 8,000 miles from Britain a bleak and desolate treeless waste on the far side of the world. A place Her Majesty's Royal Marines already knew well but were about to get to know a lot better. A place that was despite their glorious past to save them from possible extinction. This was the Falkland Islands where the Union Jack had flown continually for nearly 150 years despite rumblings of discontent from South America. Rich in wildlife where untold numbers of penguins and other icecap escapies came once a year to live alongside fewer than 2,000 introverted islanders. All of them fighting for frugal existence against the near Antarctic elements. Like the early days of Australia the economy was built on wool and mutton but unlike the Australians the Falkland Islanders had been unable to conquer their environment and move forward. Their culture economy and aspirations stayed static. All they ever wanted was to be left alone in peace. We just feel British we are a British and there's no way we would change our nationality no way at all. None of which deterred Argentina a mere 400 miles away from insisting that the islands belong to Buenos Aires not London on historical and territorial grounds. So for many a long year a token force of Royal Marines if it was never anything more than that had been stationed near Port Stanley but at any real hope of forting an Argentinian invasion. We take it fairly seriously but on the other hand as you know to defend against a full scale Argentinian threat would be hopeless. We just simply haven't got the main part to do it. The Marines were simply a reassurance to the Islanders of Britain's avowed intentions that they should remain British for as long as they wanted and they unanimously voted they did want to stay British. The Falkland Islands Defence Force was established and trained by the Marines again with more hope of demonstrating proud intentions than ever being able to carry them out. Friendships were forged, trusts were built, security of the islands was seldom mentioned and Argentina was out of sight and whenever possible out of mind. But in Argentina the military junta and general Leopoldo Galtieri was in trouble possibly even on the verge of collapse. A political masterstroke was needed and quickly. South Georgia the tiny British protector at 800 miles to the southeast of the Falklands provided the answer. It was to become Galtieri's stepping stone to his recovery of the Malvinas. It was undefended as there seemed to be no need to fortify an abandoned whaling station on the very edge of Antarctica. All that stood in the way was the aging Royal Navy guard ship endurance with a small detachment of Royal Marines on board. Buenos Aires gambled with a secret move onto South Georgia could not and would not be challenged by so insignificant an opposition. They were to be proved wrong on both counts. And so when a scrap metal dealer by the name of Constantino Davidoff arrived unannounced with 41 dismantlers at the old whaling station at Leith on March the 18th he was accompanied by Argentinian soldiers. Their intentions were obvious. Britain was informed that any attempt to remove Davidoff's party would be resisted. The South Atlantic War had started. Few doubted from the war like stance now being adopted by Argentina that Galtieri was preparing a plan of invasion for the Falkland Islands. Britain meanwhile was openly seeking a diplomatic solution but not so openly dusting off the military options. Endurance left her Marines on another part of South Georgia with orders simply to maintain a British presence and to keep an eye on the Argentinians. Then she steamed westwards but she was only halfway towards the Falklands when at 6 a.m. on Friday April the 2nd the Argentinians invaded. The Marines there under Major Mike Norman had prepared for an attack from the airfield and the beaches to the east of Stanley. So they were wrongly placed when the first explosions and signs of advance came from their barracks at Moody Brook to the west. The Marines regrouped rapidly at Government House to find the Argentinians already there. It was a very frightened experience. They were 10 yards away from us within about 10 minutes. I think we all very quickly came to terms with the fact that we were probably going to die in the next half an hour. I certainly did. Once you came to terms with that the fear the feeling of fear disappeared and you got on and you did your job. What was the immediate reaction of the people in Stanley? It was shock I think because we'd only been told literally six or seven hours beforehand that we're going to be invaded and things went like clockwork. We were invaded exactly on dawn as the governor told us and people were absolutely stunned by the whole thing. We just sort of walked about not like zombies but certainly in a state of shock because it was all happening all around us. That which you normally see on the pictures was happening outside on the pavement. You know their Royal Marines for instance going along past the fire station there having a firefight with some Argentines who were coming down King Street and it was so dramatic that none of us really looked at the danger aspect of it. We all got upstairs in the bedroom windows for a better look and felt very stupid afterwards and felt a bit better next day. We felt half the 10 had been doing the same thing. It was a brave but short-lived resistance. No Marines had been hurt but they'd killed five Argentinians, wounded at least 17 more and taken three prisoners before being ordered by the governor to surrender. And all the time more Argentinian Amtrak armored personnel carriers kept on arriving in standing. The governor Rex Hunt with an almost quaint British gesture of defiance refused to shake hands with a deputy Argentinian commander Admiral Carlos Boussa. He came along to hold his hand out to me and I refused to take it. I said I do not shake hands with an invader of British territory and he looked very angry. His cheeks were twitching like mad and he see he was holding himself in with great restraint and he was very proper and he said I think it's very un-gentlemanly not to shake hands and I said I think it's very un-civilized for you to invade our country. And so the Falklands had become the Malvinas in just a couple of hours and the islanders grudgingly accepted that things had changed. The once proud Falkland Islands Defence Force followed the example of the rest of the community and did nothing whatsoever to resist or fight back. Indeed it was later proved that some islanders fed and sheltered the invaders and even helped to maintain their war planes right through the war. It won them no friends in Britain. Gautierre's political problems seemed to be over. The recently hostile population now mastering his praises as the new saviour of the nation. It was sure that Britain would never attempt anything other than diplomacy to try to regain the islands and that his possession was nine-tenths of the law he could argue his case of the United Nations forever. And with the nation and the armed forces solidly behind him and in indomitable mood he felt there was little to worry about. His greatest coup had been achieved. His opposite number in London saw things considerably differently. Now there is to be no more hiding the plans to keep the Falklands British by whatever means. Mrs Thatcher's government was also aware that diplomacy had to be the first line of attack no matter how useless a weapon it might prove to be. But now there wasn't to be one second wasted in preparing and sending a military force. The Royal Marines who were to spearhead the military response were spread far and wide. Some were just back from a typically arduous tour of West Belfast and were looking forward to a spell of leave. But the first decision had been made in Whitehall to send an amphibious force led by three commando brigade. In effect it was the only option realistically available for a military campaign against what would be heavily defended islands on the other side of