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When Argentina seized the Falkland Islands at the start of April 1982, almost nobody
believed that Britain would be able to retake them.
Not even Britain’s own defence secretary.
But just three weeks later, the Royal Navy had created a task force out of thin air,
sailed it eight thousand miles around the world and begun the task of taking its territory
back.
This is the story of how they did it.
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The challenge for Britain in trying to take back the Falkland islands by force was a huge
one.
The islands were eight thousand miles away, an occupied by a nation with over three hu
ndred modern aircraft that could fly from airbases only a few hundred miles away from
the islands.
A British task force would be outnumbered, a long way from any help and would need to
be supported by a logistical train which didn’t exist at the start of April 1982.
It would be the riskiest military deployment since the disaster of the Suez crisis three
decades before.
This didn’t stop the Royal Navy, under the leadership of Admiral Henry Leach, from being
convinced it was possible.
With the Defence Secretary John Nott being pessimistic, Leach told the Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher that the first wave of a full task force, including two aircraft carriers,
could be sailed within days, and that the navy could take the islands back by force
if required.
Convinced by Admiral Leach’s enthusiasm, Thatcher gave the green light, and Her Majesty’s
Naval Service swung into action.
In a stroke of good fortune, the Navy had the core of a large scale deployment already
assembled at Gibraltar.
The first flotilla had been conducting exercises under Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward.
At 2.30am on April 3rd, just hours after the Argentine invasion of the Falklands, Woodward
departed for the South Atlantic, leading a group of five frigates and five destroyers
which would make up the core of the carrier group charged with taking the islands back.
Back in England, frantic work was just beginning to provide Woodward’ s ships with some aircraft
carriers to escort.
When Argentina invaded, both of Britain’s carriers were alongside at Portsmouth.
Hermes was even in the middle of a six week maintenance period.
There was furious activity to get them operational in early April.
Within days, anti submarine sea kings were being flown up from Royal Naval Air Station
Culdrose, joined by transport helicopters and every available Sea Harrier from RNAS
Yeovilton.
With its vertical take off and landing ability, the Sea Harrier could land directly onto the
carriers whilst they were still in port, saving valuable time.
As a result, on April 5th both Hermes and Invincible left Portsmouth in a blaze of publicity
intended as a statement to Argentina of Britain’s resolve.
It had been just three days since the Argentine invasion.
As well as warships, Britain also had to find ground troops capable of landing on and liberating
the Falklands.
Three Royal Marine and two parachute battalions were quickly earmarked for service in the
South Atlantic, but the Navy didn’t have any way of getting them there.
To solve this, the British government turned to its age-old power to requisition the nations
merchant ships in time of war.
The 45,000 ton cruise liner Canberra, which was by coincidence on her way back to the
UK from the Mediterranean, was quickly targeted.
UK officials boarded the ship at Gibraltar, assessing the modifications she would need
for service in the south Atlantic.
A plan for a custom-built helicopter landing pad to go over the swimming pool was designed
on the back of an envelope, telephoned back to the UK and fabricated before the liner
even arrived back in England.
Canberra docked at Southampton on April 7th, disembarked her passengers, had extensive
modifications and sailed sixty hours later with two and a half thousand royal marines
and paratroopers onboard.
It was a remarkable turn around- absolutely nothing had been allowed to stand in the way
of her departure.
It was a similar story up and down the country as dozens of civilian ships were pressed into
service for all kinds of roles as Britain attempted to construct an eight thousand mile
long logistics chain from scratch in a few days.
By the end of April there were 65 ships at sea, of which 40 were either Royal Fleet Auxiliary
support ships or civilian ships pressed into service.
Sailing south as fast as their diesel engines would carry them, the nascent task force headed
first for British controlled Ascension island in the mid Atlantic, arriving there piecemeal
throughout April and May 1982.
This tiny and quiet island in the Atlantic became subject to a frenzy in early April
as the ships of the Task Force arrived and the RAF lifted in everything the task force
needed but could not take with it from the UK.
At its peak, the islands airport handled over 400 flights a day, making Ascension briefly
the busiest airport in the world.
This huge operation was supported in no small part by the United States- though in secret,
as the Americans were trying to broker a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
The airbase on the island was run by the US to support a NASA satellite tracking station
and its commander, Lieutenant Colonel W. Bryden reportedly said that he had been ordered to
help but not to get caught doing it.
The US kept the fuel tanks at Ascension topped up, and funnelled shipments of the latest
type of sidewinder air to air missile into British hands.
After a brief stop, Rear Admiral Woodward’s carrier battle group departed Ascension island
on April 18th.
It would take another two weeks for the carriers to reach the Falklands, but Britain was not
going to wait that long to start military operations.
Sailing ahead of the main force was a task group bound for South Georgia, a British territory
about 900 miles south east of the Falklands that the Argentinians had seized on April
3rd.
HMS Antrim, Plymouth and the tanker Tidespring had now been dispatched to take it back, carrying
a company of Royal Marines, as well as D squadron from the SAS.
