The Falklands Conflict, Forty Years Later

[Slim]

11th May, 1982

In the early hours before dawn, as she patrols Falkland Sound in search of mines, Alacrity acquires a surface radar contact ahead. It is the Argentinian naval transport Isla de los Estados. The British frigate fires a star shell overhead to illuminate the target, then brings her 4.5 inch gun to bear on the enemy vessel. The first round ignites the transport ship's cargo of jet fuel and ammunition, sinking it immediately. Only two of the twenty-four men aboard survive. This is the only surface action between British and Argentine ships of the entire war.

Alacrity completes her circumnavigation of East Falkland without finding a mine the hard way, to rendezvous with Arrow to the east of Cape Dolphin.

US Secretary of State Al Haig secretly sends his deputy Vernon Walters back to Buenos Aires to investigate the possibility that Washington might still play a diplomatic role.

A reconnaissance patrol from Boat Troop, D squadron SAS performs an infiltration by canoe to report on enemy positions at Pebble Island, at the northern tip of West Falkland. Intelligence reports indicate that the Argentines have deployed a sizeable garrison, ground attack aircraft and a radar site there, only nineteen miles from the proposed landing site at Carlos Water. The intention is for personnel from 22 SAS to be inserted by helicopter to destroy the deployed aircraft, radar site, ground crew and force protection garrison. The SAS commander had requested three weeks to recon and prepare the mission. Woodward has given them five days.

[Slim]

12th May, 1982

The QE2 leaves Southampton for the Falklands carrying 3,000 soldiers from the Scots Guards, Welsh Guards and the Brigade of Gurkhas.

Brilliant, riding "shotgun" for Glasgow in a Type 22-42 combination bombarding Argentine positions at Port Stanley, detects four aircraft incoming. They are Argentine A4 Skyhawks. The enemy fighter bombers come in low and fast toward the ships and break into two pairs, making for each British target.

Brilliant fires a salvo of Sea Wolf missiles. Two of the enemy aircraft are blown out of the sky immediately. The third veers to avoid being hit, and hits the sea at a speed of 400 knots, achieving a similar effect. A sailor up on the gun direction platform is heard to comment "its like a fucking war film up here!" [there has been speculation, never confirmed by the Royal Navy, that the Argentine pilot who flew into the sea was the victim of a laser weapon, intended to temporarily blind pilots of attacking aircraft. The Navy did have these fitted to some of its ships].

Glasgow's Sea Dart malfunctions. A microswitch has become encrusted with salt, from excessive exposure to sea water. The fourth Skyhawk gets through and releases its bombs at Glasgow. They miss.

Minutes later, a second wave of four Skyhawks comes in from the west. With his missile system disabled, Glasgow's captain orders everyone who can fire a gun to the upper decks, to man the machine guns. Seven miles out, the Argentine pilots begin to weave and zig-zag, to confuse Brilliant's Sea Wolf system. They are successful.

As Brilliant opens fire with every available weapon, two bombs sail over her decks, just missing the British ship.

Another of the Skyhawks is hit by machine gunners from the deck of Glasgow, but manages to get a bomb on target, three feet above the waterline. It passes through the upper part of the Auxiliary Machine Room and leaves the ship through the other side at about the same height. No-one is injured. Damage control parties, standing in freezing water, manage to cover the holes. Pipes and hoses are rigged to pump out the sea water. Some of the ship's critical systems are out of action, but engineers work to repair the Sea Dart system, and have it operational within thirty minutes.

The Argentine pilot who has taken machine gun fire on pressing home his attack on Glasgow attempts to make an emergency landing at Goose Green, but is shot down by his own side's anti-aircraft fire. He becomes the fourth Argentine Skyhawk pilot to die on this day.

Fifteen minutes later, a third wave of Skyhawks is detected by Brilliant, circling to the west. But perhaps after news of earlier Skyhawk losses comes through, they withdraw.

The Junta releases a private note saying that a transfer of sovereignty to a fixed deadline is no longer a precondition. But it has already offered a similar concession, then withdrawn it.

[Matt2112]

12th May, 1982

The QE2 leaves Southampton for the Falklands carrying 3,000 soldiers from the Scots Guards, Welsh Guards and the Brigade of Gurkhas.

I remember watching that on the telly. I was 9 years old.

As mentioned, my eldest brother was helicoptered on to the QE2 from Ascension Island.

Pretty sure he has a framed photo at his house of a group shot of him and his colleagues in full uniform on the ship as they make their way south.

