Operation Paraquet
Operation Paraquet | |
---|---|
Part of the South Georgia Island | |
Result | British victory |
- Luis Lagos (POW)
- Horacio Bicain (POW)
- Alfredo Astiz (POW)
- 1 destroyer
- 2 frigates
- 1 submarine
- 1 patrol ship
- 8 helicopters
- 250 ground troops[1]
- 1 submarine
- 90 ground troops
- 1 submarine
- 1 killed
- 1 wounded
- 155 capturedOperation RosarioOperation Corporate
- Paraquet
- Black Buck
- Santa Fe
- Belgrano
- Sobral
- Sheffield
- Pebble Island
- Mikado
- Sutton
- San Carlos
- Ardent
- Seal Cove
- Antelope
- Atlantic Conveyor
- Coventry
- Goose Green
- Mount Kent
- Top Malo House
- Bluff Cove
- Many Branch Point
- Mount Harriet
- Two Sisters
- Glamorgan
- Sir Galahad
- Mount Longdon
- Wireless Ridge
- Mount Tumbledown
- Port Stanley
- Thule & South Sandwich Islands
Operation Paraquet was the code name for the
The operation, a subsidiary of the main
Officially named "Operation Paraquet", an alternative spelling of parakeet, it was known among British troops as "Paraquat", after the industrial weedkiller.[3]
Background
Prompted by the British
Sheridan requested the support of the Royal Marine
The already crowded accommodations in available ships became difficult with the inclusion of additional troops. The task group sailed from Ascension on 11 April, pausing to redistribute the SAS troops between ships on 13 April. The final disposition was that M Company were on the tanker RFA Tidespring, 2 SBS, and the Mountain and Boat Troops SAS on the frigate, HMS Plymouth, with the rest of D Squadron on HMS Antrim.[5] Finally, 6 SBS were embarked in the submarine HMS Conqueror. This group, known as CTG 317.9 or Task Force South Georgia, was commanded by Captain Brian Young of Antrim.[3][6]
The task group met with HMS Endurance on 14 April and on the following day, received written orders (dropped by an RAF Nimrod aircraft) for the operation from Admiral Fieldhouse dated 12 April and giving a landing date of 21 April.[5]
Reconnaissance phase
Conqueror was first on the scene, arriving off South Georgia on 18 April and carrying out a survey of key areas of the coast. She then withdrew to the northwest of the island to guard against any potential threats from the
For the British, the first order of business was to carry out reconnaissance of Argentinian positions, whose forces and dispositions were unknown, though there was no evidence to suggest they had been reinforced since the initial occupation of the island on 3 April. The plan called for insertion of 3 SBS patrols at
On 20 April, an
On the next day, the 15 men of Mountain troop, led by Captain Gavin Hamilton, were airlifted onto Fortuna glacier by two Wessex helicopters. They were immediately confronted with extreme conditions including 100 mph winds and freezing temperatures. Deep crevasses slowed the advance, and when the men attempted to set up camp and wait out the storm, their tents were swept away by the wind. Finally, after 15 hours on the glacier, Captain Hamilton requested evacuation, with the message "Unable to move. Environmental casualties imminent." Three Wessex helicopters were dispatched from the Task Force: two Wessex Mk5s from Tidespring and one Mk3 from Antrim. After one failed attempt, they managed to locate and embark the stranded SAS men, but in whiteout conditions, one pilot became disorientated and his aircraft crashed. The passengers were loaded onto the two remaining helicopters, but soon afterwards one of these hit a ridge and crashed, though once again without any serious casualties. The last Wessex, Antrim′s Mk3, after having offloaded its troops on board the destroyer returned to the glacier and after two failed attempts managed to retrieve the downed SAS and aircrew, though their equipment had to be abandoned. The pilot, Lieutenant Commander Ian Stanley, managed to nurse his overloaded aircraft back to Antrim and make an emergency landing on her flight deck, for which he was later awarded the Distinguished Service Order.[9][10]
Meanwhile, the SBS insertion fared little better. On 22 April, four men of 2 SBS were landed from Endurance by Wasp helicopter at Hound Bay, where the local BAS team informed them that no Argentines were in the area. On the next day, an attempt to insert reinforcements by helicopter was foiled by strong winds, and Endurance had to approach within 800 yards of the coast in order to land the remaining SBS in Gemini inflatable boats. After having spent a night at Dartmouth Point, the troop moved on foot through Sörling Valley to the foot of Nordenskjöld Glacier.[9] Here a Wasp helicopter airlifted in two Geminis, but one was found to have been damaged during transport. The remaining boat was used to ferry half of the unit across Cumberland Bay East, but the crossing was thwarted by strong headwinds and accumulating drift ice from the nearby glacier. With the weather deteriorating, the mission was called off, but the SBS had to wait another day to be evacuated.[11]
On 22 April, Young's Task Force was joined by the tanker
