FALKLANDS 25TH ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT, MAY 2007 i
I
N THE control tower of
● Combat Air Patrol... Sea Harriers engage Argentine Daggers over the Falklands as the air war over the islands reaches its climax ‘fighting admiral’.
Stanley airfield, Mayor
Painting by artist Dean Regan; available from www.deanreganart.co.uk or 01394 210511 “I’ve been a Flag Officer for ten
Alberto Iannariello was
months and am bored with it,”
morning. Wives would perhaps be in with the South Atlantic murk. The three ships fired 50 shells With the honesty which he wrote the very day Argentina
lost in his thoughts, shopping. And here, in the South She was a dull grey ship on a dull each, then Glamorgan, Alacrity peppered his diary throughout the invaded the Falklands. “Too much
relaxing in an armchair.
Atlantic, their men prepared for grey sea... except, that is, for huge and Arrow – The Three Musketeers campaign, task force commander strutting about, flags flying, ice
Barely six hours earlier, the
their baptism of fire. battle ensigns billowing in the – turned around and began to Sandy Woodward recorded that tinkling, forks flashing and idle
greatest armada seen in the South
Hermes turned into the wind, wind from each mast. “A good withdraw to a safe distance. As the evening – the end of his fiftieth chat. I hate it all, and thought I’d
Atlantic in perhaps 70 years had
airmen removed the chocks and Nelsonian touch,” one officer trio retired, three Daggers roared birthday – “So far so good – but I rather have some action.”
entered a 200-mile exclusion
chains, and 12 Pegasus engines observed. low over the Atlantic bearing don’t really see how it can last.”. Woodward hated interference
zone ‘drawn’ around the islands
growled into life. down on the British ships. from Whitehall and Northwood,
Argentina claimed as her own.
At 6.50 precisely the ‘traffic As the ‘musketeers’ began Lt David Tinker and his forever (needlessly) tinkering with
Whether or not Mayor (Major)
lights’ of FlyCo – Flying Control bombarding Argentine positions shipmates threw themselves on plans, worrying about their post-
Iannariello was aware the Royal
– turned green. around the Falklands’ capital, the to the deck of the hangar in HMS war careers. He had little time
Navy was massed on his doorstep,
One after the other the Harriers Fuerza Aerea Argentina responded, Glamorgan, tin helmets strapped J
OHN Forster ‘Sandy’
Woodward had joined the
Royal Navy at the age of 13,
some 36 years earlier when for the press, who seemed to take
he and his Fuerza Aerea Argentina
roared down the carrier’s flight sending Daggers – Israeli-built tightly on, fingers thrust firmly in the embers of World War 2 were any remark ‘Walkover Woodward’
(Argentine Air Force) comrades
deck, lifting into the air off the copies of French Mirages – aloft their ears. less than 12 months old. made out of context. One day the
nevertheless seemed unconcerned
ski-jump at its end. In 60 seconds, alongside Mirages and veteran A4 They saw none of the attack. He was a submariner by trade if media were predicting an odds-
in the small hours of this Saturday
all 12 were airborne. Skyhawks, bought second-hand They only heard it: the cries of not by heart (he was ‘volunteered’ on win, the next “a long and
morning.
They raced over the sea, barely from the USA. Aircraft, aircraft on the loudspeaker, for the Silent Service); he had bloody war”, all based on words
In a flash, the officer’s world
50ft below them, at 500mph, most The first clash against 12 the bang of the chaff being fired, spent most of the 1950s and ’60s which came out of the admiral’s
was shaken to the core. A
bound for the airfield at Stanley, Skyhawks and Daggers proved the whoosh as rockets went off, beneath the waves in conventional mouth and were promptly ‘edited’
relentless red cloud came rolling
where the defenders had recovered inconclusive and, for Lt Cdr the dacca-dacca-dacca of the guns and nuclear boats. His sole or twisted in Fleet Street.
across the runway towards the
somewhat from the Vulcan raid. Sharkey Ward and his comrades in of the Mirages, the huge bang as surface command had been brief But what troubled Sandy
tower, smashing windows, rattling
Now nine Harriers roared 801 Naval Air Squadron, hugely the Argentine bombs crashed into and inglorious; he was in charge Woodward above all else were
the two-storey building, knocking
over the airfield. Flt Lt David disappointing. the water and exploded, lifting the of HMS Sheffield for little more matters of life and death, those
soldiers off their feet.
Morgan’s was the last of the nine Despite his best efforts, despite destroyer’s stern out of the water. than a year in which the new decisions to send “a friend to
When Alberto Iannariello
over Stanley; the defenders were the adrenalin racing through Glamorgan was shaken but destroyer had been bedevilled by his death in order that eight
waiting, spewing flak and small
came around he found himself
his veins, despite all his skill undamaged; Arrow was struck by breakdowns and problems. others will survive”. As he made
arms fire at the jet. and dexterity in the cockpit, the cannon fire which wounded one Woodward’s command style
underneath his comfy chair; a
his rounds in HMS Hermes,
“There was a bloody great enemy had evaded all his – and his sailor. But the greatest damage was not to many people’s liking.
