The heavily-equipped British SAS commandos were silent inside their Wessex 5 helicopter. They
had spent the last 16 hours traveling in dreadful weather looking for Argentinians,
and now they had to turn back because one of them was beginning to show signs of hypothermia.
Outside, a Force 10 storm with 100-mile gusts was making their lives miserable,
but Royal Navy Lieutenant Mike Tidd still managed to lift off the helicopter and head for safety.
However, a snowstorm eventually trapped the Wessex, and Tidd lost control of the aircraft.
All the men miraculously survived the crash, but that was the least of their problems.
They landed in the middle of nowhere, probably surrounded by approaching Argentinians, and had
to rush to find cover if they wanted to survive the inclement weather reaching -25 degrees.
Operation Paraquet, the recapture of South Georgia as part of the Falklands War,
was up to a rough start...
Las Islas Malvinas The history of the Falkland Islands,
or Islas Malvinas, dates back to the early days of the Spanish conquistadors and the discovery
of America. Both Spain and Portugal began to discover and pacify new territories in 1492,
and the sailors quickly ventured further south into America.
By the early 16th century, what appeared to be an archipelago showed up in their maps.
Some attribute the discovery of the Malvinas to Fernando de Magallanes
and one of his sailors, Esteban Gómez, but this is still disputed.
Whatever the case, the Spanish crown never sent men to reclaim the islands,
and no conquistador ever set foot on it. As for the English, it is said that some
explorers sighted the islands and called them Falklands after the Lord of the Admiralty. Then,
after a series of disputes in the 19th century between the French,
Spanish, and English, the Royal Navy left a plaque asserting the islands as their possession.
Independent Argentina would still set up a penal colony in the Falklands in the 1830s,
which triggered Britain to come back and establish a series of ports to establish their domain.
Then, more than a hundred years later, Argentine sovereignty claims intensified,
and war between both countries seemed inevitable. Diplomatic Tensions
In 1965, both countries sought to settle the sovereignty dispute, but it was unsuccessful.
The United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office was ready to cede
the islands to Argentina to prevent further conflict. Still, the islanders organized a
Parliamentary lobby and frustrated the idea. While the UK kept retaining the islands'
sovereignty, Argentina was given the monopoly of different economic activities around the island.
In early 1980, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Nicholas Ridley, went to the Falklands
to convince the islanders of the benefits of a leaseback scheme, but the islanders refused.
When Ridley reported back to the British Parliament, he was called a sellout. The British
had sought a 99-year lease, but the Argentinian government wanted to reduce it to just 10 years.
During a private meeting, Ridley desperately said:
(QUOTE): "If we don't do something, they will invade. And there is nothing we could do."
In December of 1981, a new military junta headed by Argentinian General Leopoldo Galtieri
and other high-ranking officers led a propaganda campaign to bolster the population's sympathies
towards the occupation of the Falklands. Then, on March 19, 1982, Argentine scrap
metal merchants raised the flag of Argentina at South Georgia Island.
The UK felt insulted and immediately sent the HMS Endurance ice patrol vessel.
The Argentinians believed that the British would reinforce the Falklands and invade them first,
and on April 2, 1982, the military junta ordered the invasion of the Falklands.
Ridley’s warning had been prophetic. A Discreet Operation
The Argentinians mounted a series of amphibious landings as part of Operation Rosario,
and after a brave defense, the island governor, Sir Rex Hunt, surrendered with his men.
The armed forces reacted by sending the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Fort Austin to support HMS
Endurance. HMS Splendid and the submarines HMS Spartan and Superb quickly joined them too.
While the fleets of both armies mobilized and got ready for war, the British war
cabinet ordered Operation Paraquet, the recapture of South Georgia from Argentina.
The operation was ordered by Admiral John Fieldhouse and was planned by the 3rd Commando
Brigade. The mission was top-secret to surprise the Argentinians with a quick reaction task force.
42 Commando operators who had recently completed winter warfare training in Norway
were chosen for the operation. They would be led by an experienced mountain climber,
Major Guy Sheridan, and Captain Chris Nunn. Additionally, the commandos would be assisted
by a signal, medics, and reconnaissance company, with support from the Mountain
and Arctic Warfare Cadre and Mountain Troop D Squadron from the Special Air Service or SAS.
However, accommodating 132 men in the available ships was the first
of a series of problems they would soon face.
