In the early hours of May 15th 1982 , four Sea King helicopters lifted from the deck
of the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes at the start of a daring mission.
They carried and entire squadron of the elite Special Air Service, starting out on a high
stakes raid to cripple an Argentine air base and clear the way for a British landing on
the Falkland Islands.
- By the middle of May 1982, the British and
Argentine confrontation over the Falkland Islands was entering its seventh week.
Both sides had recently suffered heavy blows, but it was the British that were steadily
gaining the upper hand at sea as they prepared to launch a land invasion.
On the night of May 10th, the frigate HMS Alacrity was ordered to pass through Falkland
sound in a bid to see if the Argentines had mined the channel between the two main islands.
As Alacrity did not sink in the process, it was figured that there were no mines present.
The decision was therefore taken to land Britain’s troops at San Carlos Bay on east Falkland
- far enough away from the main Argentine positions to be confident of a smooth landing,
but not so far away as to make it impractical to mount an offensive towards Stanley.
There was one major problem though – an Argentine base on Pebble island , just off
the north coast of the main islands.
It housed a small airbase, which the British thought likely to hold Pucara ground attack
aircraft . Armed with bombs or rocket pods as well as 20mm cannons, these propeller driven
aircraft could do serious damage to British troops as they tried to come ashore, and would
be based only four minutes flying time away from the prospective landing beaches.
This made pebble island a substantial risk, and it was not one that Rear Admiral Sandy
Woodward, the local commander of the British carrier group, was prepared to tolerate.
He wanted the base neutralised, but there were not a lot of good options to achieve
this- bombardment by air or sea was ruled out as too imprecise; it could not guarantee
the destruction of any aircraft and carried the unacceptable risk of ordnance hitting
the civilian settlement on the island.
Luckily for Woodward, the contingent of special forces aboard his flagship had a plan which
could solve these problems.
- Under the command of Major Cedric Delves,
D squadron of the Special Air Service had been aboard HMS Hermes since the start of
May, after their involvement in the recapture of South Georgia was concluded.
Delves and his men had been searching for a way to make themselves useful to the task
force and had settled on Pebble island as a potentially lucrative target.
They proposed landing SAS troops onto the island by helicopter to disable the airfield
and any aircraft by hand, with demolition charges and anti-tank weapons.
It was a daring plan, evoking similar operations that the nascent SAS had carried out in North
Africa during the second world war.
Woodward was keen on the idea, but the potential risks were huge and information about the
target very scarce.
A reconnaissance team under Captain Timothy Burls was immediately dispatched to the area
on the evening of May 11th, but were delayed by bad weather from being able to observe
the Argentine positions until dawn on May 13th.
By then, time was running very short – Rear Admiral Woodward had set a deadline of dawn
on May 15th to complete the operation – any later and it would overlap with possible dates
for the main landings at San Carlos.
So as soon as Captain Burls was able to report the presence of 11 Argentine aircraft the
operation was swiftly green lit for the early hours of May 15th.
This video is brought to you by NordVPN, which you can use to view a classic Historigraph
video which might be blocked in your country.
Nord VPN is one of the worlds leading VPN providers, with more than 5 and a half thousand
servers in 60 countries and a quick and easy to use interface which doesn’t require you
to be tech savvy.
Now, the very first historigraph video I made was on the Battle of the Bulge, but if you
live in any of these countries, you won’t see it on YouTube.
That’s because YouTube blocked it.
But, if you use NordVPN to change your location to a country where it isn’t blocked, then
you’ll be able to enjoy it just like everybody else.
This same process also means you can keep watching your favourite shows or sports events
while abroad, or access social media features that aren’t yet available in your country.
NordVPN can be installed on up to 6 devices, and will also help to keep you safe online.
With their Threat Protection system Nord is more than just a VPN: helping to block malware,
stop intrusive tracking and avoid malicious ads.
Go to https://nordvpn.com/historigraph to get the two year plan with an exclusive deal
plus four bonus months free.
its risk free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee.
Thanks to Nord VPN for sponsoring this video.
The SAS troops would be flown to and from their target by Sea Kings from HMS Hermes,
which meant detaching the British flagship , arguably the most important warship in the
south Atlantic, to sail almost alone several hundred miles away from the main body of the
task force.
