Tag Archives: Falkland Islands
Clear evidence of French culpability in Argentine Exocet attacks on HMS Sheffield and Atlantic Conveyor
A “must listen” BBC documentary uncovering clear culpability of the French government and (state-owned) defence contractor Dassault in Argentine Exocet attacks on HMS Sheffield and Atlantic Conveyor.
Document – French Involvement in the Falklands War
Mike Thomson returns with Radio 4’s investigative history series, examining documents which shed new light on past events.
In the first programme of the new series, Mike investigates the role played by the French Government and defence industry during the Falklands War.
30 years on, it’s well documented that French President Francois Mitterrand was supportive of the British war effort – not least in the memoirs of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Yet Mike discovers papers which suggest there was a deep split within the French government.
BBC Radio 4
Producer: Laurence Grissell
Original broadcast date: 05/03/2012
28-minutes
HMS Protector leaves Portsmouth for the last time
HMS Protector (A173) was chartered in 2011 as a temporary replacement for HMS Endurance (A171). She was purchased outright by the Ministry of Defence in 2013 when it became clear that Endurance would not return to service.
Navy’s ice patrol ship leaves Portsmouth for the last time
by Sam Bannister
sam.bannister@thenews.co.ukThe Royal Navy’s ice patrol ship HMS Protector has left Portsmouth for the last time today.
Her ship’s company are off on a double deployment to the frozen continent of Antarctica.
When the ship returns, she will head for her new home port of Devonport in Plymouth.
The 5,000-tonne ship will stay in the region for two consecutive deployments, returning to the UK in spring 2015.
She will conduct surveys and patrols on behalf of the UK Hydrographic Office, British Antarctic Survey and Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
HMS Protector’s commanding officer, Captain Rhett Hatcher, said: ‘The ship’s company have worked incredibly hard in training and preparation over the summer.
‘We have installed a number of equipment upgrades and improvements and having completed operational sea training we are now ready for the challenges of the planned double deployment.
‘Experienced members of the crew and new ones alike are very much looking forward to this deployment and proudly flying the White Ensign and the Union Flag around the Antarctic territories and the region.’
Decline of Royal Navy frigate and destroyer strength 1983-2013
‘Were I to die at this moment “want of frigates” would be found stamped on my heart.’ Horatio Nelson, 1798.
In 1983, 30-years ago (which scarcely seems credible to this old fart), in the midst of the it-seemed-hot-enough-at-the-time Cold War, in the immediate aftermath of the Falklands Conflict, the Royal Navy planned for a force of 50 frigates and destroyers (HC Deb 28 November 1983 vol 49 cc661-737).
HMS Achilles (F12) Leander-class frigate at HMNB Portsmouth, 1983.
In 1993, post Cold War, already in draw down and reaping the so-called peace dividend, the Royal Navy was facing reductions to a force of 40 frigates and destroyers (HC Deb 25 February 1993 vol 219 c717W).
HMS Amazon (F169) Type 21 frigate sold to Pakistan as PNS Babur (D182) in 1993.
By 2003, in the midst of the Global War on Terror and with the Iraq War coming to the fore, the force had been reduced to 31 frigates and destroyers… of which only 26 were operational (HC Deb 12 May 2003 vol 405 cc47-50W).
HMS Glasgow (D88) Type 42 destroyer at HMNB Portsmouth, 2003. Copyright Kev Slade.
Today, 2013, realpolitik, Spain rattles its sabres over Gibraltar, Argentina remains bellicose over the Falklands, there is continued instability in Libya, Syria and Egypt, there are standing demands for counter-narcotics patrols in the Caribbean and counter-piracy patrols off the coast of East Africa, and the war of terror continues, and there is always the need for a Fleet Ready Escort… well… we’re down to just 19 frigates and destroyers (13 surviving Type 23, 5 Type 45 in commission, 1 Type 45 undergoing sea trials).
HMS Dragon (D35) Type 45 destroyer, off Gibraltar, 2013. Crown copyright.
Just 19. And not a single Type 26 on order. Talked about, but not ordered. Spec’d, but not ordered. Number to be purchased undecided.
Type 26 Global Combat Ship. (Copyright © 2013 BAE Systems)
I don’t want to think about how things will be in 2023.
PHOTEX: HMS Argyll visits South Georgia
Images of HMS Argyll on her recent deployment to the the South Atlantic and South Georgia.
