Didn’t realise today was the day the Falklands were liberated. I worked on the Norland but missed the list to go by 1. I’d not worked on there long but put my name down, if any of the lads changed their mind about going or fell ill, I would of been next on the list. My eldest daughter was born on the day the war with Argentina was declared in 1982 Today is Liberation Day in the Falklands - the day the guns fell silent in 1982 and the British flag flew once more over the capital Stanley. Royal Marines who had lowered the flag in April when Argentine forces illegally invaded returned to raise it once more. The war cost the lives of 255 British citizens - three local civilians and 252 personnel from the Operation Corporate task force sent to liberate them, including 87 Royal Navy sailors, 26 Royal Marines, 7 RFA crew, and 9 merchant seamen. 655 Argentine personnel also died. The Royal Navy lost 2 destroyers (HMS Sheffield and Coventry) 2 frigates (Ardent and Antelope), amphibious support ship RFA Sir Galahad and Landing Craft Utility Foxtrot 4 - and learned vital damage control lessons which remain valid 40 years later.
Remember the nightly bulletin on TV. An actual war with Jets shot down, ships been sunk and soldiers going hand to hand. Had some ex schoolmates out their. Wouldn’t of believed it a year before.
Where has the time gone? I was working in the technical services department of Fenners at the time; spending most of my time recommending the best way for tight-arsed Yorkshire farmers to replace the PTO belts and pulleys on their tractors after they'd failed, due to the fact that the original belts were coded from before the war. I always asked them and they indignantly read out the code number from the paperwork their fathers had filed away in the 30s. Meant to last 7 years and it'd lasted 45 years and still they screamed for a free replacement. Anyway, we were suddenly fitting out the additional power transmission needs of converting civilian shipping to a war footing. Much more interesting.
Watched this report on the TV with awe at the time. I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid, but I counted them all out, and I counted them all back. What a quote!
The sinking of the Atlantic Conveyor was a big loss, made things quite a bit harder for those on the ground.
With French made exorset missiles. If memory serves me the frogs wouldn’t tell us how to stop the missiles in fear of handing “ keys to the safe “ to a rival in the arms trade…. Bastards !!!!
They didn't refuse to tell us how to disable the missiles, they claimed there was no way to disable the missiles, which some don't believe. The UK Defence Secretary actually described the French as our greatest ally during the Falklands war, they gave us precise details of all the equipment they'd been sold the Argies, let the Royal Navy operate out of their facilities in West Africa and helped us stop them buying arms from other countries. The contentious issue, was that representatives of a French arms company remained in Argentina to make sure the equipment they'd sold was all operational, which the French government claim they were unaware of at the time (again many don't believe that either).
I have vague memories of my late Father readying a frigate for war when he worked at Yarrows shipyard in Glasgow(he was a weapons system engineer).The story was something along the lines of the vessel not being ready but was called into action and hadn't even had sea trials? I recall him disappearing for a couple of weeks,as apparently they had to finish fitting it out on route to the Falklands and they eventually dropped the weapons people off at the Ascension Islands. My old man was ex RAF and did a lot of stuff for the MOD which basically meant you never got a full and frank account of what he was up to,but from memory that recollection wasn't far from the truth.
Little known fact. Both James Chester and Jack Hobbs’ dads both served during the conflict. Jack’s old man was in the RAF( not sure exactly what he did) and James’ dad was in the thick of it, he was a bootneck in the Royal Marines. Saw a lot of action did Stan. Great bloke.
The trawling company I worked at had 4 of their vessels requisitioned and went down to the Falklands.