Only the destroyer Glamorgan and frigate Broadsword would accompany it on a voyage which would
leave the carrier highly vulnerable.
Major Delves meanwhile had to prepare his men for a deployment about which they knew
almost nothing.
The lack of time to prepare meant that the three remaining troops would deploy on the
island with almost no information about what they’d be facing, and would have to rely
on those already deployed acting as guides.
The plan did at least benefit from being brutally simple- it was essentially a frontal attack
with the entire squadron, with surprise and chaos as their chief allies.
18 troop would join the already deployed 17 troop in spearheading the attack, with 16
and 19 troops playing supporting roles . Aircraft, ground facilities and aircrew were all to
be targeted if possible.
And so at 6pm on May 14th Hermes detached from the fleet and sped west as quickly as
she could.
It wasn’t lon g before a fearsome gale blew up, and the three ships lost speed battling
against huge waves.
The timetable for the operation began to slip- what was supposed to be a six hour journey
ended up being more like seven, and the Sea Kings containing t he raiding party did not
take off until 2:25 am, badly behind schedule.
As the special forc es made their way toward the target, to the south HMS Glamorgan was
taking up position to provide naval gunfire support to the troops on the ground when required.
It was expecting to do so from around 4am, but it was only at 3.50 that D Squadron was
arriving on pebble island.
To keep their arrival hidden from the Argentines they landed some five kilometres from the
target and then had to hike into position, which took until 6.10am.
It was not long until dawn now-For the safety of the carrier, the British troops would need
to be extracted no later than 7.30am, leaving Major Delves critically short of time.
D squadron’s mortar was hurriedly set up and the assault troops were sent forward.
18 Troop had fallen behind during the hike, so they were replaced with 19 troop under
Captain Gavin Hamilton.
The airfield on Pebble Island was defended by a detachment under Lieutenant Marega, from
3rd Marine Battalion.
As the SAS force approached, most of these were asleep in their beds.
Only a roving patrol of four men, i ncluding Marega, was on duty as well as two more in
the guard hut on the airbase.
They would have been somewhat surprised when at around 7am all hell suddenly broke loose.
The troops under Captains Hamilton and Burls charged onto the airfield, opening fire with
small arms, grenades, and anti tank launchers on anything that looked hostile.
HMS Glamorgan also opened fire, dropping a curtain of high explosive rounds north of
the airfield to add to the sense of chaos and encourage Argentine defenders to keep
their heads down.
Despite this though sever al of the guards did return fire on their assailants, but it
was almost impossible to aim through the smoke and half light of illumination shells fired
by the SAS mortar.
Lieutenant Marega and his men were powerless to stop the SAS from reaching the main concentration
of aircraft on the western side of the airfield.
Within minutes, the SAS set to work destroying these aircraft to, before sweeping around
to tackle the aircraft to the south of the Argentine guard hut.
As the raid progressed, Lieutenant Marega began to worry that the attack was a precursor
to a larger landing to seize the airfield entirely.
Determined to prevent the British from making use of Pebble Island, he moved to activate
a series of explosive charges in the runway to make it unusable.
This was just as Corporal Armstrong was placing the explosive charge on the sixth and final
Pucara.
The massive explosion from the Argentine charges blew him off his feet, landing him with a
concussion.
On the other side of the runway the charges also destroyed Skyvan transport aircraft.
With every aircraft on Pebble island now ablaze, and the sky beginning to lighten, it was time
for the British to leave.
Major Delves gathered his squadron up and pulled back to the rendezvous with the sea
kings.
At exactly 7.30 on the dot, the four helicopters appeared from the east, and set themselves
down.
The SAS men scrambled aboard, and were taken off, back to HMS Hermes in time for breakfast.
It was a raid that had lasted for barely half an hour, planned and executed at incredible
speed in the face of a brutal South Atlantic winter.
All eleven Argentine aircraft present had been destroyed, with only three men wounded
on the British side and two on the Argentine side.
The airfield on Pebble Island that was so close to the upcoming landing beaches had
been neutralised, and the stage was now set for Britain’s very own D-Day in the South
Atlantic.