British cabinet.

The Type 82 destroyer HMS Bristol leaves Portsmouth accompanied by the fleet tanker RFA Olna, heading south to reinforce the carrier battle group. The Type 21 Frigates Active and Avenger along with the Leander Frigates Andromeda, Minerva and Penelope sail south from Devonport.

The chairman of the South American Fisheries and Export Board, Alejandro Rico Moreno, condemns the "cowardly" sinking of the fishing trawler Narwal on the 9th of May, claiming that the ship's crew were all civilians.

Henry Kissinger gives a speech to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Office of the Foreign Secretary. He says:

In the Falkland crisis, Britain is reminding us all that certain basic principles such as honor, justice, and patriotism remain valid and must be sustained by more than words.

The BBC broadcasts a notorious edition of its documentary series Panorama entitled Can We Avoid War? It will be described by a former cabinet minister as "one of the most despicable programmes it has ever been my misfortune to witness". Another will say that it is an "odious and subversive travesty".