The first troops sailed on April 11, and the rest of the SAS troops embarked on April 13.
Others followed via submarines. The rest of the task group met aboard HMS
Endurance on April 14 and received written orders via airdrop through a Royal Air Force Nimrod.
The landing on the island was expected for April 21, 1982.
Before the ships carrying the Task Group arrived off South Georgia on that day,
the submarine Conqueror had already been on patrol for two days.
Coordinated with a Royal Air Force victor, Conqueror had been gathering intelligence
about the island. The 7,000-mile reconnaissance missions did not spot any Argentine ships.
The first order of business was to insert three SBS patrols at Hound Bay
to set up an observation post near Brown Mountain. The men would then conduct a
tactical insertion aboard inflatable Gemini boats that would travel across Cumberland East Bay.
They were ready. Unforeseen Circumstances
The SAS Mountain troops from the D squadron were dropped via helicopter on Fortuna Glacier
some 20 miles southeast of Stromness. From there,
the men would gather intelligence about Leith, Husvik, and East Fortuna Bay.
The SAS chose Fortuna because the Argentinians would not expect an attack from that location.
Still, members of the British Antarctic Survey opposed the idea based on the
extreme weather conditions of the area. However, 15 men under Captain Gavin Hamilton
decided to carry on with the mission the next day, and as brave as they were,
they quickly realized that the conditions were far worse than they expected.
The two Wessex helicopters carrying the troops were quickly struck by winds that exceeded 100
miles per hour. Crevasses slowed the advance, and the winds forbade the mountain troops from setting
up their tents, as they were swiftly swept away. After half a day of operations in the mountains,
Captain Hamilton requested an evacuation when one of his men began to suffer from hypothermia,
reporting to command: (QUOTE) "Unable to move. Environmental casualties imminent."
A Wessex helicopter under the command of Lieutenant Mike Tidd was immediately dispatched
to assist the men, but within minutes of take-off, the helicopters' altimeter gave alerting signals.
Moments later, the helicopter crashed, but the men survived and gathered around
the burning debris to withstand the extreme weather and wait for help.
Two helicopters soon approached, but they were already full. Still,
they split the survivors and took them in, but one of the aircraft then hit a ridge and crashed.
No one was harmed yet again, but the men had to wait for the third
Wessex to offload its troops aboard a destroyer and come back for them.
After two attempts, the Wessex managed to pick them up and deliver them to safety
after performing an emergency landing on HMS Antrim’s flight deck.
Argentinians! Meanwhile, on April 22,
the SBS insertion team from the Gemini boats had moved from Hound Bay to Dartmouth Point and
Sorling Valley without sighting any Argentinians. And while attempting to regroup with other units,
the SBS team had to call off the mission.
Other SAS teams attempted to make their way to Stromness Bay to fulfill their
intelligence mission, but two of the boats had to turn back after their engines began to fail.
It was until April 23 that the British managed to intercept an Argentinian submarine,
the Balao class ARA Santa Fe.
The British ships off the coast of South Georgia dispersed and prepared to counter,
while in the early hours of April 25, the Santa Fe unloaded troops at Grytviken.
Knowing that the submarine would withdraw without submerging to detect icebergs and
avoid a collision, the British quickly armed a Wessex helicopter with radar and the necessary
equipment for anti-submarine action. With the help of three warships,
the Wessex went after Santa Fe as she left the bay, and the Argentinian submarine was attacked
with depth charges, piercing an external fuel tank and forcing her to stay above the water.
Several other aircraft then joined the Wessex and launched AS12 missiles to knock her out,
but the submarine kept going.
By 11:00am, Santa Fe was moored at Grytviken by its crew, and the British assembled a quick
reaction force of about 70 men, including the Royal Marines, SAS, and SBS command.
After a brief Royal Navy bombardment, the British soldiers arrived by helicopter and forced the
small Argentinian garrison to surrender. Only one Argentinian was lost by accident when a Royal
Marine thought he was sabotaging the Santa Fe. The small incursion at South Georgia was over
four days after it started, and although the special operators failed to accomplish
their reconnaissance missions due to the extreme weather conditions, the Navy managed to submit the
Santa Fe and the small Argentinian garrison. The encounter ultimately became a heavy blow
for the Army of Argentina, but the war for the Falklands was just beginning...
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of the Falklands War and its impact on the diplomatic relations between both countries.
Did the Argentinians have the right to occupy the islands?