the world. This was all a far and distant cry from Belfast where at least the opposition spoke English and there were buildings and trees to take cover behind. But the moment Port Stanley fell the order went out for the Royal Marines to prepare for war. Some Marines took a little convincing that it really was for real. We had the wandering patrol come round and said wake up lads because the arches had invaded Falklands so we all told them to get lost near enough and because April Fools was finished at the time and they was going come on they was pleading with us please get up there's a war on and we just want to get out of our bed and it did take an officer to come and get us out of our beds. I got home, saw a bit of the tally then and noticed that the threat was actually there and something could be going on. So I told the wife I said look I said something might be going on here could be going on onto a war foot in the Argentinians she's up to laugh you know so I sort of shrugged off at the same time thinking well it's going to be impossible this England will never go to war. On the Saturday I've been out shopping when the missus down into Plymouth and I come back there was a note through me door off the troops side and it was Fred Poiser saying come back to camp you go down the Falklands so of course like I just left all the stuff all the shopping I had a burger full of frozen food but I just threw it on the kids who forced us above. From our growth in Scotland to Plymouth in Devon the preparations were hectic the special boat squadron were the first away only to be held up frustratingly for over two weeks while one means of getting them onto the Falklands a submarine could be moved into place near the islands the P&O flagship Canberra was requisitioned and transformed into a troop ship complete with three helicopter flight decks in less than three days the great white whale as she became affectionately known by the marines was about to enter the most exciting chapter of her life and to have her name etched forever into the history of the core three commando brigade was to be augmented by the third battalion of the parachute regiment and they too were to sail south in Canberra in an attempt to get the marines and parrots to like and trust each other before the fighting started it was perhaps the only major failure of the campaign all roads led to Southampton or Portsmouth where the task force as it was now dubbed was getting ready for sea men and stores were crammed into ships of every shape and size and in the rush to get going a great deal of kit was put into the wrong ships but that could all be sorted out later said those in charge this was a logistic nightmare which never went away in just three days after the Argentine invasion the one site that galtieri believed his fellow countrymen would never see let alone so soon a full-scale british force steaming away from england towards the falcons the royal navy was going to get them there the royal marines were going to win them back married today they phoned me on friday and had to cancel everything when we get married now i don't know when every comes back proud and an emotional send-off three commando brigade was spread out amongst dozens of ships none of them steaming flat out for the falcons but almost painfully slowly nudging gently southwards the truth was that at this time no orders or plans for landing on the islands let alone retaking them had been discussed or finalized the politicians hadn't yet decided what to do and the military hadn't looked in detail at the dozens of options but lieutenant keith mills and his royal marines detachment from hms endurance had already proved quite convincingly what britain's intentions were the tenant mills and his 21 men had been put ashore at grit veckon on south georgia 16 miles from the new argentinian base at the wailing station of lee the argentinians expected endurance to order her marines to surrender to the soldiers from lee their base ship the bahia paraiso even helped captain nick barker get in touch with the marines confident he'd tell them to give up without a fight but while endurance waited offshore lieutenant mills was highly confused by a new ambiguous set of orders which could be interpreted in many different ways he decided to fight for as long as possible then lead his men into the mountains and try to continue a guerrilla campaign it was not to be but their resistance before being surrounded and shelled was quite spectacular including bringing down an argentinian troop carrying helicopter we fired everything we had at the helicopter and a large amount of rounds went into it subsequently the helicopter turned away with black smoke following it and somehow managed to crawl about 500 meters across the bay and landed very heavily on the other side it didn't explode but no marines were seen to disembark from the helicopter the helicopter like that carries 22 men so we put several hundred rounds into it they also hold and severely damaged the argentinian corvette gorico i decided to let it get very very close because by letting it very very close it was absolutely committed to passing our position and what's more due to the shape of the bay it was committed to turning around and passing our position for a second time when it got to about within two to three hundred meters i ordered my men to open fire and we opened fire with everything we had it's the first round the first 84 millimeter round actually landed slightly short by about 10 meters uh after the second of initial dismay we actually saw the round detonate on hitting the ship below the waterline i believe it caused a lot of damage but in less than three hours it was all over and lieutenant mills's men were forced to surrender they were flown back to england 20 days later when they were greeted by the commandant general's steward pringle their action won high praise and a distinguished service cross for lieutenant mills for the rest of the brigade war seemed a million miles away instead of the freezing wastes of Antarctica the task force was now in the tropics role marines pride themselves on never being far from peak fitness and somehow it seemed a lot less arduous maintaining the standard aboard a luxury cruise liner in a sweltering 90 degrees there was no real urgency yet about the daily routine the diplomatic process was still being bounced around in London Buenos Aires and the united nations the military move south had slowed to a crawl and after a workout on the flight deck what better way to cool off than in one of canberra's swimming pools there was room for everyone and plenty of time to enjoy it sunbathing became almost a chore although there were severe warnings about self-inflicted injuries if sunburn impeded efficiency in the ship's restaurants somehow the word mess seemed totally inadequate civilian p&o stewards waited on the fighting men with a choice of menu at each of the three main meals the cuisine was far more in keeping with a luxury hotel than the cookhouse and while the men endured their surroundings more of the ship's company cleaned and scrubbed around them they even made their beds for them and tidied up their cabins if you had to go to war this most certainly had to be the way there was a civilian shop on board for all those little extras and luxuries that the quartermaster couldn't provide and in the evenings a sing song if for no other purpose and to remind each other what the real purpose of the trip was then a brief encounter with reality two weeks out from Southampton the capital of Sierra Leone freetown was to provide a sort of pit stop to refuel and replenish no shore leave no sightseeing just a brief glimpse of Africa from the ship's rail like space travelers peering momentarily at a different planet one family of british exiles made the effort to come down to the fuel jetty and wave a union flag but they soon wished they hadn't the young men on board made suggestions to one of their attractive visitors that were not only impractical but quite illegal