Guardians Of The South Atlantic: UK Forces In The Falklands | Forces TV

the twice-weekly airbridge arrives to Mount Pleasant Airport in the South Atlantic hello rain hello in the hold military sniffer dog Murphy is finally reunited with his handler John Murphy is joining the police support unit dogs section and is the latest service member to begin his deployment in the Falklands your boy nestled in the South Atlantic the Falkland Islands are one of the UK's most isolated overseas territories and one of the remotest bases in the world the collection of over 700 islands make up a landmass 2/3 the size of Wales the military presence here is the legacy of a bitter conflict fought after Argentina invaded in 1982 since then the Falklands has been peaceful though Argentina still lay claim to the islands and the war remains fresh in the minds of many today typhoons a Chinook and a Royal Navy patrol ship offer protection to the islands with 1200 service personnel currently deployed here the military area also incorporates Ascension Island South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and in charge of the theater of operations here is commander of British forces Commodore Daren bone it's a unique part of the world many people forget we're here where's the submarines of the silent service in the in the Royal Navy perhaps the Falkland Islands is the silent posting there is everything you have the most beautiful place it's a challenging place it can be snow hail sleet rainbows broad sunshine in just one day the wildlife is extraordinary you don't have to go searching for penguins you sit on the beach and you're surrounded by penguins and yet there are sheep in the same field or killer whales each and whatever else and at the same time I think the responsibilities we can give junior people and indeed those in unit command are second to none and that's what makes it delightful life down here in the South Atlantic is quite unlike anywhere else on earth for lots of reasons but if there's one thing people might know about the Falklands it's their weather weather no restrictions on the Stanley Road today but the Sheep chill factor is at 92 that is a critical risk to animals in exposed areas so the Sheep chill factor something that's quite unique that we do here the Met Office in the Falklands it's just an index which gives us a good idea of how dangerous the weather conditions will be for sheep within the surrounding area and as sheep farming is so important to the Falklands and industry the Met Office here in the Falklands is responsible for forecasting for this whole corner of the South Atlantic so every day at 8 p.m. exactly they send up a weather balloon normally it's released by someone on camp and the military tend to get a little competitive today to try and give the balloon a head start we've selected the tallest man on the island 6 foot 8 Captain Rob Hollis to see if he can get hours to beat the record the balloon is filled with helium and a small box attached with sensors to measure wind strength Direction temperature and humidity as well as a GPS device and unten eye to send information back to the met office computers high traffic it's nap are you free to launch the balloon thank you ok so if you just want to hold your hand flat almost as if you are feeding a horse and try and lift your right arm as high as possible and when you're ready let go right behind you rub up against back to those chilly livestock and there are half a million sheep in the falklands that's approximately 167 per person some of the farmers who rear them do so in the most isolated parts of the island and one of the responsibilities of the servicemen posted here is to call on rural settlements and liaised with the islanders themselves oh good I mark my name is Chris I'm from full power how are you currently deployed on the Falklands patrols are for power the first reserve unit ever to be posted here they come on patrol to your farm if you want them they'll always help you if they can so you know it to me it's a great gather round really you see someone different don't you someone new you know someone from the other side of the world if you like really sort of a gymnastics if you like aren't we everything has its challenges I guess but I only wouldn't swap it for the world really and I don't think I could be in an office doing me on a computer I don't know really if that would be me really the for perot reservist include professional carpenters roofers and builders and to these isolated dwellers their skills have been invaluable but even the accountants and bankers seem quick to pick up the basics from farmer Charles and there's a fence made by for power oh yeah they seem to be pretty good as they took it up pretty good I reckon ad being good kids to teach at school they seem to show them once they seem to have it so you know it hasn't fell down yet as you can see we've got one more wire to tighten so fingers crossed now see because we've done around the farms involved getting Pete out of the sort of peak - Swampert that's called out they're taking back their burn Pete in the fires it's been involved in removing sort of old fences they're taking down how are you fencing skills now I think they're not too bad Charles the landowner seems pretty impressed I think maybe it's just being polite will you be able to use them when you go home probably not in the near future accountants so there's not that much direct demand for putting fences up but you never know how are we getting on boys in return for their hard labor the reservists are treated to a daily feast of potatoes and steaks straight from the farm you like it medium I really don't yeah really really nice people they have they fed us they kept as entertain really good for a laugh and a really good judge of character as well they spotted some of their some of the guys in the unit a mile off after only a couple of days Trudy is a one of a bit afraid she's a war veteran she helped the she up 3 para when she was during the war she guided them up to mount London in the middle of the night and did all kinds of dangerous stuff Qasr backing people stuff like that yo just so grateful you know it's you know they're far away from home and probably not you know but they still seem to do a very good job with it sort of thing and you know we're just very grateful for them really ah life and Falklands is great here and absolutely and thanks to the British troops - you know if yeah they're here protecting us so that makes it even better of course but yeah life in the Falklands is great can't complain gentlemen [Music] it's not just the farmers who are grateful for the military here at the Junior School in Stanley the Gurkhas have come to visit to say thank you for their fundraising efforts for the Nepal earthquake the school raised over a thousand pounds on the island as a whole sixty nine thousand that's more than a 20 pound donation from every single resident the amount sixty nine thousand that has been raised your input by the local community is unreal so obviously there's no I will find it hard to find the words to describe the from you to here we don't have tornadoes we don't have Wars we don't have tsunamis we don't have poverty and we don't even have bees or wasps to sing you there's nothing that bites or stings even so yeah we know we're very lucky education on a small island presents some geographical challenges farm schools are held out in the country and more isolated children receive lessons by phone children of servicemen however have their own school back at Mount Pleasant right on their doorstep similarly the health care center on camp must be entirely self-sufficient with specialists like opticians visiting the island twice a year there is a hospital in Stanley but in severe cases patients are flown to the UK or Uruguay feeding a small island in the middle of the south it also has its challenges all its resources the island relies on this first opened Island resupply ship the ship comes in once every six weeks and takes four weeks to get here a huge ISO containers come bearing everything from pets to TVs sausages and concrete the passenger plane that arrives twice each week also brings four tons of fresh fruit and vege sohara this is one of four main industrial freezer units that we utilize to store generally the produce that comes in from the refers until at such point we can deliver it around the the various mounting sites the challenges really lie on that eight thousand mile supply chain but with some careful management we're able to stay on top of you know the vast majority of the popular and faster moving items I think probably one of the the items that surprised me most it's been the climate for peanut butter yeah I think I think these things tend to go in there in rotation so yeah that'll be you know the fattest of the moments well however setting out several months down the line we could be on sir I don't know jams and marmalades just about all the food to feed the forces is shipped the full eight thousand miles from the UK but the mo dr currently investigating the possibility of using more local suppliers which would both support the islands producers and cut down on the military's environmental footprint whilst furs is their lifeline there is another ship that the islanders hold dear HMS Clyde patrols the seas around the Falklands often just providing a reassuring presence but she also makes her way right up into the coves and inlets to visit some of the islands remotest residents we send a small team ashore be at six or eight people will go we'll talk to them about how they're getting on if they need anything we can also take them fresh fruit but it's just really to provide that connection with Biff sigh and and the wider military and just again to show to them because they don't often get to see us that we are around and protecting them the ship has got a massive place in the locals heart Liberation Day for example the locals were out stood on the sidelines in the snow cheering us on clapping the children you know we're all coming up asking questions it's something that gives you a sense of appreciation for what you do when you're down here because of the close integration of the three services here sailors can find themselves in close contact with typhoons or going ashore to join soldiers on an infantry patrol work onboard is challenging and as ever the South Atlantic weather systems never fail to disappoint we quite regularly down here will have 40 50 mile an hour winds in March we had 11 meter seas as we were coming back so that is what 40 50 foot the best part really is is the joint training and a joint integration we can do we've got such a big open area with not a lot of other users I think the other thing has to be for Clyde particularly it is going down to South Georgia it is a remote mountainous island 800 miles away you can't get there by aeroplane so the only way to get there is by ship so we go down the ship goes down to three times a year and it's so unspoiled you can sail right up to the edge of glass ears but we also go down there to support the government down there as well and it's just such a unique place the falkland so it's really like no other war Navy deployment that anyone can go on after a period of routine maintenance Clyde is ready for her next patrol but to test everything is working the crew MERS first perform what's known as a standard maneuver this will test how long she takes to go from full speed to stationary and vice versa and also check that the steering and propulsion are all working as they should be next course is clear visually to the layman this rather looks like pulling Donuts at sea should be way down anyway come part way through however there appears to be a problem star but instead two-seven-five doing a standard maneuver of our starboard engine a softer break down the engineer's identified a fresh water leak in one of the coupling pipes that feed the earth the starboard main engine says to keep it cool that's what they did they piped up on the broadcast system request an emergency at shot analysts are the main engine which we can got from the bridge and to prevent any further damage to the machine you in the space itself alongside all the challenges of the South Atlantic come tremendous opportunities to learn especially for the most junior members of crew before long the problems fixed and the doughnuts can resume [Music] B check pull-up 100 please as hms clyde takes care of the sea in the air the hercules patrols the falkland skies she too makes regular trips down to South Georgia this time mapping icebergs to ensure shipping lanes are clear on the land below the powers are taking time out to see something the Falklands are famous for its building in some parts of the islands minefields have bizarrely created serene people free sanctuaries for the Penguins