Despite earlier setbacks, Young remained committed to completing his intelligence-gathering mission, and on the night of 22/23 April Antrim entered Stromness Bay in order to insert another SAS force. This time, Boat Troop, D squadron, led by Captain Tim Burls, were to be inserted in five Gemini boats. The attempt almost ended in disaster when two boats' engines refused to start and they were swept out to sea by an unexpected gale. One boat was rescued the following morning by Antrim's Wessex, while the other managed to restart their engine and reach the shore on the Busen Peninsula.[13] After towing another boat to shore, Tommy Turtle went back to search for the others.[14] The three remaining Geminis reached their intended objective on Grass Island, where an observation post was set up,[13] after the men of 17 Troop had scaled a cliff in freezing conditions. They reported no Argentine activity in the Stromness area and signalled an SOS to HMS Endurance, which the next day was able to airlift them out by her Westland Wasp. After this operation, 17 Troop took to calling itself "The South Georgia Boating Club".[14]
Attack on Santa Fe
On 23 April, the British learned through radio intercepts that an Argentinian submarine was approaching South Georgia. This was the
This contradicted the military junta's orders to not reinforce South Georgia, but when Admiral Jorge Anaya, Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine Navy, learned of the mission, he refused to disavow his subordinates and authorised it.[16] Storm conditions prevented use of the snorkel, which placed unexpected demands on the batteries and required remaining surfaced during part of the approach. Her sensors were unreliable, and the charge capacity of her aged batteries was much reduced from their original design. While undertaking her transport mission, Santa Fe's orders were to remain undetected, not to attack any ships and to break contact with any ship which might detect her.[15]
The arrival of the submarine posed a significant threat to the British Task Force, and Young was ordered to disperse his ships, except Endurance, outside the South Georgia total exclusion zone. The frigate HMS Brilliant, commanded by Captain John Coward, was diverted to South Georgia with her two Lynx helicopters to replace the aircraft lost on Fortuna Glacier, but she was not due to arrive until the morning of 25 April. Conqueror was assigned a new patrol area 70 miles to the west of South Georgia, however, a failure in her communications mast meant that she did not receive the order until 24 April, by which time Santa Fe was already approaching the island.[17]
The Argentinian submarine successfully landed her reinforcements at Grytviken, under moonless cloud cover in the pre-dawn hours of 25 April, and was underway by 0500.[15] Antrim′s aircrew, which included Lieutenant Chris Parry, anticipated that Santa Fe would unload her troops under the cover of darkness and would withdraw at first light through Cumberland Bay without submerging, due to the threat of icebergs. They suggested re-fitting their Wessex with radar, which had been removed to transport the SAS, and intercept Santa Fe as she left the bay. Captain Young thus brought his three warships some 25 miles north-east of Cumberland Bay and prepared his helicopter force for anti-submarine action.[18] He now had at his disposal, besides Antrim's Wessex, three Wasps (one aboard Plymouth and two on Endurance) and two Lynxes (aboard Brilliant). At 0855, the submarine was located by Antrim's Wessex using radar and engaged with depth charges. One charge bounced off the boat's deck but the other exploded alongside, rupturing the port ballast tank and piercing an external fuel tank. Now unable to dive, Bicain was forced to reverse course towards Grytviken.[19]
The Wessex was then joined by a Lynx which launched a
Execution
With Santa Fe disabled, Major Sheridan judged that the Argentines would be demoralised and that an attack should be made immediately. However, his main force, M company, was still onboard Tidespring, 200 miles away. A scratch force was put together with various forces on board Antrim. These included M company's command element and mortar troop, 2 SAS troops and the 2 SBS command and signal elements, for a total of 79 men.[21]
There followed a helicopter
An Argentine prisoner of war, Navy Petty Officer Felix Artuso, a crewman of Santa Fe, was mistakenly shot dead on 26 April after a British marine thought he was sabotaging the submarine. He is buried at Grytviken Cemetery.[24][25]
A message that was widely publicised in the UK was made by the Task Group Commander, Captain Brian Young, after the surrender at Grytviken:[3]
- Be pleased to inform Her Majesty that the White Ensign flies alongside the Union Jack in South Georgia. God save the Queen.[22]
After Secretary of State for Defence John Nott read this statement to journalists in Downing Street, prime minister Margaret Thatcher told the crowd to "rejoice".