the family tried to brazen it out but were forced to give up and make a less than dignified retreat the flying fish conditions continued right through the tropics to ascension where the task force was to regroup now there was a submarine threat and the navy assumed the role of good shepherd for the undefended merchant men at last the tension began to rise perhaps just perhaps there really was going to be a war ascension island like freetown proved to be a major disappointment to any marines in search of excitement a small volcanic dust file in the middle of nowhere ascension was packed with british and american communications equipment most of it highly secret but ascension also had an airfield and a safe anchorage so it became the obvious staging post between britain and the falcons it was here that thousands of tons of stores and equipment that have been loaded into the wrong ships in england were cross-decked and reloaded often into other wrong ships for two weeks helicopters landing craft and the vast pontoon like mexi floats applied endlessly to and fro between every ship in the task force trying to unscramble the mess the marines managed to get off their ships for a few hours to fire their weapons and feel rock instead of metal beneath their feet but in the main ascension provided the brigade with little more than another frustrating hold-up although the senior officers were now at last beginning to formulate plans for a campaign on the falcons this was largely thanks to information which was coming back from the special boat squadron elements of which were now ashore and reporting from east falcon they'd been secretly inserted using their traditional methods being brought close inshore by submarine or dropped from hercules aircraft exactly as they're seen doing here on a recent exercise any marine can apply to join the squadron but very few past the rigorous selection procedure if they do they can expect three years working in some very strange places they silently landed on the falcons from rubber dinghies then their task was to stay hidden yet to get close enough to the argentinians to see what they were doing and in what strength discovery would have led to almost certain death later they were to be told by radio what beaches have been chosen for the landings and then go and check them out for obvious reasons nearly all the work done by the sbs is at night and relies on covering a great deal of ground in a short space of time they worked in small groups of four or six often in conjunction with their better known army counterparts of the 22nd special air service regiment a cruel stroke of luck after the main force was ashore was to have an sbs unit coming across an sas group unannounced and one marine died in the resulting firefight before the error was realized it was all highly dangerous and unpleasant work for the elite men of an elite corps but without them the landings and the eventual move towards port stanley couldn't even have been considered but the sbs were not the only visitors at this time general galtieri and his staff wanted to show the world that british rule was over and so paid a flying visit to this the newest part of argentina it was a great publicity coup and proof to the world that the junta was consolidating its position to british surprise the sbs reported that far fewer armored vehicles than had been expected were being ferried across to the islands but there were far more men 11,000 in fact mostly conscripts but nevertheless armed and for the time being very confident they dug in around the islands and looked well fed well equipped and in good spirits at this time they like a lot of people in britain still refused to believe that it could ever come to a shooting war they made no impression on the falcon islanders who still treated them with a blank impassive air of disinterest which they'd perfected over many years the supplies kept on coming in from the mainland by sea and the air bridge to stanley airport this was despite a massive operation by the raf as the runway stayed open throughout the war as the falcon bombers had only managed to hit the strip with one bomb out of 63 drops the highly potent pukara planes and others based at stanley flew on uninterrupted until the end of the conflict for three commando brigades still basking in the tropics life was far more pleasant a sports day was organized on board canberra coincidentally on the day after she'd slipped quietly away from ascension thoughts were far more about interunit pride and prowess than the fact that there was now nothing but a lot of sea between them and the falcons ribbon event was the 10 000 meters an acknowledgement that this was the day of the london marathon and the great many men on board should have been pounding around the speeds of the capital instead of the decks of canberra 4 000 miles south the result was desperately important to participants and their supporters even with the inclusion of such non-physical events as decoids it was for two commando who carried the day with their xio kernel nick vorks taking the hurriedly made victor's shield and a couple of bottles of champagne at the end of the afternoon the impressive sight of one of the type 21 frigates as hms ardent drew alongside to give an impromptu firepower demonstration with her 4.5 inch gun thing and a reassuring sight with the ships now well into the south atlantic and the possibility of contact with the argentinian navy and air force increasing by the hour this morale boosting site would have had a very different effect if the onlookers had realized the proud little ship was a fortnight later to be hit by 12 of argentinian bombs in falkland sound and sink the 24 of her crew dead but the mood had changed dramatically since leaving ascension the drinking stopped and then it was get all the kids sorted out so it was more or less this is getting a bit serious now so we stopped playing because up until ascension we never believed we'd really go in and uh when they said you know hang around for two weeks at ascension we were really pissed off then because two weeks wasted they were 45 in the place and everything so you know when they said go that was it Paris button the stand back they tried to keep us as best informed as they could but it was it was all pretty mundane stuff uh un talks falling over again and again etc etc and people storming out and not wanting to know when people pushing for an invasion people pushing against an invasion and we were the sort of pigs in the middle really uh we just tried to train whenever we could whenever the the swells of the south atlantic would allow us to and prepare ourselves for the eventuality that well perhaps as we got closer and closer to the uh the exclusion zone that in fact we we were going to land and it wasn't until approaching the exclusion zone i think that the realization dawned and you found your pockets full of grenades and things instead of bars and nutty and the sort of thing now the training had an extra edge to it the weapons that had been brought out at ascension were tried and tested again and again the infantryman's life in battles centers on his weapons for the marines that meant the general purpose machine gun the sterling submachine gun and the basic self-loading rifle these were the weapons that would win or lose any war which was to follow physical training was now no longer regarded as a boring nuisance each man knew his life could depend on his stamina and while the ships continued with their anti-submarine maneuvers every available square inch of deck space was filled with marines going through and practicing their various skills preferably with a borrowed helicopter or two then the first real success for britain thanks to m company of four two commando the sbs and the sas the recapture of south georgia in horrendous conditions a whiteout on the island led to two troop-carrying helicopters crashing in the snow amazingly there were no serious casualties the frigate plymouth bombarded the argentinian positions then