[Slim]

13th May, 1982

Hermes, Broadsword and Glamorgan detach from the main Task Force to insert an SAS assault team into Pebble Island, at the north of West Falkland, with the objective of neutralising a squadron of Argentine ground attack aircraft on the ground. Broadsword is tasked to be Hermes' goalkeeper in case of air attack. Glamorgan is to move inshore and open up a diversionary bombardment.

But the forward SAS recon party has not yet been able to transmit a report on enemy positions there, so the mission is postponed due to insufficient information. Task Force commander Sandy Woodward orders the ships to withdraw again to safer waters to the east.

In the House of Commons the Falkland Islands conflict is considered again in a stormy debate, with members divided over the merits or otherwise of pursuing a peaceful settlement on the available options.

Foreign Secretary Francis Pym states that the British Government is committed to the search for a peaceful settlement. But he stresses that until Argentina is committed to a withdrawal of its forces and is willing to commence it, the Government cannot commit itself to a ceasefire.

The Prime Minister warns that a peaceful solution may not be possible, and assures the House that no military option or action will be stopped by virtue of negotiations to date.

The following are contributions in the Commons on this day from Michael Meacher, Labour's Member of Parliament for Oldham West. All will be shown to have been seriously misjudged in every respect:

It is clear that if we won the battle it would only be with outrage to world opinion, which has hitherto largely supported us. According to a recent MORI poll, before the destruction of HMS Sheffield sixty percent of Britons opposed the loss of one British life to regain the Falklands. The straight military option could not be played without a violent polarisation of opinion in Britain. When the carnage inexorably mounted, as it would, it would not be without strong opposition from the majority.

In the end there must be a negotiated settlement that meets at least the minimum of agreement in Argentina.

The so-called military solution does not make political sense. Even if we succeeded in retaking the islands by sheer force of arms, there is the question whether we could consolidate such a position. We would be faced by a virulently angry and bitterly humiliated Argentina. In that situation, could such a tiny population, not itself a nation, 400 miles from a hostile mainland in whose economic ambit it irrevocably lies, be maintained in safety and freedom indefinitely, except at a cost that any government must surely find prohibitive?

I say to the Prime Minister: Stop this nineteenth century gunboat diplomacy. Stop before more lives are lost. Stop before the government become obsessed with victory to save face at the expense of innocent people. Talk, talk, talk until the government can find a negotiated settlement for the sake of peace and humanity.

[Slim]

14th May, 1982

More Harrier strikes are carried out against targets around Port Stanley.

Cardinal Hume, leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales, warns that the forthcoming visit to the UK by the Pope is in danger. It is, he says, a "fair conclusion" that it will be called off unless there is a cessation in hostilities.

Admiral Fieldhouse makes his first presentation to the War Cabinet of the dispositions of ships and men for the landing at San Carlos, scheduled for the weekend of 21-22 May.

The independent Labour movement magazine Tribune publishes a piece criticising Labour leader Michael Foot's support for the Government's "war of petty prestige and the crudest chauvinism", saying that this is his "darkest hour as leader of the Labour Party".

The Prime Minister gives a speech to the Scottish Conservative Party Conference. She says that "after six weeks we need to remind other nations that if they believe in justice at all they cannot be even-handed between the aggressor and the aggrieved", and that "the Government want a peaceful settlement but your Government totally rejects a peaceful sell-out". And she repeats her warning of a day earlier:

I should not be doing my duty if I didn't warn you in the simplest and clearest terms that for all our efforts, those of Mr. Haig, and those of the Secretary General of the United Nations, a negotiated settlement may prove to be unattainable. Then we should have to turn to the only other course left open to us. And that is why, as I have repeatedly said in the House of Commons, the Government, in its attempts to find a diplomatic solution, has done nothing which forecloses any military action now, or any military option for the future. Nothing is being held up because we are negotiating.

The SAS recon team at Pebble Island reports its information on enemy troop dispositions and asset locations to Hermes. The carrier is brought within forty miles of Pebble Island, to mount an assault by D Squadron, 22 Special Air Service against the airfield there.

Late at night, forty-five SAS men and a naval gunfire support team are inserted by helicopter six kilometres from the air strip. Their arrival has been delayed by fierce winds, and the objective to kill the Argentine garrison in addition to destroying the ground attack aircraft is abandoned due to time constraints.