HMS Argyll arrives in South Georgia. Photo by L(Phot) Pepe Hogan.
HMS Argyll passing icebergs as she arrives in the South Atlantic on her way to South Georgia. Photo by L(Phot) Pepe Hogan.
HMS Argyll passing icebergs as she arrives in the South Atlantic on her way to South Georgia. Photo by L(Phot) Pepe Hogan.
HMS Argyll arrives in South Georgia and anchors off Grytviken. Photo by L(Phot) Pepe Hogan.
Moving HMS Plymouth to the Devonport Museum
Granted, you can’t save every old warship as a museum. That would be impractical, expensive, wasteful and undesirable. However, there are certain vessels that simply must be preserved – those that took part in great historic events, particularly vessels that are “the last of their kind,” and those that would serve as a lasting tribute to the men and women who served in the nation’s conflicts. HMS Plymouth is one of those ships.
HMS Plymouth ‘should return to dockyard’
THE veteran warship HMS Plymouth should return to her birthplace at Devonport Dockyard, a campaigner believes.
HMS Plymouth is the last surviving warship from the 1982 Falklands War.
HMS Plymouth moored on Merseyside
She was launched in Devonport in 1959 and decommissioned in 1988.
The ship is moored at Vittoria Dock in Birkenhead, after the collapse of the Warship Preservation Trust, which ran her as a floating museum until 2006.
Laurence Sharpe-Stevens, the director of the HMS Plymouth Trust, announced last year that he had found a berth for HMS Plymouth in the North East of England.
But this week he said that his preferred choice was Plymouth, where she could be turned into a museum and a training ship.
Mr Sharpe-Stevens said he believed the Ministry of Defence would release three docks at Devonport’s South Yard to Plymouth City Council in the next three years.
He is exploring the possibility of co-locating HMS Plymouth with the existing Devonport Museum, and bringing in visitors by water.
The trust was told last year by Peel Ports, the Birkenhead dock operator, that they had sold the ship to a Turkish ship breaker, and asked the trust to raise £400,000 to buy her back.
But Mr Sharpe-Stevens said he had discovered that this was untrue.
Mr Sharpe-Stevens said he had been given evidence by the Treasury Solicitor that ownership of HMS Plymouth had never been passed on after the failure of the Warship Preservation Trust. The Environment Agency had not received an application for the licence that would be required to send the ship abroad, he said.
And the Marine and Coastguard Agency had not been asked to carry out a survey which would be required before the ship could be towed to Turkey.
He said he had contacted all the scrap dealers in Turkey and none of them admitted to having obtained HMS Plymouth.
Peel Ports has not responded to The Herald’s requests for comments.
Mr Sharpe-Stevens said he was not seeking any cash from Plymouth City Council.
“Also, we are not raising money to purchase the ship because she is ownerless as the Crown Treasury has never gifted or granted the ship to anybody. Peel Ports do not own the ship by default as there is no such thing in law.”
He said the ship was in good condition, in spite of her rusty appearance in recent photographs. “This is mostly surface paint rust streaks. We think Peel Ports is not discouraging the spread of the ‘rusty hulk’ untrue rumour because it gives them justification (and no protests) to scrap her for cash.”
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/HMS-Plymouth-return-dockyard/story-19608668-detail/story.html
Obituary: Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward, 1932 – 2013
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
Admiral Sir John (‘Sandy’) Woodward
Admiral Sir John (‘Sandy’) Woodward, who has died aged 81, commanded the carrier battle group Task Force 317.8 during the Falklands conflict.
Admiral Sir John (‘Sandy’) Woodward Photo: REX
In March 1982, shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, Woodward was serving as a rear-admiral and as Flag Officer, First Flotilla, commanding a group of ships on their spring exercise off Gibraltar.
As the news from the South Atlantic worsened, on March 29 Woodward received a routine visit by helicopter from the Commander-in-Chief Fleet to his flagship, the destroyer Antrim. That evening, along with Captain Mike Clapp, the captain of Antrim, they discussed their options if the Falkland Islands were to be invaded and they were asked to re-take them.
Argentina had long claimed the islands, and on April 2 1982, impatient at the progress of diplomatic talks, and wishing to distract their people from domestic woes, the Argentine junta ordered their forces to invade.