marines landed from the destroyer antrim and the auxiliary tidespring the submarine santa fe was in the area but took no part in the argentinian defense after being hit by british gun and rocket fire she limped badly damaged into grit vicken and later sank at her mooring the argentinian land forces had been expected to resist but in the end under the erroneous impression that far greater forces were coming to evict them they gave up without firing a shot it wasn't the proudest moment of their military history their commander captain alfredo astiz signed the surrender he was later allowed to go home with his men despite some insistence in britain that he beheld to answer charges of torture and other atrocities committed before the war m company hoisted their flag under the union flag and with endurance and antrim safely in the bay radioed back to london with the news which gave the government its first real cause to celebrate the prime minister was not slow to mark the achievement joy said that news and congratulate our forces and the marines are we going to declare war thank you very much but there was no time to rejoice in the task force where the sobering site of hospital facilities being prepared could be seen where a few days earlier marines have been enjoying a band concert now the members of the commando forces band were helping set up the medical facilities and training to act as stretcher bearers and medical orderlies their instruments would now stay locked away until it was all over then on may the second the british submarine conqueror brought the reality of war home from beneath icy waters just outside the british total exclusion zone she saw reported and was then ordered to torpedo the argentinian cruiser general belgrano 360 lives were lost when the 10 000 ton ship listed to port and sank the rest of her navy took no further part in the war two days later argentina took her revenge two super etondard fighter bombers popped up above the horizon just long enough to launch a missile against hms sheffield the name of the missile was soon to strike fear into the heart of every british serviceman afloat exocet at 300 000 pounds a shot the french exocet anti ship missile was expected to be reliable and devastating it was both the marines in hermies saw their first casualties coming aboard from the still burning hulk of one of britain's newest and most sophisticated warships the burnt out destroyer was to stay afloat for six more days before sinking but already the questions were coming how could it have happened why didn't the sheffield's defenses safer why wasn't damage control more effective and why had sailors been issued with clothing that melted and stuck to the skin when on fire the death of the sheffield did nothing for morale but it did a great deal for determination the milan anti tank missile the marines now decided could be put to other uses if the argentinians didn't provide tanks to fire it the british realized that this wire guided weapon could be used to terrible effect against stubbornly resisting trenches the 66 millimeter anti tank missile launcher would also offer a defensive advantage in the forthcoming battles but on the way south the 66 was appreciated by both spectators and operators lectures on when and where to use the weapons were now eagerly attended and there was an insatiable appetite for any information about the falcons and their environment then these twin peaks of twin sisters but before the brigade could start its work air superiority had to be achieved with no big jets like phantoms or tornadoes available the responsibility rested solely on the harriers forming enemy positions would be one role but far more vital was to be the outcome of dogfights against argentinian fighters the versatile harriers and their sidewinder missiles gave the british what was to be perhaps the most important advantage of the war the argentinian garrison at port stanley woke one morning to find the harriers announcing that the british task force was now very close the airfield was the sole target of the first raids with a classic figure of eight squadron attack by planes from herneys and invincible 200 miles to the northeast the defenders had expected to be attacked but not so soon and not with such ferocity the pilots had expected the anti aircraft fire to be more intense and accurate but there were few complaints that it wasn't the effect was devastating both to the airfield defenses and to argentinian morale but the argentinians fooled british intelligence by putting mud on the runway to look like bomb craters from previous falcon raids in fact their flying operations were not stopped for a moment by damage to the runway and supplies and personnel kept on arriving the task force was now poised on the brink of an amphibious assault the diplomatic process had failed the losses of the big ships had hardened resolve on both sides the sbs assure were reporting that the argentinians were not impregnable and the government had secretly decided that a landing followed by recapture of the islands should be undertaken as soon as possible there were many possible landing sites and all were discussed fully but eventually one area stood out as the only viable option san carlos water was far enough away from the main argentinian force to be safe from land-based counterattack it was surrounded by hills which made a secret approach possible and attack by air difficult the beaches were sheltered and of the right slopes for landing craft furthermore the twin estuaries provided cover for the establishment of a secure beachhead and good ways out for the eventual breakout towards stanley the plan was for the brigade to make four separate landings from their assault ships which crept into falcon sound under cover of darkness preceded by a welcome fog the day before this was may the 21st 1982 a date no marine who was there would ever forget the navy had kept its promise and delivered three commando brigade to exactly where it wanted to be 40 commando were to be the first to shore by landing craft or lcu from hms fearless their objective the beach at bonners bay code named after the color of the unit's identifying shoulder lanyard blue beach one 45 commando from the royal fleet auxiliary strong nests were to land across the water at the old refrigeration plant at ajax bay red beach one for two commando were to stay in canberra as brigade reserve while two para made for the other side of san carlos settlement to blue beach two and three para were landed near port san carlos at green beach one well when you're on a boat and it's getting there's all sorts coming in they're trying to get it and you're sat on it doing absolutely nothing trying to wait your turn to get off it's hard to wait your turn you want to get off because you feel a bit safer on the land i couldn't have been a matlow and sat on a boat no way when they they they'd keep it brief up to date they'll give you up to date breeze on situation like the air attacks we felt very vulnerable in the well deck with an air attack in the center it's like being in a tunnel and you just wait for it it's going to come in it's yours anyway so you just hope you're going to go quick and you don't end up with legs missing i suppose i think that's a lot of weight a lot of people thinking rather than go without legs just take me out quick make it quick i remember looking along the the ranks of all the lads and as we were waiting to go over the scramble net so it was quite it was somewhere out of world war two all the guys looking now calmed out and waiting to go on and it's quite eerie really we we climbed down the scramble net into the lcu's and there was all jam packed in there and it always struck me um our company commander captain gardener at the time as we went forward in the lcu's there was planes having dog fights above us and there was shells going down and um he walked to the front of the lcu climbed up the ramp sat there playing his mouthwalking he's got his songs quite mad we just looked at the man