The assault team splits into two groups. One holds the approach against a possible Argentine counter-attack, while the other moves rapidly among the enemy aircraft, placing short-fused plastic explosive demolition charges on each of them. As the charges go off, Glamorgan begins to shell the airfield, guided by the gunfire support team, destroying the ammunition dump and fuel stores. The SAS men systematically rake the enemy aircraft with their M16 assault rifles for good measure. Overhead, parachute flares from the British ship light up the night sky.

As the British assault team regroups to withdraw, the Argentine garrison, having been content to keep their heads down during the shelling, attempt a counter-attack. The raiding party successfully ends this effort by shooting dead the Argentine commander as he attempts to rally his troops.

One SAS trooper is slightly wounded by shrapnel from explosive charges under the airstrip set off by the Argentines, in the belief that the British operation is a full-scale assault to take over the air base. All of the British forces are successfully exfiltrated by helicopter and back aboard Hermes before dawn.

In addition to the ammunition stores, fuel supplies and Argentine commanding officer, all of the aircraft at the base - six FMA IA 58 Pucará ground attack aircraft, four Turbo Mentor light attack aircraft and one Short SC.7 Skyvan utility transport aircraft - have been destroyed. Argentine forces at Pebble Island will pose no threat to the proposed British effort to establish a beachhead on the islands.

[dom]

This is a great account of the Falklands conflict Slim. Are you using a single or multiple sources?

[Slim]

Thanks! It's actually from a book I wrote ten years ago that did use a lot of different sources.

From the intro:

The following have been of invaluable assistance to this exercise and are warmly recommended to anyone interested in the subject of this book:

The Battle For The Falklands by Max Hastings and Robert Fox, two journalists who reported from the islands during the conflict.
One Hundred Days, a memoir of the conflict by the Task Force commander, Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward.
Battle For The Falklands: The Winter War by Patrick Bishop and John Witherow.
The Downing Street Years by Margaret Thatcher.
No Picnic by Brigadier Julian Thompson - a very thorough account of the land offensive by the key British ground forces commander.
Sea Harrier Over The Falklands by Commander "Sharkey" Ward, leader of 801 Naval Air Squadron on Invincible.
Storming The Falklands by Tony Banks.
Down South: A Falklands War Diary by Chris Parry.

In addition hours of footage from old TV programmes were scoured on YouTube, newspapers from 1982 were pored over and websites too numerous to mention provided useful information. Transcripts from Hansard, the records of parliamentary debate at Westminister, proved especially illuminating – and in some cases, damning.

I wish I could credit all of the various contributors and uploaders to these sources, but I thank them sincerely anyway. 

[dom]

Brilliant effort! Well done!

[Slim]

Thanks!

[Slim]

15th May, 1982

Civilians aboard the troop-carrying vessels Canberra and QE2 heading south, including news reporters, are read the Declaration of Active Service, placing them under military discipline.

A Harrier group is sent to bomb Port Stanley Airfield, and to perform reconnaissance photography of Goose Green, Pebble Island and Fox Bay.

In Buenos Aires, President Galtieri says that it is probable that diplomatic negotiations will bring an interim settlement to the conflict. But he adds that if Britain insists on pursuing a military solution, "we will maintain the military situation five or six months, or five or six years". He goes on to say:

As I now have the blood of more than 400 Argentines on my shoulders, the Argentine people, not I, I am sure, are willing to accept not only 400 deaths, but 4,000 or 40,000 more.

The Soviet Union complains that Britain has "arbitrarily closed vast expanses of the high seas to ships and aircraft of other countries in disregard of the 1958 Convention on the High Seas".

[Slim]

16th May, 1982

The War Cabinet drafts final proposals for a peaceful settlement, to be put to Argentina. The Prime Minister is persuaded to make a "very reasonable" offer, as she later describes it in her memoirs. She is prepared to do this because she is convinced that the Argentinians will reject it. The proposals envisage a UN administrator and staff instead of the British Governor, but government "in accordance with the laws and practices traditionally obtaining" (ie those established under British rule).

They will be offered on a strictly take-it-or-leave-it basis, and if rejected, will be withdrawn.

The Junta will be required to respond within 48 hours. There will be no negotiation of the terms. The Government is particularly concerned that the diplomatic initiative will not be allowed to compromise military operations, with the landing of ground forces on the islands due to take place in a few days' time.
Britain's United Nations Ambassador Tony Parsons returns to New York and hands the British proposals to UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar.

A MORI opinion poll conducted  on this day indicates 69% satisfaction of the Government's handling of the Falkland Islands situation, and gives the Conservative Party a 15 point lead over Labour.