This force would link up with the ice patrol ship HMS Endurance, who had remained at sea
monitoring the Argentine occupiers since the start of the month.
The task group, under the command of Captain Brian Young, arrived off South Georgia on
April 21st . Wasting no time, the British ships immediately
began operations against the Argentine positions, but ran into trouble when two Wessex 5 helicopters
crashed whilst recovering an SAS reconnaissance patrol west of Leith.
Those involved were eventually rescued without loss by this aircraft, HMS Antrim’s Wessex
3, but it was sharp reminder of the fraught danger that came with operating in this part
of the world.
The situation did not get much better for the British when intelligence arrived the
following day that an Argentinian submarine was in the vicinity of South Georgia.
This was a massive threat- if a submarine could pick off one of the British ships that
could spell the end of the South Georgia operation and possibly the entire Falklands campaign,
if the political and public will collapsed in the face of a military setback.
Captain Young withdrew his force out to sea for safety, where they were reinforced on
April 24th by the frigate HMS Brilliant, who had been detached from the vanguard of the
task force some days earlier and came with two lynx anti submarine helicopters.
With this added strength, the British force returned to South Georgia with the exception
of RFA tidespring, which was carrying the marine company and was kept out of harms way
for the time being.
On the morning of April 25th the British warships mobilised their helicopters to hunt down the
Argentine Submarine.
In the lead was Antrim’s Wessex 3, nicknamed ‘Humphrey’ and piloted by Lieutenant Commander
Ian Stanley.
Stanley and his crew searched initially with only the naked eye to avoid detection by their
opponent, before resorting to a single sweep on the helicopters RADAR to see if they could
locate the boat.
Almost immediately, the ARA Santa Fe appeared on Humphrey’s RADAR screen.
The submarine was steaming North West on the surface , having dropped a platoon of marines
at Grytviken to reinforce the Argentine garrison there.
Lieutenant Commander Stanley called in its location, before dropping two depth charges-
one of which physically bounced off Santa Fe’s conning tower before exploding.
At this, the submarine turned back towards Grytviken, a small oil slick becoming visiuble
on the surface.
A Lynx from HMS Brilliant was next on the scene, firing off a homing torpedo before
Wasp’s from Endurance and Plymouth opened fire with their AS12 rocket missiles.
The first of these, from Lieutenant Commander John Ellerbeck’s aircraft, was the first
missile ever fired by the Royal Navy in anger.
The missiles were not big enough to do serious damage to the submarine, but they punched
enough holes in the conning tower to prevent Santa Fe from submerging.
Harried by almost half a dozen helicopters, Santa Fe limped her way into Grytviken harbour,
where her crew abandoned the sub and made their way to the garrisons position at King
Edward Point.
It was at this stage that the British decided to press their advantage- the element of surprise
was now gone and it wouldn’t do to allow the Argentine reinforcements to settle in.
It was time, as Major Cedric Delves, in command of the SAS at South Georgia puts it: “…to
go with instinct, fast and furious.”
The Royal Marine company who had been intended to lead the assault on Grytviken were that
afternoon still two hundred miles away aboard RFA Tidespring, so any quick assault would
have to go in without them, using the SAS troops and a handful of royal marines that
were onboard the other ships.
They’d be facing about 100 defenders in prepared positions, but had the crucial advantage
of naval gunfire and helicopters.
The operation began at 2.30pm, with the SAS and marines being carried ashore by Humphrey
and Brilliant’s lynxes.
They landed south of Grytviken and pushed up the Brown Mountain ridge, while four and
a half inch naval shells bombarded King Edward point- though aimed at this stage to land
near the defenders to demoralise them, rather than cause casualties.
The land troops, under the command of Royal Marine Major Guy Sheridan then advanced to
within a thousand yards of the garrison, before HMS Antrim steamed right into the bay and
threatened to fire directly at the Argentines unless they surrendered.
A voice soon came back on the radio- “No shoot!
No shoot!”
The Argentinian Commander, Lieutenant Commander Luis Lagos, appreciated the overwhelming strength
of his opponents, and like the British Royal Marines three weeks earlier, wisely decided
to surrender.
With this, and the surrender of Lieutenant Alfredo Astiz at Leith the following day,
South Georgia was restored to British control.
Captain Young sent a signal that was passed on to London, proclaiming “Be pleased to
inform Her Majesty that the White Ensign flies alongside the Union Flag in Grytviken, South
Georgia.
God Save the Queen.”
What had begun as a fraught and almost disastrous operation ended in complete success for the
British, with an early victory banked and the credibility of the navy to carry out operations
in the south Atlantic cemented.
There was just one fatality on South Georgia- Chief Petty Officer Felix Artuso, who was
tragically shot dead after the surrender when a Royal Marine guard thought he was trying
to scuttle the Santa Fe.
And so with a first military victory in the bag the Royal Navy’s ships departed, with
Captain Young’s task group rejoining the main British task force on April 29th.
The carrier group was now approaching the Falklands, and the prospect of any diplomatic
solution was receding fast.
The Falklands War was about to begin in earnest, and begin with one of the most controversial
British military actions since the second world war.
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