in oil basically because he was a great bloke he's you know and he was up there and he knew the majority of us were a little bit frightened because the first time we've actually been to war and um he thought that it shows how it's done and he got up there and played his mouthwalking we had the best part of um a company plus virtually uh the the whole of the anti-tank and mortar of platoons of support coming packed with all their kit there wasn't room to sit down there wasn't room to take off your kit you stood in the in the landing craft shoulder to shoulder being held in position by all the people around you i remember sitting at the time i was sitting on a crate of 81 millimeter waters you know and you know we could hear actions coming off of we're down in san carlos and stuff like that and i was saying god again let's get off this hell through you and get ashore then the shot and they were gunfire started on down at fenningshead and before that started i always remember saying to the lads we're in it well maggie get on that phone you still got five minutes you know you still got time to get on that phone and cancel it if you're not quite sure for the gunfire thought we said well it's too late now no point in trying to phone up now i thought this is it then we started going in and the bloke you could hear bloke's gonna hear that machine gun five in it what machine gun fire i can't hear nothing like all it was just bloke's you know i suppose it was bloke's imagination running like you know because you know the first time for war for everybody we were sort of scared so like because we didn't know what had happened but we were willing to go in and do the business when it's called for i expected all the training we do you leap out the landing craft run up the beach stacks of smoke everybody's screaming and we just bimbled off there was nobody there we were just walking around i was waiting for the shit to hit the fan and it just didn't i was in the landing craft worrying about the fact that i had two blowpipe missiles and they were the first thing that was going to be ditched but uh it was not me and the ramp went down and this beach i think was about six foot wide the actual bank bank like you know it's combat engineering tractor came out and couldn't get off the beach because it had a big ramp there like no it just stuck there and solid we were just amazed at how big this beach was it was nice to get back on the old terra firma on the dry land again although we're marines and seaborn troops etc after tossing around in the solid landing for a few days it was nice to to get back where to a certain extent our destiny was in our own hands we could fight on the land whereas we we relied upon the frigates etc when we were on board ship and the feeling of the the commando i think when they landed was thank goodness for that we can now get on with the job in hand the the ships to their eternal credit and a great cost to them uh had done their bit they'd got us into ajax bay they'd got us into san carlos uh in an unopposed landing um and we'd managed to get a short uh and from there i think the morale of the the troops uh at least speaking for x company was very very high a couple of totally unimpressed local workers at san carlos helped to raise the union flag over their settlement to symbolically announce what was now a fact the british were back the flag was discreetly lowered the following day when senior officers thought it might prove too tempting an aiming point for the argentinian pilots the uneasy lull that followed in the next hour's fooled nobody everyone knew the argentinians would turn up soon enough and in strength to try to prevent the beachhead from getting established every man set to the vital task of digging his fire trench from where he could shoot at incoming aircraft from a position of relative safety there was no elation that being on the falcons at last no sense of success the first phase had gone easily perhaps too easily and it wasn't long before the first chouts of air raid warning red air red started to echo down the beaches and the new company positions the argentinians had indeed found them and within a matter of minutes their air force was on its way the ships huddled against the hills but the harriers were not there to protect them and the rapier air defense batteries were assure but not yet operationally ready for what was about to happen so we just sat on the top of the crest line watching out and we also had an excellent view of balmali all the ships being formed of basically there's an early warning for the aircraft coming in so we could at least report back to give the lads who were actually digging that san carl or some type of defense before everything coming i think the most of us spotted a separate sky out and the harriers used to come in from all directions and form up in the anti birdie there's like a big base and they all used to meet up there and then they'd shoot off down towards balmali the courage and skill of the argentinian pilots were beyond doubt even marines were trying their hardest to kill them held them in awe and respect time and again the planes would return defying everything the ships and the troops could throw at them their orders were to go for the warships which was good news for the canberra and the other merchant ships the promised british air superiority became a joke among the marines as wave after wave of skyhawks and mirages ran the gauntlet up and down balmali as san carlos water became known sit on the top of your chills crate see the mirages and skyhawks coming in like you know the ones that wouldn't make it and disappear blown to pieces like a round of applause and you get the odd sticky one would come in uh try to quit one of the lads on the land and of course we had the skyhawk one it's about ten truck landers and i saw the skyhawks coming in and i saw a trolley company all their lads are actually sat out cooking a tea like couldn't their meal i just turned around i saw this guy all coming up like a seed the lid flashes in the 30-yard cannon he was firing i just had an aircraft that was it we all scuffled in just like rats climbing hold all stuffed under cover heard the bombs explosion missiles trying to catch the aircraft just gone over the top of this trying to catch them up it was chaos really everybody's just running around like headless chickens because it took us completely by surprise at first they're real i got a message on the radio i passed it to the the post and the aircraft had gone by the time they'd picked the equipment up it was so fast and they kept doing that day after day yeah and things got a lot better oh yeah we got it weird off in the end in the end what was it like the first missile i saw fired which uh didn't do my morality good landed uh about 50 meters away from four fires mortar through they thought it was an aircraft actually crashing next to them we went down two was went down about an hour later and i submit it's seen the missile and we've got quite a few nasty comments off them half the aircraft was shot down many of them by the now operational rapier missiles but the damage caused by the planes would have been far worse had all their bombs been armed correctly the pilots who made it home gave san carlos water their own nickname death valley the frigate antelope was hit by one of the many bombs which failed to explode but this one did go off while being disarmed and the race was then on to get her crew off before she sank rescue helicopters hovered in the swirling smoke plucking the crew to safety but the fire was out of control and soon reached the main magazine the following morning her back broken the little ship burned out and then sank other bombs was successfully made safe some in the most unorthodox of ways this landing ship was evacuated and then the still armed a thousand pound bomb was carefully winched out of the hold and delicately lowered into a rubber dinghy filled with corn flakes to act as a cushion one bomb started a fire at the brigade