whilst they are not heavy enough to trigger the mines shillings are leaving them entirely undisturbed but elsewhere like here at volunteer point soldiers sailors and airmen flock to see them never thought I get to see something like this to be honest but there also that the hilarious the way they walk stand around and just chill it cheering up yeah it's good to get as close to that because obviously never seen him before sir it's quite good to get quite close man the penguin visit complete the Paris head back to camp with few roads around the Falklands the brynne tell helicopters are essential for operations and where there is space on board service personnel can use them to see some of the finest parts of the islands in fair weather the rocky terrain is one thing but in the depths of winter it's another story it's kind of a moonscape I think the geology of the the islands and the weather with with the wind and the rain a lot of the soil gets washed away one minute you're on very solid rock and the next minute you're in a bog and chatting to some of the infantry guys one of them went in a sinkhole that he was in over his head yeah I'm lucky for him that wasn't started the exercise I don't think anything was going right for him that's it the roads themselves are pretty good until the hill closes in the fog can come in you can get blizzards that come out of nowhere occasionally it can not go well if you've driven to understand me and they closed the road on the way back and so because of that we have to you have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best so you always have your sleeping bag on the back of a car and you tend to have I carry ration packs in the back of my car so I can just hunker down and wait for the weather to clear and I'm good for it at least 24 hours with 85 minefields and up to 30,000 mines thought to remain in the Falklands if your car does come off the road there's a chance you may find yourself in trouble so casual is yes for this reason rescuing casualties from a minefield is a common training scenario my first thing we want to do just get everyone out of line aside from what I was doing right now is it's very slowly probing the ground with her yeah what we've got a mine product which is a pointy stick I mean slowly I'm a father be feeling his way forward getting a feel for the ground and anything that feels unnatural and surrounding ground up were working on it'll be able to identify market and move around it it could be mine it could make my coffee it could be a piece of plastic in the ground we don't know but it's better not to find out so we mark record move round what it takes the little landlines that are out here that are in this particular scenario Durant your personnel mines and they don't take a lot of pressure to set them off how much pressure would set it off I would say between 50 and 70 kilos but which isn't much yeah which is a way of definitely do it at all the majority of them are plastic mines which is kind of good for us and bad for us I mean some of them there is a particular type that that is just as effective now as it was when it was first laid a lot of them have degraded over time especially the explosive components within it they've degraded however because they're plastic and quite waterproof there's a lot of them that are still in a dangerous State out here in November 2015 another aspect of the military's skill set was put to the test when a real emergency unfolded not far from their shores and on the early hours of Wednesday the 18th of November they had a major fire in the engine room which effectively was uncontrolled and they lost all power and it was scary because as a mariner I can tell you that the last thing you want is a fire in the engine room at sea it always happens at night and in this instance it happened in northwesterly Gale which then when the ship lost all power it was vulnerable and was simply pushed by the sea and was going sideways at 3 knots it closed the coast to about three two months in fact before the the anchor that the captain had deployed took hold and slayed the drift at that point he abandon ship everything that we have in the locker was pushed out of the locker so we were launching aircraft at 2:00 in the morning we were scrambling HMS Clyde and our day precedes the seaman scene at best speed I had six helicopters in the air the Hercules was the on-scene commander that stayed airborne for ten and a half hours and was refueled in flight twice and we even deployed some of our soldiers not in a soldiery mode but in a humanitarian assistance mode because the helicopters winched up 78 people and to positive them on the ground where our people met them brought them back here where we had an evacuation reception center we got all 300 from seven people no injuries so we didn't have to issue a sticking-plaster every it's families day in the Falklands when little people and loved ones are given a sneak peek behind the scenes at what the forces do on the island children clamber aboard the Typhoon's the Chinook flings open her doors to civilians and the Met Office stand amy has some bad news about captain Hollis's weather balloon they say you have broken a record just the record for the lowest one's ever popped so what he said it's gonna be hard record to beat I think it'll be hard to beat but partly because the floor doesn't actually go any lower and the movie you're about getting bored so yes this is something boy hello the dog section are also here a Murphy who arrived just a few days ago seems to have found himself a little fan club good lad yes he's doing really well it's good cutting down the dog section we've got I mean nice warm can old underfloor heating and everything like that he's loving that nice having him here cuz you didn't miss him Vinnie yeah oh yeah miss him loads um yeah it's fantastic to have him here sir he's a friend as much as a work colleague now he's you know been there with me for three and a half years now so we're we just we just mate are we yes halfway on the road to Stanley the falklands capital you reach Boot Hill a rather odd collection of abandoned shoes so there's a tradition here in the falklands if you're content with just one visit to this little island in the South Atlantic you leave a pair of shoes behind you but if you think maybe one day in the future you might just want to return you're supposed to leave just one shoe up here a beetle you [Music] you