comrade had been blown down
he chatted with sailors, airmen,
explosion just behind me and my squadron’s – efforts to engage. inflicted by the enemy was to the The lads on HMS Antrim did not
the control tower stairs. Outside
aircrew, staff officers. “I greatly
aircraft started shaking,” the RAF “The enemy was avoiding a men’s nerves. A young rating was endear themselves to the admiral
on the airfield itself the scene was
fear I may be seeing some of them
man remembered as his tail was fight and we could do little about found banging his fist against the (late night parties and the song
chaotic. Soldiers were running to
for the last time,” he confided
rocked by a 20mm cannon shell. it,” he wrote, frustrated. deck in Glamorgan, crying: “I Woodward is a plonker... probably
and fro, wounded were crying out,
in his wife. “Morbid really, but I
His Harrier was wounded, but not Late in the afternoon, the can’t take it any more.” A hoary didn’t help) and the admiral’s style
the anti-aircraft guns were barking
suppose realistic too.”
mortally. Argentine fighters and bombers old hand took the sailor under – brusque, curt, often abrasive
constantly. “It was”, he recalled,
returned in strength to attack the his wing. – didn’t endear him to the lads.
“our baptism of fire.”
marina Continued on page ii
May 1 was a day of shock and awe bombarding forces. Officers, too, were subjected to
Thus began Saturday May 1
for the occupiers of the Falklands, Flt Lt Paul Barton became the Before darkness clasped the South his blunt, dismissive manner. “He
1982 in the Falklands. A lone
a day of relentless British attacks. first of the 801 fliers to down an Atlantic in its hands, Sea Harriers made us feel like a bunch of
RAF Vulcan bomber had dropped
Mid-morning HMS Glamorgan, enemy jet, a Mirage III. had accounted for one elderly small boys under the scrutiny
a stick of bombs across the runway
Alacrity and Arrow – ‘The Three The cry: Fox two away crackled Canberra bomber and a Dagger of the headmaster,” one officer
at Stanley, the first action in the
Musketeers’ – were ordered to over the airwaves. flown by Primer Teniente José complained.
first true day of war in the South
close in on Stanley and begin “The missile thundered off the Ardiles, cousin of the Argentine As a submariner he was
Atlantic.
pounding Argentine positions rails like an express train and left and Spurs footballer ‘Ossie’. criticised for failing to understand
with their guns. a brilliant white smoke trail as it In Stanley – renamed Puerto amphibious operations and naval
O
N the flight deck of
It was not a mission the curved up towards the heavens, Argentino by the invaders aviation. He would be accused
HMS Hermes, a dozen
musketeers relished. chasing after the Mirage, which – Commodore Oscar Aranda of cowardice for keeping the task
Sea Harriers sat lifeless
“Christ, the Admiral is sending was now making for the stars,” mourned the loss of comrades. force’s only carriers far from the
momentarily, lined up
us in to the Falklands for naval wrote Sharkey. “We knew practically all the Falklands to protect them.
ready for take-off.
gunfire support. During daylight. The Argentinian simply could pilots of those planes personally,” And in the face of all such
It was still dark on this late
Jesus, we must be mad. I am not outrun a missile flying at he lamented. criticism, Woodward
autumn morning as the pilots of
fucking scared,” a petty officer in almost three times the speed of “So when one was shot down or himself was
800 Naval Air Squadron climbed
Glamorgan wrote candidly in his sound. lost, we had to remove one of the unapologetic.
into the cockpits of their FRS1
diary. “As the Sidewinder made pins on our campaign chart. The Like it or lump it,
(Fighter, Reconnaissance, Strike)
It was a little after 10.30 intercept, the Argentine jet simple act of removing one of the he was “the bloke
jump jets.
when the order to go to action exploded in a vivid ball of pins marked the loss of one of our who found himself
The Harrier had been around
stations sounded in the County- yellow flame. It broke its back colleagues. in charge”
since the ’60s, but the naval variant
class destroyer. “In films, when as the missile exploded and then “It was a shock which we found – and no
was barely a couple of years old, the action alarm sounds, everyone
disintegrated, before its remains difficult to come to terms with.” man in
untested, unproven in battle. grabs their helmets and rushes
twisted their way down to the At the evening briefing aboard the South
Its pilots – Fleet Air Arm and to action stations,” Glamorgan’s cloud and sea below.” Invincible, Sharkey Ward was in Atlantic
Royal Air Force – had confidence navigator Lt Cdr Ian Inskip The next minute, a Sidewinder fine form. that fateful
in their machines, in their training, observed. “In reality, many people from Barton’s wingman Lt “In summary, sir,” he told the spring bore
in their planning. suddenly have an urge to urinate Steve Thomas crippled a second carrier’s CO Capt ‘J J’ Black, “I a heavier
But certainties invariably – even those who have only just Mirage. believe we have given them a good burden.
vanish with battle imminent. The been.” lesson today.” The good
airmen were deep in thought as Glamorgan had spent the To Ian Inskip seeing three of As Saturday May 1 turned to thing for
they sat in their cockpits: back journey down readying herself for Her Majesty’s warships, battle Sunday May 2 there was a feeling Britain was ● ‘I rated the Press one of my biggest problems and
home in Britain it was already war. Anything white or shiny on ensigns flying, guns belching of optimism in the task force that Sandy one I felt aggrieved that I had to deal with at all’ – Task
mid-morning. Children would the upper decks was now a dull fire and smoke, was a stirring, flagship too. Perhaps it was hubris. Woodward force commander Sandy Woodward endures a grilling
be out playing on a fine spring grey to make the destroyer blend unforgettable sight. Perhaps it was well-founded. was a from the media
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