maintenance area at ajax bay inexplicably sighted right next to the hospital amazingly the medical staff kept on working more disastrous was the sinking of the container ship atlantic conveyor with hundreds of tons of stores for the brigade most serious losses from the ship were five massive chinook helicopters just this one was left it meant hundreds of men would have to walk across the country instead of fly to meet the enemy the decision to land at san carlos proved to be the right one in as much as no amount of attention from the argentinian air force could prevent the british from gaining a cast iron foothold so with men equipment and the brigade headquarters now assure the breakout eastwards could now be started first to move with two para under the irrepressible attendant colonel h jones who had an alarming habit of moving too far ahead for his own good on exercise and thereby getting knocked out of the game two para's victory and jones's death at goose green were to be the first and most memorable actions of the campaign on the faultlands it would be fair to say that after goose green nobody in the task force or indeed britain seriously doubted that a military victory over argentina could and would be achieved goose green proved that the conscript army could never match professional volunteers and the british morale already high would keep rising while argentina hourly had to face the stronger prospect of humiliation and defeat with two para taking a brief rest to lick their wounds the rest of the brigade began their own moves towards the capital for two commando were to move the fastest with k and l companies being flown by helicopter to the western edge of the mountains protecting stanley and j company followed by the same means by way of goose green 45 commando did it the hard way beginning what was to be a 90 mile route march or yomp from port san carlos initially to teal inlet 40 commando were told to stay put and protect the beach head the weather was dreadful the packs or bergens weighed up to 120 pounds each the ground almost impossible to walk but at last the brigade was on its way i've never carried as much kit a typical marine will sort of when he packs to go anywhere he will pack his burger put it on take it off empty it out throw away one or two items and then pack it again uh we couldn't do that we took ammunition all the luxuries went all the luxury items went and it was basically rations and ammunition and uh we had a lot of initially a lot of springs and twists simply due to not due to to unfitness or bad ground it was simply due to the phenomenal weight that the guys were carrying and as you know the slog out of san carlos is uphill initially and the track isn't the best of tracks and it was hard work very hard work indeed and all the time there was the threat of of air attack um so you had to constantly be alert as well as putting one foot in front of the other with these phenomenal weights we were carrying i thought morale itself was quite high but uh the urge is to get that bergen off your back and rest that's great feeling what everybody thought when yomping you do your 10 minutes to stop every hour of course you know i see blokes just sort of wouldn't take the bergen so there's too much of an effort to put them back on again you know both sitting down and having to stand up again because we've actually been yomping for a fair bit now we got told right rest this chopper's coming because this is a sort of an old thing with four five no there's choppers on the way and you never get there you know and of course you know right the chopper's on coming we're moving again and we yomped all the way through that night following this long barrier fence you know just great big long fence a good five or six kilometers long and that was quite horrendous you know i think that was about the most worst part of the yomp actually the initial first night because it was pouring down with rain and it was really difficult going very wet so of course there was a problem trying to keep your feet some sort of reasonably dry but the lads who actually sort of hurt themselves at night time and i had to carry on i'll get left behind i always remember the first night which was spent at a small settlement just short of a small settlement in the pouring rain we eventually stopped to get a couple of hours rest and we'd cross marshes and bogs and it was it was nose to the back of the man in front of you basically which isn't technically sound but in the weather conditions we were getting at the time was the only thing we could do carrying the weights we were carrying we just couldn't have covered the distance unless we'd covered it in a snake formation we eventually flopped down in a commando circle something which i've never seen before and hope i never see again the whole commando group with tuckhead quarters in the center it was a bit like the little bighorn really the thin green circle and we lay down sort of side by side and tried to get a little bit of sleep it was pouring with rain every item of kit you had was soaked you were tired physically and mentally and a couple of hours sleep we did get past all too quickly and we still had sentry duties etc and air sentries and things to supply that was a bit of a low point because everyone was physically drained and the decision was made then to discard some of the kit and move quickly the quickest way of course was by helicopter but these were now so scarce that only heavy equipment had the luxury of a free lift the big 105 millimeter guns were now being moved forward so that two nine commando the royal artillery could at last begin to pour shells into the argentinian horseshoe defense in the mountains to the west of port stanley every helicopter far exceeded its permitted load maximum and flying hours as the ammunition and stores were put in place ready for what was to be the biggest british artillery barrage since the second world war conditions were far worse several hundred feet above sea level and the commander's knew the marines could not be kept here too long before making the decisive move the temperature had dropped to well below freezing and wet kit could not be dried out in four two commando alone over three quarters of the men suffered from trench foot but although the argentinians had given up most of east falkland one small thorn remained in the british side top marlowe house which the mountain and arctic warfare carter of the royal marines was ordered to clear the devastation after their raid was proof enough of their success an argentinian section had been caught unawares but then fought stubbornly many of them died and the house was completely destroyed before at last the brigade could claim to have total control of all the land between san carlos and the mountains the route to stanley now had to be decided and the thinking of the brigade staff was greatly helped by an argentinian defensive plan which had been found in an abandoned trench the obvious route was to the south of the mountains but that was discounted as being what the argentinians would have expected and therefore blocked with minefields it also did not give the brigade enough elbow room to maneuver properly or get the artillery properly placed for the final phase so it was to be a full-scale three-pronged assault on the mountains themselves a high freezing barrier between the flat boggy waist to the west and the island's capital to the east the argentinians had all the advantages possession of the high ground easy access to their main supplies in stanley well placed heavy artillery to back them up and more men and supplies arriving daily from the main man it was little wonder they put all their hopes in this last defensive ring three command brigade's plan was on the face of it almost impossible against such odds but the commander's put enormous faith in the single fact that their men were far better trained more determined and better suited to the dreadful conditions the attacks on three key features mount longden two sisters