During the passage south Woodward visited as many ships as he could, though his message to the various ships’ companies of the destroyers and frigates, was uncompromising: “You’ve taken the Queen’s shilling. Now you’re going to have to bloody earn it. And your best way of getting back alive is to do your absolute utmost. So go and do it.”
The conflict was a maritime campaign from beginning to end, characterised by a struggle for air superiority between Woodward’s ships and the Argentine Air Force, and in its later phases by a series of amphibious landings.
On April 25 British forces recaptured South Georgia after sinking the Argentine submarine Santa Fe. Five days later Woodward’s ships got within gun range of the Falklands to begin a bombardment, and Sea Harriers from the carriers Hermes and Invincible attacked several targets, while an aerial battle continued over the islands; three Argentine aircraft were shot down.
On May 1 the submarine Conqueror, on patrol south of the islands, sighted the light cruiser General Belgrano. Woodward sought a change to the rules of engagement which would allow Conqueror to open fire, as General Belgrano was considered a threat to the Task Force. Conqueror, controversially, sank the Argentine warship, but as a result the Argentine fleet remained in port for the rest of the war.
Two days later, an anti-ship missile, launched from the air, struck the destroyer Sheffield, one of Woodward’s previous commands, setting her ablaze.
British troops landed at San Carlos Water on May 21, and by June 14 the Argentines had surrendered. Woodward was seen by many as the architect of victory, although there were some who, from the outset, had thought that the Flag Officer Third Flotilla (in charge of carriers and amphibious shipping) should have commanded the the Task Force, and made some criticism of Woodward’s tactics.
Woodward was appointed KCB in 1982.
John Forster Woodward was born on May 1 1932 in Penzance, the son of a bank clerk, and educated at Stubbington House school, once known as “the cradle of the Navy”, and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
As a junior officer Woodward spent time in the Home Fleet, before specialising as a submariner in 1954. He served in three generations of submarines: the Second World War vintage submarine Sanguine; the post-war, diesel-powered Porpoise; and Valiant, the second of Britain’s nuclear-powered submarines.
In 1960 he passed the Navy’s rigorous submarine command course, the “perisher”, and given charge of the diesel-powered submarines Tireless and Grampus.
Subsequently he was second-in-command of Valiant, before promotion to commander when he became the officer-in-charge (or “teacher”) on the “pePrrisher”.
In December 1969 Woodward took command of Warspite, which was newly repaired after an underwater collision in the Barents Sea with (according to official sources) an “iceberg”. Several members of the crew were still shaken by the incident, and Woodward did much to restore their confidence in the safety of the boat and its manoeuvrability.
In submarines he was nicknamed “Spock”. “I was quite pleased,” he said, “because Spock does everything by logic.”
Promoted to captain in 1972, Woodward attended the Royal College of Defence Studies, where he disliked all the paperwork, and in 1974 he became Captain of Submarine Training. In 1976 he returned to general service, for the first time in more than 20 years, to command the Type 42 guided missile destroyer Sheffield.
As Director of Naval Plans from 1978 to 1981, during the Strategic Defence Review (also known as the Nott Review) in the first term of Margaret Thatcher’s administration, Woodward unsuccessfully opposed John Nott’s determination to make severe and “disproportionate” cuts in the Navy. The cuts included one-fifth of its destroyers and frigates, one aircraft carrier, two amphibious ships, and the ice patrol ship Endurance, whose declared withdrawal from the Antarctic encouraged the Argentine invasion of the Falklands in April 1982. Woodward felt keenly the irony that as Flag Officer, First Flotilla, from 1981 to 1983 he should have to clear up the mess created by politicians.
After the Falklands conflict Woodward was Flag Officer Submarines and Commander Submarines Eastern Atlantic in 1983–84.
Although Woodward had made prolific use of the radio-telephone during the Falklands conflict, talking to some of his subordinate commanders and to the Task Group Commander at Northwood, he had never spoken to Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, he did not come to know her until he was Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Commitments) during the period 1985–88, when he attended several Cabinet meetings.
At his first meeting, the Prime Minister’s advisers had not even sat down when she announced that she had read all the papers and explained what the government should do. Woodward realised that she had missed a point of detail and raised a hand to attract her attention. “If looks could kill, I was done for,” he would recall. “But I persisted, gave her the information she had missed and bought time for the other officials to gather their wits before further decisions were made.”
