Falkland Facts – with the death of Margaret Thatcher the media has recycled a lot of good information on the Falkland War in 1982 but not the cause or the events that ran up to the invasion.   In October 1981 there was Defence White Paper which was a major review of the Nation’s defence policy by the Conservative Government with the Secretary of State for Defence John Nott in the vanguard.   Nott had served as a regular officer in the 2^nd Gurkha Rifles in Malaysia (1952–1956) and later became President of the Cambridge Union.   Nott was the main author of the Defence Review/White Paper which had as its main aim the reduction of expenditure during the 1980’s Recession.   [Sound familiar ?].

This Review proposed extensive cuts to the Royal Navy including the sale of the new Aircraft Carrier INVINCIBLE to Australia (the ship had commissioned in July 1980 at a cost of £ 185.5 million) as the fleet was to focus primarily on anti-submarine warfare under the auspices of NATO.    On 25^th February 1982 the Australian Government announced that it had agreed to buy INVINCIBLE (for something of a giveaway price of £ 175 million) and the ship was to replace the Australian Aircraft Carrier HMAS MELBOURNE and the INVINCIBLE would be renamed HMAS AUSTRALIA.   The sale was confirmed by the Ministry of Defence.

The other British Aircraft Carrier, the HERMES, would decommission in 1982, despite having been expensively refitted in 1980-1981 with new capabilities added including a 12 degree ski-jump and facilities for operating SEA HARRIER – the work had been completed in June 1981.   Other proposals included in the Nott Review were that Chatham Dockyard was to close as an operational base (and did).      Feasibility studies for the Type 43 and Type 44 Destroyers were cancelled, together with the SEA DART Mark 11 surface-to-air missile system.     Out of area amphibious operations were considered unlikely and the future of the entire Royal Marine establishment was in doubt and the Corps faced disbandment, with the sale of the two Assaults Ships FEARLESS and INTREPID mooted.     In the South Atlantic the Ice Patrol Ship ENDURANCE would be withdrawn with one last task scheduled with the British Antarctic Survey on South Georgia on the 16^th March 1982 and then the ship was due to sail “home” for decommissioning on the 15^th April 1982.  

These decisions were interpreted as a signs of weakness by the Argentine Government, as the Royal Navy would, as 1982 rolled on, have no operational Aircraft Carrier and no Ice Patrol Ship!    What became known as the Falklands Conflict resulted from the long standing dispute over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and from Christmas 1981 the ENDURANCE had been reporting to London an increase in Argentine military radio traffic.   On the 19^th March 1982 a group of supposed “civilian scrap metal workers” illegally arrived at the abandoned Whaling Station at Leith Harbour (South Georgia) onboard the ARA BAHIA BUEN SUCESO (a 3,834 ton GRT Fleet Transport of the Argentine Navy); and raised the Argentine flag - the “scrap workers” had been infiltrated by Argentine Marines posing as civilian scientists.

The ENDURANCE, still on patrol in the South Atlantic, armed with a brace of 20mm Oerlikons guns was at Port Stanley and on the order of the Falkland Governor nine (9) Royal Marines from the thirty two (32) strong Naval Party 9801 (the Island’s Royal Marine Detachment) were added to the thirteen (13) strong ENDURANCE Detachment which had been ashore training.  [It being “change over” for the Royal Marines there were apparently some sixty four (64) Royal Marines on the Falklands at this time]. The ENDURANCE with its enhanced Royal Marine Detachment sailed for South Georgia on the 21^st March 1982 and was to order the Argentines off the island. 

On the 26^th March 1982 the Fleet Submarine SUPERB rather publically sailed from Gibraltar and there was speculation to the effect that this was to “panic” the Argentine junta into invading the Falklands before nuclear submarines could be deployed.    The MoD additionally ordered on the 29^th March 1982, the Fleet Submarines SPARTAN and SPLENDID to sail “South”, whilst the Stores Ship RFA FORT AUSTIN (still in service!) was dispatched from the Western Mediterranean to support the ENDURANCE.

On 31st March 1982, Sir Henry Conyers Leach, GCB, DLL, the First Sea Lord, brushed aside serious doubts from the Secretary of State for Defence and addressed the Prime Minister directly on the appropriate course of action.    The Chief of the Defence Staff at the time was on his way back from a foreign visit, and thus Sir Henry effectively bypassed the Acting Chief of the Defence Staff.  Sir Henry was due to retire in December 1982 and having waited for too long for instructions donned his “full fig” [the uniform of a serving Admiral] an went round the see the Prime Minister (as the Queen’s Representative) and claimed the right of “Audience” that came with the ancient office of the First Sea Lord.   When he was asked by the Prime Minister if retaking the islands was possible, he replied "Yes we can recover the islands" and added "and we must!"     In response the Prime Minister’s pithy question of "Why ?" Sir Henry exclaimed "Because if we do not, or if we pussyfoot in our actions and do not achieve complete success, in another few months we shall be living in a different country whose word counts for little."   Sir Henry then explained how the Task Force would take shape and what ships would be involved: when asked about the lack of available Aircraft Carriers, Sir Henry reassured the Prime Minister that the two “small” carriers still available (INVINCIBLE and HERMES) would suffice and that was enough - the Prime Minister approved this and preparations were made to send a Task Force to retake the Falklands.  [Andrew Marr referred to Sir Henry Leach as Thatcher's "Knight in Shining Gold Braid"].    

On the 3^rd April 1982 some twenty two (22) Royal Marines at Gritviken, (the principal settlement in South Georgia), having landed from the ENDURANCE were attacked, in what became known as the Battle of Grytviken, when some sixty (60) Argentine Marines seized control of South Georgia.    And as they say the rest is history.

There is no doubt that the Prime Minister acted in an exemplary manner to recover the Falklands, but it was a close run thing.   Quite what the Prime Minister knew of events prior to the intervention of Admiral Sir Henry Leach is unknown (and it can be supposed not a lot), and the thirty (30) year rule on papers has revealed very little in this respect.   How the nation that produced Anson, Drake, Hood, Howe, Nelson, Collingwood, Fisher, Beatty, Sturdee, Jellicoe, Pound, Harwood, Ramsey, Cunningham, Somerville, Horton, Fraser. Mountbatten, and Vian, to name but a few, can so quickly forget the lessons so painfully learned over centuries, with our blood and treasure expended across the globe, exerting British Maritime Power is beyond this commentator.   To this list we can add Leach and Fieldhouse but do we think we have learnt to the lessons so expensively learned again as recently as 1982 ?