and mount harriet were to be simultaneous and in the darkness of the night of june the 12th three para would take mount longden and four five commando the two sisters four two commando would tackle mount harriet each unit would plan its own attack individually with the provisos that they all started at the same time and didn't get in each other's way on the way to or during the battles two para would wait in reserve in case four five commando or three para needed any help then they would push on ahead once the objectives had been taken now was the last chance to load up with ammunition and check that weapons and equipment were in full working order the men knew they were about to go into battle something none of them had ever been through before yet the mood was calm and quiet the positions from which the assaults would start were well protected and in the rocks the battles would be fought from open ground the prospect was not a cheery one first though the enemy was to be pounded with artillery the guns had been incredibly accurate from over 10 miles distance further softening up at the targets was achieved by fighting patrols going forward to both observe and report on enemy positions and to harass them wherever possible these missions didn't always go according to plan we got within 50 meters at the base of it and one of the the blokes in the front said stop by hand signal so we all stopped we all went to ground and it came back there's a sentry up front and we're all peering through the gloom of the dark line and uh there were six of these blokes you could just see them they were all talking and mints and up and down carrying weapons one of them then lit a cigarette up and they were they were talking away so we decided we'd try and push around this bend and get into some cover because we were well out in the open at the moment and they'd not seen us and here in a bloke called Grand Fisk just snaked over the top of this little hole on the stomachs and crawled uh along some jagged type rocks so between me and him there's a little row of rocks that look like the back of a dinosaur and we're just crawling along trying to get towards these six that were shooting at us because we were behind them now and this little voice in the dark said Steve I can see one and I hadn't realized at the time that when we'd gone over the top he pulled a 66 out and made it ready so I mean my immediate reaction was what hit him you know so the next thing I know is a 66 goes off and he blows my head off you know because he's fired at this bloke with a 66 and it hit him went through him and detonated behind this rock and totally blew him to pieces and if you've ever imagined in the middle of a gunfight I mean I was so annoyed that he'd fired this 66 I actually gave him a bollock in you know in the middle of a firefight and um then this other these others must have thought well he's you know he's gone we'll try and snake out and what they did was they came around the same way and instead of getting back up under Harriet they walked straight into me and him so I mean it was like a duck shoe so six of them went down the information about the Argentinian positions from such patrols was passed on to the rest of the men who were about to go into battle a great deal had been found out we know how they're going to reinforce themselves because on the slopes of Mount Kent in the future of the back they left the tented area which contained their upholders for the defense of this area right and they are prepared to lose 50 percent their support in troops right their quick reaction of course so they're going to take this quite seriously the guns are staying here sir until they can secure further area forward there's no reason to move at the moment because we can just sit back and pump shit out of here as the advances of the mountain started the Argentinian started bringing down artillery fire British advance was not held up and every unit was in position on time for the start of the battle for the mountains and indeed for the Falklands themselves there's a lot of things you wanted to say and you didn't have time you wanted to go and shake the hand of every man in your troop you wanted to have a word with the other troops sergeants and say you know good luck because we wouldn't see each other again until after the battle if everything had gone well there wasn't time it's at a time like that you realize that there's a lot of things you wish you'd said you know or you've probably given a bollock into a guy a couple of hours before and you thought Christ I can't have him going up the future I think and you know he's on he's on a bit of a doubt and you wanted to go up and say I'll forget it you know it's nothing you didn't have time the attack by four five commander on two sisters was as the geography would suggest in two simultaneous thrusts the 600 men moved up to the mountain from the left and the cover of darkness and got to within firing distance before being seen their upward assault never lost its momentum but by the end of the battle four Royal Marines had died we was actually being pinned down by these machine guns and myself and tough spears we we just legged it up forward putting down fire and managed to get in a good position if we if we're doing Royal Marines or basically any British soldier in that position then nobody would take it because it was well dug in well consignaled and it was a pretty good position because they had their actual position covering every angle of attack it's just that they didn't have the background to stay there and carry it out when we actually got up there into the positions there was a there was dead and they'd left dead behind there was no actual live prisoners they'd all legged it back into Stanley four two commando had advanced along a fence line to the south of Mount Harriet unseen by the defenders who'd expected to be attacked from the opposite direction the plan was to hook round up and onto the mountains then sweep the Argentinians off from right to left the idea of going back to Mount Harriet did not enthrall Steve Newland and then they said you're going to hit this again and I mean you just there's nothing you can say you just stunned you know I mean and then you're trying to explain but we've been there we've done this already you know but they won't have it we're going to do it again probably we didn't do it right the first time we've been briefed already that to stop remember we'd lost so you couldn't afford to stop so Sharky came up on the net and said he was talking to the boss and he said look we're pinned down by a sniper and apparently you know I mean that was what you thought it was now I'd worked out in relation to where he was to where I was that this bloke should have been somewhere up above me so being you know putting one on one makes five I'd worked out that we'd go and get him so while I'm trying to brief my section as to what we're going to do there was an incoming storm so naturally they all took cover and in the dark I never realized that they'd all took cover and my two I see Shep was supposed to be coming with me so I said okay Shep we'll go not realizing that he was on the deck you know covering his head because I was surrounded by these massive rocks by this stage so I just started off on my own in the dark climbed up this smally cliff went over the top of it ran some more boulders snaked about a bit and went up to link up with L company or on our left then so I linked up with L company and said look I'm going up a bit further for God's sake don't shoot me you know because in the dark they said yeah all right but I don't think they really took much notice because they were a bit busy so I carried on got right to the top look around this rock and instead of there being a single sniper there was a whole river all lined out beyond this like tabletop rock and what they were doing was taking turns at shooting so to our lads it must have looked like this bloke was a switched on sniper and every time he fired one round he