Wildlife film-maker Cindy Buxton and her assistant Annie Price, who had been filming in an isolated part of the island before the invasion, were evacuated by a helicopter from HMS Endurance on 30 April.
In popular culture
Operation Paraquet forms part of the backstory of the
Footnotes
- ^ Rossiter 2007, p. 195.
- ^ Freedman 2005, p. 214.
- ^ a b c "Captain Brian Young". The Telegraph. 12 Jan 2010. Archived from the original on 2019-11-11. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
- ^ Van Der Bijl 2007, pp. 44–45.
- ^ a b c Van Der Bijl 2007, p. 47.
- ^ "Operation Paraquat". Archived from the original on 2012-11-22. Retrieved 2012-12-06.
- ^ Rossiter 2007, pp. 189–199.
- ^ Van Der Bijl 2007, p. 48.
- ^ a b Van Der Bijl 2007, p. 51.
- ^ Brown 1987, p. 99.
- ^ Rossiter 2007, pp. 216–219.
- ^ Brown 1987, p. 100.
- ^ a b Freedman 2005, pp. 204–205.
- ^ a b Major Tommy Turtle, SAS soldier who took part in crucial operations during the Falklands War – obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 4 March 2021, accessed 6 March 2021 (subscription required) Archived 6 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Scheina, Robert L. (1984). "Where Were Those Argentine Subs?". Proceedings. 110 (3). United States Naval Institute: 115–120.
- ^ Freedman & Gamba-Stonehouse 1991, p. 222.
- ^ Freedman 2005, p. 205.
- ^ Freedman 2005, pp. 208–209.
- ^ Rossiter 2007, p. 224.
- ^ Brown 1987, p. 103.
- ^ Freedman 2005, p. 210.
- ^ a b "Remarks on the recapture of South Georgia" Archived 2006-10-21 at the Wayback Machine, Margaret Thatcher Foundation
- ^ Rossiter 2007, pp. 189–233.
- ^ Evans, Michael (5 October 2007). "Marine killed Argentinian in Falklands war blunder". Times. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
- ^ Félix Artuso's grave Archived 2014-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
References
- Rossiter, Mike (2007). Sink the Belgrano. Bantam Press. ISBN 978-0593058428.
- Brown, David (1987). The Royal Navy and the Falklands War. Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-0850520590.
- ISBN 978-0-7146-5206-1.
- Freedman, Lawrence; Gamba-Stonehouse, Virginia (1991). Signals of War: The Falklands Conflict of 1982. Princeton Legacy Library. ISBN 9780691636160.
- Van Der Bijl, Nick (2007). Victory in the Falklands. Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-1844154944. Archivedfrom the original on 2022-02-12. Retrieved 2016-11-06.
External links
- Naval-History.Net - "Battle Atlas of the Falklands War 1982" by Gordon Smith
- "8 Bells Lecture. Rear Adm. Chris Parry: Falklands War and the Importance of Naval Corporate Memory". US Naval War College/Youtube. 2016-03-12. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
- "Sea Control 74: Falklands Series 5 – South Georgia OPS" (Podcast). Center for International Maritime Security. 13 April 2015.