Later, when a senior civil servant told him: “You were very lucky today. You interrupted the PM – most don’t survive that,” Woodward replied: “She was talking – and needed some fearless advice, which she got.”
Woodward respected Mrs Thatcher, but had little time for most politicians, believing that they did not “have a clue about defence”. He was a stern critic of the Coalition government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review in 2010.
While his detractors thought him somewhat cold and arrogant, those who knew him better insisted that he was modest, sensitive, humorous, clever and self-critical. He had been a gifted mathematician at school and was an avid bridge player from his school days.
Woodward’s memoirs, One Hundred Days: the memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander (co-written with Patrick Robinson), are a frank account of the pressures experienced by a commander fighting a war, and is told with self-deprecating humour.
His last appointment in the service was as Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command (1987–89). He was appointed GBE in 1989.
Woodward left the Navy at the age of 57, and in retirement was chairman of the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel Trust, which raised £2.3 million. The chapel, at Pangbourne College, was opened by the Queen in 2000.
He settled at Bosham, near Chichester, West Sussex, where he could indulge his life-long passion for sailing in small boats.
Sandy Woodward married, in 1960, Charlotte McMurtrie, with whom he had a son and a daughter. They later separated, and since 1993 his companion had been Winifred “Prim” Hoult.
Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward, born May 1 1932, died August 4 2013
Falklands War: The Untold Story (1987)
RFA Black Rover visits South Georgia
Atlantic Patrol Task (South) is the Royal Navy’s standing deployment in the South Atlantic and comprises 1 frigate or destroyer – currently the Type 23 frigate HMS Argyll – supported by 1 fleet auxiliary – currently RFA Black Rover.
In addition, the River class OPV HMS Clyde is deployed in the South Atlantic as the permanently-stationed Falkland Islands Patrol Ship.
Black Rover is all white as she visits snowy South Georgia
Just days after sailors from HMS Argyll trekked across South Georgia, the crew of tanker RFA Black Rover were treated to a visit to the snow-laden paradise.
The tanker, which has recently taken over from her sister Gold Rover in the South Atlantic, spent four days anchored in Cumberland Bay off the capital Grytviken.
RFA Black Rover
IN THE middle of the UK’s heatwave, here’s something to perhaps cool you down: tanker RFA Black Rover within sight of the snow-capped ridges and peaks of South Georgia.
Hot (or should that be cold?) on the heels of frigate HMS Argyll’s visit to the remote South Atlantic island chain, the veteran tanker anchored off the capital Grytviken as she takes up her duties as Britain’s ‘floating petrol station’ south of the Equator.
The 39-year-old auxiliary has recently relieved her slightly-older sister Gold Rover, charged with providing black gold to sustain RN vessels on patrol in the South Atlantic (such as the permanent presence HMS Clyde, and whichever frigate or destroyer is assigned to the region – currently Argyll), as well as generally flying the flag for the UK around its territories in the region…
…of which South Georgia is among the most remote and least populous (about 30 souls).
A fiery sunrise over the peaks of South Georgia
The tanker spent four days at anchor in Cumberland Bay, in sight of glaciers calving into the ocean and the snow-laden mountains.
The 50 or so crew were briefed about the importance of the island’s wildlife and eco-systems before stepping ashore at Grytviken, where experts from the British Antarctic Survey were their hosts and guides.
Once a thriving whaling station, Grytviken has now become a haven for wildlife: large numbers of seals and sea birds lined the foreshore. Despite being out of season – it’s slap bang in the middle of the Austral winter right now – the island’s museum was opened for the visiting RFA sailors. Others inspected the wreck of the whaler Petrel, driven ashore decades ago, and no visit to South Georgia is complete without paying homage at the grave of explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, buried in Grytviken’s small cemetery alongside crew from merchant ships and some casualties of war.
Cadet(X) John James poses in front of the wreck of the old whaler Petrel
To thank the island’s small populace for their hospitality during the tanker’s stay, Black Rover invited the locals aboard for an ‘all requests considered’ lunch.
Islanders listed the foods they had been unable to obtain for many months given their isolation, and Black Rover’s galley strove to meet their requests.
In the end, the menu consisted of beef steak and fresh salad, plus the odd glass of red wine. All the victuals were gratefully received by the South Georgians, whilst the RFA sailors were glad to provide not just some fresh food but also fresh faces and good company.
Naval Matters 