moved because that was all they were doing and what they were waiting for was our lot to break cover and they were going to mum down with a gun that was on the end so I saw all I saw all this and I turned around and said to Shep you know will and he wasn't there so now I'm all by myself and I'm thinking oh shit you know what you do and um and I could see about 13 bodies now apparently the rest of them were around the corner but I couldn't see them so I thought well you're up in now you cut there's nowhere to go you can't go back down because you you'll mix it with L company you can't go across because you don't know what's up there so your only way out is to hit them so by this time shark is you know what you're doing about it and and I said well this is what I've got and this is what I'm gonna do and he said okay so I then just took out the two grenades that I had left uh change mags got a fresh mag ready I put the fuss the fuss grenade went first and it went at the people and then the HE grenade went to the gun uh and when I just peered around the corner the faucet worked a fair bit and the gun had been decimated and the two blokes were like they'd gone and then as soon as they'd gone off I just walked around the corner and fired at anything that moved it got three rounds um then sharky came up and said they're giving up they're giving up but we're gonna put two 66s in to make sure and because it might have been another one of these smally traps like so I'm you know I'm in here now and I'm thinking hang on a minute like so I said wait out and I'll get out and as I ran out and dived in his little hole I just said let it go and two 66s whistled uh and he said you know it's clear it's clear can you go back to where you were and make sure that they don't get out of the back because the ones that I couldn't see were still alive to see and um as I went back around this corner one of these blokes that I'd hit I'd only I'd hit him about here and he'd spun and gone down but he wasn't dead and as I walked around the corner he just squeezed a burst from an FN took me in both legs he then died rather suddenly because I was a bit upset then um I got out sat down dropped me weapon looked down at both legs and in the dark you can't tell which is the worst one so I pulled out the one first field dresser and I had left and then you're trying to make a command decision now which one do I bandage you know because I couldn't tell in the dark they both were hurt and uh I ditched the first field dressing in temper because I didn't know what you know which one to do it on and um and I thought right you've got to I'll sit here and wait for Sharky so I got on the radio again and said sharks I mean can you get to me and he said yes sure I'll be there in a minute I'm just taking some prisoners 42 commandos attack was a complete success corporal Newland won the military medal and scores of prisoners were brought down to be disarmed and processed the war for them and everyone else it was hoped was now over wounded Argentinians were treated alongside wounded Marines at the Ajax Bay Field Hospital where not one patient died from either side throughout the war the medical squadron had set a precedent that would be hard to follow at last the victorious Marines could see their objective port Stanley but British guns were now trying to knock out Argentinian artillery positioned in between civilian homes in the town tragically three Falklanders died in this the last exchange of the campaign they were the first and last civilian casualties at last it began to look as though it really was all over rumors were right that the Argentinians had surrendered somebody said that white flags were flying over Stanley in fact they weren't but as the Marines marched down off the mountains through an unmarked Argentinian minefield towards the capital nobody doubted the fighting had finished Brigadier Julian Thompson the man who'd led three commando brigade was one of the first to arrive the situation is that we are in Stanley and I understand that the general is going forward to talk to General Alende's in about half an hour now what he's going to say to him I don't know and what the exact position is I'm not fully aware but all I do know is that the shooting has stopped we've overrun their main gun positions and they have taken themselves to the other end of town it looks on the face of it so general Menendez is on the point of surrender is that the way you see it at the moment well I wouldn't like to put it like that just yet let's wait until we actually hear the words before we start uttering it's been a very fast move over the last 24 hours indeed has this surprised you with the speed of what is happening I thought it might go this way and one was getting oneself ready for it I didn't think it would happen quite as fast as this I expected this to be happening tomorrow and not today but I'm delighted that it's happened today within a couple of hours without any celebration or applause the Argentinians signed the surrender their gamble had failed at enormous cost the British had re-established their sovereignty yet as the Marines marched into Stanley they could be forgiven for wondering why none of the inhabitants came out to even say thank you major Mike Norman and the rest of his detachment who were defeated two and a half months previously were given the honor of replacing the Union flag outside government house the vanquished in the ultimate gesture of defeat the laying down of arms before their conquerors the big nami like the Marines seemed to have little energy left for emotion it was all over and everyone it seemed was glad to be soon going home some though took it harder than others it was an inglorious pitiful wait for the Argentinians knowing there would be no welcome for them when they got back to make matters worse for them their meager rations were on the point of running out the enlisted men didn't even have their daily packs of tripe crackers and a prayer card the officers at least had cigarettes tuna fish and a bottle of whiskey in their packs with all dignity gone the Argentinians in frustration defiled the streets of Stanley before being ordered to clear up on their way to the boats back home their adventure was over the world had witnessed Britain's response to their attempt to take the Falklands by force it was the end to their ambitions and their credibility but worst of all they'd lost face so it was the end too for general gouty areas military junta the Royal Marines left for home in somewhat happier mood in reality being honest with yourself i mean that's what you joined up for really no no no songs gung ho and stuff but i mean you know that's exactly what you're joined up for and it came your way so you know you were lucky i equate it to being like a guard dog and you're always chained up then one day they unchained you that's it that's what you do i love a few stories when i get nice and old but i i am glad i went down there and i'm glad i fought the core did the core did quite well down there and it's give a lot of folks experience of actually being under fire and we need that in the core because that's our job sorting out little wars or big ones the welcome britain gave to canberra and the marines when they came home on july 11 was the greatest outpouring of patriotic emotion gratitude and for the relatives of those who've been away relief anyone could ever remember a welcome of sorts had been expected but nothing on the scale is gigantic as this some people wondered why the politicians of the world allowed the falcons war to happen at all others wondered and still wonder if it was all worth it or if the long-term cost of re-establishing britain sovereignty would prove to be too high but those were questions to be argued about some other time today it was just great to be home to remember those who did not make it back and perhaps to proudly remind the world that the royal marines had quite simply done once again what they'd set out to do and no one could argue with that