Channel: Forces News

Views: 1,025,337

Rating: 4.8220849 out of 5

Keywords: British, Forces, News, Hannah King, Boot Hill, Falklands, Falkland Islands, Sniffer dog Murphy, Ascension Island, South, Sandwich Islands, South Atlantic, South Georgia, Cdre, Commodore, Darren Bone, Lt Ben Read, Lieutenant Ben Read, HMS Clyde, Sgt Al Bourne, Sergeant Al Bourne, Le Boreal, Forces News, Forces TV, British Armed Forces, military, serving, military personnel, Ministry of Defence, British defence, British military

Id: -rK30yPThpI

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 27 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/MaroonCrow]

Guessing Forces TV asked a bunch of lads "anyone got a spare boot we could use to put on a stick and leave it up on that hill for our show?" without knowing that the clothing store won't give them a replacement pair [without billing them] if they only bring a single boot in. Some poor guy got seen off...

[u/MA0801]

Fucking shit place to get based.

Spend all your money down the Gull & Penguin and develop a drinking problem

[u/YOUREABOT]

It's quite humble how the UK keeps this island

[u/irishmickguard]

What a fucking shit tasking. If you go there as the RIC and you dont already hate the raf, you will by the time you leave. Little jumped up desk jockies with nothing better to do than send shitty e-mails about the infantry "intimidating" their lads in the bar and not being polite enough to there stores biffs. Onion ranges is by far and away the best part of it because you are away from MPA for a couple of weeks.

[u/expostulation]

It still blows my mind that people live on The Falkland Islands.