Mine Clearing in the Falkland Islands

although the fighting is over in the Falklands there's still a hidden danger to British troops and the Islanders in the aftermath of Argentina's military presence thousands of landmines were buried indiscriminately around the capital and there have been serious accidents as men of 59 independent command a squadron tried to locate and defuse them bran Hanrahan reports on the hazardous operation but if the war receded the danger didn't men were still risking their lives searching for the extensive and badly recorded mine fields around Stanley plastic mines made metal detectors useless so the engineers had to crawl across the peat feeling beneath the surface with their fingers and metal probes any mistake would cost a hand or a leg and some of the minefields had anti-tank mines mixed in are they to kill outright the records kept by the Argentinians were inadequate and inaccurate they were wrong about the numbers they were wrong about the positions different units had laid minefields on top of each other the more the engineers explored the more danger they discovered and why do I do it it's just the the level of the work I suppose engineers are all in the same boat we joined to actually do exciting things in the army clear minds build bridges Knutson assad job so we're actually trained to do this so all this if all this we're doing at the moment he's actually what we've been trained for British reckon there are 15,000 mines stretching for miles those on the beaches and scattered by helicopter on the hillside have no proper records and until a way can be discovered to deal with them safely only the most vital areas are being cleared major rod McDonald showed me some of the mines and the problems they gave him it's common of the anti-personnel mines are these solid TNT inside simply fused by screwing the crusher fuse on top of the mine and sadly over the last three days took my soldiers have lost feet on these very mines quite a large charge in there I will just take foot straight off this was after the fighting was over that's right while they were trying to expire the mines yes we're trying at the moment to make this country habitable again but I fear that we're not going to be able to achieve what we hope to do because we cannot detect these mines that have been spread so indiscriminately over the countryside I feel angry about it because one is willing to take risks as indeed we have done we've supported every every attack in this campaign with with my engineers and you accept that you're going to get losses at that stage but once the war is over as it is over at this stage for us here one feels that any loss of life from then on is a very much a waste because the the aim has been achieved and we're now just clearing up the mess it's being left by an extremely irresponsible group of people before we left the engineers exploded one of the mines for us not an anti-tank mine but the small anti-personnel charged to show its effect later that day in a different area another engineer stepped on one of those which hadn't been recorded he lost his foot now the Middle East and

Channel: Roderick Macdonald

Views: 8,458

Rating: 4.875 out of 5

Keywords: Falkland Islands (Country), Falklands War (Military Conflict), Commando (Literature Subject), Royal Marines (Armed Force), Royal Engineers (Military Unit), Army (Literature Subject), Injury (Disease Or Medical Condition), Argentina (Country), Military (Film Genre), Military Officer (Military Rank), Military History (Field Of Study), Amphibious Assault Ship (Ship Type), Royal Navy (Armed Force), parachute regiment, Demining, British Army (Armed Force)

Id: p8S_dcgay_w

Length: 3min 49sec (229 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2015