A pair of Sea Harriers finds two Argentine supply ships in Falkland Sound. One of the ships is attacked by cannon fire, resulting in sufficient damage to cause the ship, the Bahia Buen Suceso, to be beached.

Glamorgan shells the coastline between Stanley and Choiseul Sound as a diversion while Alacrity returns to Falkland Sound. She inserts an SBS team near the Sussex Mountains, to provide advance reconnaissance for the San Carlos beach-head.

[Slim]

17th May, 1982

An SAS reconnaissance team is launched from Invincible on a stripped-down Sea King helicopter, to be inserted on the coast of mainland Argentina. Their mission is to set up an observation post to collect intelligence on the Rio Grande air base defences, for the possible execution of Operation Mikado - an ambitious plan to land an SAS assault team at the base, destroy the Argentine Super-Étendard strike fighters there and kill the pilots in their quarters.

It is a one-way mission. The Sea King will not have enough fuel to return to Invincible, so its three man crew have been ordered to continue on to Chile and destroy the aircraft there, after inserting the recon team in Argentina.

The SAS team is inserted just inshore in Argentina, as planned. The helicopter crew continue on to Chile, land ten miles from Punta Arenas, then go into hiding after setting fire to their aircraft.

The plan to assault Rio Grande air base will be abandoned after careful consideration determines that it is a suicide mission with negligible chance of success. The recon team will be picked up off the coast of Argentina by a British diesel sub, HMS Onyx.

Harriers are sent on photographic reconnaissance missions over key locations on the islands.

In the late evening, a Sea King helicopter from Hermes patrolling as part of the carrier's anti-submarine screen suffers an altimeter failure and hits the sea in poor weather. Her crew are rescued. Hermes' captain, Lin Middleton, attempts to recover the helicopter, which is floating and undamaged. He noses the carrier up to it until the Sea King is just yards ahead of the bow, with a view to lifting it out of the water using the carrier's crane. Then the thought occurs that if the helicopter's depth charges go off, Hermes will probably sink. Task Force commander Sandy Woodward will record the incident in his memoirs:

Very, very gently we backed away and sent for Brilliant to come over and sink the Sea King. As it sank, now a couple of miles away from us, the depth charges went off. It remains, to this day, a subject Lin and I do not discuss.

In New York, US Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick and her Spanish-speaking deputy, Jose Sorzano, meet with a number of Argentine emissaries - businessmen and diplomats as well as senior military officers - in an attempt to persuade Argentina to accept the most recent British peace proposal. Sorzano tells Miguel Mallea Gil, the military attache at the Argentine Embassy In Washington, that "the British are going to kick the hell out of you".

[David L]

In New York, US Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick and her Spanish-speaking deputy, Jose Sorzano, meet with a number of Argentine emissaries - businessmen and diplomats as well as senior military officers - in an attempt to persuade Argentina to accept the most recent British peace proposal. Sorzano tells Miguel Mallea Gil, the military attache at the Argentine Embassy In Washington, that "the British are going to kick the hell out of you".

Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I read that! What a competent military and command we had in those days

[pxr5]

In New York, US Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick and her Spanish-speaking deputy, Jose Sorzano, meet with a number of Argentine emissaries - businessmen and diplomats as well as senior military officers - in an attempt to persuade Argentina to accept the most recent British peace proposal. Sorzano tells Miguel Mallea Gil, the military attache at the Argentine Embassy In Washington, that "the British are going to kick the hell out of you".

Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I read that! What a competent military and command we had in those days

You might want to watch this then. I've read a lot on The Falklands conflict and quite a lot of this was news to me:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/falklands-war-the-untold-story

[Slim]

18th May, 1982

Two hundred miles north-east of the Falklands, the British amphibious task group carrying the landing force joins the carrier group, in advance of a major landing on the islands. The amphibious group is headed by the assault ships Fearless and Intrepid, carrying the Brigade Headquarters and landing craft. Each carries roughly six hundred and fifty Royal Marines. Behind them are Canberra, carrying two thousand men of 3 Commando Brigade, and the QE2, carrying a further three thousand troops.

The military chiefs of staff make their formal presentation of the landing operation, Operation Sutton, to the War Cabinet. It is approved, on the basis that it can be stopped at any time until the evening of 20th May, to allow the Government to consider any reply from the Argentine Junta to its final proposals.

The container ship Atlantic Conveyor arrives with a further twelve aircraft and additional pilots. Four are RAF Harrier GR3 ground attack aircraft. The remaining eight are Sea Harriers. The new aircraft transfer to Hermes and Invincible.