They had to move at night, and sheltered camouflaged throughout the day to avoid detection. It was a question of watching and waiting. These patrols were able to call in air strikes on Argentine positions. One patrol even managed to conceal itself in the 'Lady Elizabeth', a wrecked ship in Stanley Harbour, from where they could observe enemy air and ship movements.
As the campaign continued, more fighting patrols were conducted. SAS soldiers would also later play an important role in countering Argentine efforts to reinforce the heights of Mount Kent before the arrival of the Royal Marines of 42 Commando. From there, they took up positions defending the beachhead while the British consolidated.
During this period, the Royal Navy continued to take casualties from Argentine air attacks, losing several vessels. Political pressure was building in London. Yet with the reports of ships being lost, the Cabinet was eager for a victory to placate domestic criticism. Moore issued instructions that Thompson should gain moral and physical domination over the enemy. The nearest target of significance to Thompson and the beachhead was the Argentine garrison at Darwin and Goose Green, several miles to the south.
This is where the first major land battle of the campaign would be fought. From a purely military perspective, the reason for attacking these settlements was unclear. There was an airstrip, from which the Argentines could have interfered with operations at San Carlos, and the garrison there could also advance to attack the beachhead.
However, there seemed to be little Argentine initiative for such activity. As such, a hard-hitting raid seemed sensible given the preference for a northern axis of advance and the difficulties in getting adequate gunfire support forward. Poor weather conditions meant the raid was initially called off. But, with Moore and Thompson under pressure from London, a full assault was eventually ordered.
Jones was immediately limited in what choices he had available. A sea-approach and amphibious assault down Brenton Loch was unsuitable owing to the Argentine positions. And, on 25 May, the Task Force had lost all but one of their heavy-lift Chinook helicopters when the 'Atlantic Conveyor' had been struck by an Exocet missile. So it would have to be a night march to the start line with mm guns and ammunition moved forward by helicopter; a slow and laborious process.
Jones formulated a six-phase plan, starting silent and then noisy. But Jones was not given armoured support, as Thompson thought vehicles might bog down between San Carlos and Darwin. The aim was to hit the Argentines hard, so they would break after one direct assault. Battle commenced at 2. But the silent phase did not last long as the Paratroopers bumped into the Argentine positions in unexpected places.
The attack stalled at the base of Darwin Hill. Then, at 9. He was killed attacking a slit trench along with the battalion adjutant, Captain David Wood, and others. Jones was later awarded the Victoria Cross VC for his bravery. The assault continued with ferocious trench-to-trench fighting.
The Paras moved down the isthmus, closing on Goose Green village. By last light, the whole peninsular, less the Goose Green settlement, had been taken. Negotiations with the Argentines produced their surrender the next day. The British had won a significant victory, though not without cost. Eighteen were killed, more than 60 wounded, and a helicopter was lost attempting casualty evacuation. This left the defence of the San Carlos perimeter in the hands of 40 Commando.
The pressing question was how to advance on and capture Stanley, particularly before the onset of winter. Moore wanted to get on with the job as quickly as possible.
But his two brigade commanders differed in their appreciation of the situation. Thompson advocated the taking of the mountain line outside Stanley, particularly those along the northern flank. Wilson wanted to attack with all forces on a narrow front at Mount Harriet in the south, paving the way for an assault on the inner perimeter.
Moore believed that a narrow front attack would expose his forces to enfilade fire from the unsubdued high ground. He was also aware that the Argentines were focusing on a southern front advance. This would keep the Argentines confused as to the actual line of assault, and prevent them reinforcing their positions. The key heights could then be taken in a two-pronged assault.
But the logistical challenges of supporting both brigades were considerable. First, they proceeded to Teal Inlet and from there to Estancia House, in preparation for the final battles for Stanley. But further south, an audacious gamble was about to fail.
Finding it free from Argentines, and using the ordinary civilian landline to Fitzroy to check that was clear from Argentines too, they moved forward again, and took up positions around Bluff Cove.
Efforts to bring the Scots Guards and Welsh Guards forward were beset by poor weather and lack of shipping and landing craft. It was a clear day. The cloud base that had covered the islands and limited Argentine air activity had lifted. Unloading the ships was a slow and confused process.
There was only one helicopter present, occupied for a long time off-loading the Rapier kit, which took 18 lifts. Attention then turned to 'Sir Galahad', which still held two companies of Guardsmen and had been at Fitzroy five hours without meaningful activity. Fuel for the Rapier generators on 'Sir Galahad' exploded. Around were badly burned and wounded. It was the single worst instance of loss of life in the war for the British.
BBC cameras recorded images of Royal Navy helicopters hovering in thick smoke to winch survivors from the burning landing ships, or use the down wash of their rotors to drive life rafts to shore. These images were seen around the world — although not in the UK until after the Argentine surrender owing to British censorship.
He, therefore, expected a drop in British morale, and their advance to slacken. In the aftermath of Fitzroy, Moore reorganised his forces.
