Falklands War

[James Curry]

Did anyone catch the Channel 4 programme last night. Falklands War, the untold story!!!
Well worth a watch just cockup after cockup.
Certainly not taking anything away from the lads that fought like real men. But yet again let down by the officer classes time and time again.
I know I will get stick for this post but if you can watch the programme on channel 4 catch up TV.

A lot of it is supposed to be unseen live footage. Most of the officer classes of senior rank were oppsed to the ships Sir Galahad & Sir Tristram having to sail 17 hours to to Fitzroy and Bluff Cove.
A Royal Marine officer urged the Welsh Guards to get ashore as quickly as possible. The Higher up's thought it more important to get equipment ashore so they sacrificed 54 men. Bastards should have been court martialed.

https://www.historylearningsite.co.u...-welsh-guards/

[Ivan Cloherty]

Yes I watched it, seemed to be a lack of any concerted co-operation by the differing regiments all with their own ideas, which was inevitable when central command was somewhere underground in London and lack of radio communication with those on the ground which was by morse code apart from 12 satellite phones borrowed from the Americans, no mention of the MN contribution, which is par for the course

[James Curry]

Agee, Ivan, I think there was lot of egotistical personalites among the Brass. This will be my chance at glory and tough on the troops, like always they are seen as cannon fodder.
Just hard to imagine some of the horrors those then young men would have seen. I thought the footage of the young lad on the wing of the bridge? was it the Canberra? and the machine gunor was it anti aircraft gun taking out the Argentine fighter. He was only 17. Sad thing was that another young man or men lost thier lives in that plane. Such is war.
We will never learn. All brought about by Politicians and personal ambitions by those who have never heard a shot fired in anger.
As you say Ivan as usual no mention of the sacrifices made by the Merchany Navy.
The programme seemed to gloss over the loss of the Atlantic Conveyor as a dammed nusiance.

[Hugh]

The one thing that annoys me with our military and this is true with regard to the Falklands, is the cap badge mentality that goes on. I think while it is normal for units to be competitive and want to be the best, it can get in the way of the objective.
Paras wanting to beat Marines and vice versa and other units wanting to get in on it too. Huge mistakes made by those in charge of the army units in not getting their men ashore from the ships. The ship is the last place to be when unloading as you are so much more vulnerable. Yeah, there are still lions led by donkeys today. There are photos somewhere that I took of the Sir Tristram in Port Stanley - it didn't look good.
Regards
Hugh

[j.sabourn]

There is one thing that I have always maintained and forever will is that the merchant service in the main stands above this. Having a great regard for loss of life through cowboy actions , and living close to those you may be called upon to jeopardize at sometime or other we are more likely to try and safeguard . when I launched the FRC at the PA with 50% of the crew it was with great misgivings as knew apart from the dangeruous situation entailed I had private misgivings about private affairs of the crew members which the general public will never learn from me. And it was my duty to be in close contact and sight at all times to assist in their survival if necessary. My biggest sigh of relief was when we pulled away for the last time and i knew I had lost none of them. Out of all the letters I received afterwards the one I considered the most honest was the shortest and to the point.
The Dept. of Transport.

Dear *******
It was with great pleasure That I learned that Her Majesty has ..........................................in recognition of the services you rendered during the PA rescue operations . This is a signal honour and marks the best traditions of the Merchant Navy
Please accept my congratulations and best wishes for the future.

Malcolm Rifkind

At the other end of the spectrum 3 ex SBS matelots asked if they could interview me as they were starting a private company training the crews of frcs for the industry. one of the questions they asked was why didnt I stick the bow of the Silver Pit into the wreckage of the PA to hold the ship there ? I wont mention my reply , at that time we had 35 persons on board including 30 survivors. I would say they were extremely Gung Ho. The one boat crew survivor From the other vessel went to work for them as an instructor unfortuanetley he died an early natural death, so dont know how he found them.
JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Often the Gov of the day is also responsible for some of the crazy decisions made by others at the time.

WE will have an equally stupid situation here with the new subs.................when they arrive that is.
The proposal by the current gov, hopefully it will change with the next, is that the control of them be the responsibility of the Army not the navy?????????

Only a gov minister could come up with such a suggestion.

[Ken Atkinson]

Did anyone catch the Channel 4 programme last night. Falklands War, the untold story!!!
Well worth a watch just cockup after cockup.
Certainly not taking anything away from the lads that fought like real men. But yet again let down by the officer classes time and time again.
I know I will get stick for this post but if you can watch the programme on channel 4 catch up TV.

A lot of it is supposed to be unseen live footage. Most of the officer classes of senior rank were oppsed to the ships Sir Galahad & Sir Tristram having to sail 17 hours to to Fitzroy and Bluff Cove.
A Royal Marine officer urged the Welsh Guards to get ashore as quickly as possible. The Higher up's thought it more important to get equipment ashore so they sacrificed 54 men. Bastards should have been court martialed.

https://www.historylearningsite.co.u...-welsh-guards/

I was asked by friends if I would be going to the Falklands so I explained there was not a lot of need for 35,000 tonne of iron ore!

[Des Taff Jenkins]

It was a sad and futile war, what I would call an election war. I was feeling sick when they held a service at the Cathedral and Thatcher had the injured soldiers behind a screen to save the public from seeing at them. All brave men.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Des, when it comes to politics nothing will stand in the way.
Many an action is the result of political intervention when none was required.

[James Domleo]

Yes,the Atlantic Conveyor was not protected properly and the loss of the Chinooks cost many lives later,quite apart from those of merchant seamen on board.
What a shambles!