After the experiences at Goose Green, both Moore and Thompson put a great deal of attention into the fire plan. All Football. Graphic Warning. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips the-sun. All such aircraft were organised into Naval Air Squadrons NAS , which in included approximately helicopters, almost of which served in the Total Exclusion Zone, and 30 Sea Harriers, of which 28 were deployed south.
The helicopters were responsible for carrying troops and conducting anti-submarine warfare operations, resupply, and casualty evacuation. An Oberon class diesel-electric patrol submarine, Onyx was the last built of her class before the war and carried a crew of six officers and sixty-two ratings. She was the only diesel-electric submarine to serve in the Task Force.
Accordingly, her principal function was to patrol in coastal waters, collect intelligence and insert and extract SBS and SAS teams, although she could, like other submarines, detect and destroy her counterparts and surface vessels. Recharging her diesel engines required surfacing at regular intervals, although her snorkel also performed this function. Onyx had two stern tubes and six forward tubes, these firing the Mark 8 homing torpedo with a weight of 3,lb and running at up to 45 knots at a depth of 60ft.
With a distinguished service record dating from its formation during the Second World War, the Malayan Emergency, Aden, Borneo, Cyprus, Northern Ireland and elsewhere, the Parachute Regiment had not performed an airborne role in combat since parachuting on to an Egyptian airfield during the Suez Crisis in With their strong regimental ethos and exceptionally tough training regime — much of it carried out in Arctic, desert and jungle conditions — they enjoyed an elite status only rivalled within the Army by the SAS, and they were thus some of the fittest and best-trained troops in the world.
A luxury steam passenger liner owned by Cunard — in fact the largest passenger liner afloat at the time — she was requisitioned on 4 April after returning from a cruise to Philadelphia. She was also fitted with satellite communications and equipment for replenishment of fuel and water at sea. Once converted, with a troop capacity of 3, and with most of her crew remaining on a voluntary basis, she departed with Naval Party under Captain N.
The long journey to the Falklands enabled medical officers to train the men intensively in advanced first aid, including resuscitation, applying a drip and the treatment of various types of wounds. Nevertheless, some RAMC personnel were still aboard Galahad during the attack, losing three dead and much of their equipment. Six submarines served in the South Atlantic, of which Spartan numbered among two of the nuclear-powered fleet Swiftsure class, the other being HMS Splendid.
She sailed from Gibraltar on 1 April. Upon intelligence received in London of an imminent invasion of the Falklands, Spartan was ordered immediately to embark for the South Atlantic; accordingly, she departed from Gibraltar on 1 April and arrived in Falklands waters on the 12th. As with all British submarines in the conflict, her role remains secret. Spartan arrived in Devonport on 24 July. Three of them helped to dispose of the Argentine submarine Sante Fe by towing it out to sea.
Upon reaching Naples en route to Gibraltar, an MoD survey team, a surgeon and engineers began the process of planning her conversion to a hospital ship, a transformation that began in earnest when the Uganda reached the Royal Naval Dockyard at Gibraltar on 16 April and was completed within an astonishing three days. In that time she was fitted with a casualty receiving area, operating theatre and a main ward.
Special means were devised for moving casualties on stretchers without recourse to gangways and ladders, and the ship boasted a dispensary, x-ray facilities, operating theatre and wards for burn victims and other intensive care requirements. All told, the ship could accommodate more than medium dependency and intensive care patients, and dozens more less critical cases.
Her medical team numbered doctors and nurses. The mighty Vickers VC10 C1 transport aircraft carried a payload of up to 20 tons and could complete a return flight between Britain and Ascension in a single day by rotating its crew.
Its principal responsibility lay in the aeromedical role, flying British wounded out of theatre from Montevideo back to the UK via Ascension and Argentine wounded and prisoners, such as the first batch of POWs captured at South Georgia, which arrived in Montevideo on 13 May. In the course of the conflict these heavy-lift aircraft, marked with a red cross, conveyed patients.
They also ferried men, stores and equipment to Ascension with onward transport by sea to the Total Exclusion Zone. Welsh Falcon was a two-week exercise organised by Colonel Christopher Dunphie for 5 Infantry Brigade at Sennybridge and the Brecon Beacons in mid-Wales, deemed necessary in light of the recent reorganisation of the brigade that saw the transfer of both Parachute battalions and their replacement by two Guards battalions.
Consequently, none of these units were accustomed to training together and time was required to prepare and re-equip them for the coming campaign. The first week consisted of basic military skills and the second included a simulated landing with barracks serving as ships, lorrys in the place of landing craft, and twenty-four RAF Puma helicopters.
It was particularly hot during the exercise, which began on 21 April and ended on the 29th. With rolling hills, boggy ground, high rate of precipitation and mist, the Beacons proved well suited as a training ground for service in the South Atlantic, with time devoted to physical fitness, weapon handling and section platoon, company and battalion attacks.
0コメント