SAS Raid - Pebble Island 1982

[Music] Argentina had successfully invaded the British colony of the Falkland Islands on the 2nd of April 1982 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher determined that the islands British since 1833 and home to 1,800 settlers would be recaptured and dispatched the largest British military expedition mounted since the 1956 Suez Crisis in Egypt to get them back a primary factor in any successful campaign to retake the Falklands was air superiority and Britain faced a serious problem the Falklands are 8,000 miles from the UK and Britain was completely reliant on sea harrier aircraft flying off of two aircraft carriers to achieve and maintain air superiority before launching an amphibious invasion the Falklands are only 400 miles from Argentina which enabled the Argentine's to use fast jets to sortie and attack British ships and land forces Argentina also based aircraft on the islands themselves including useful ground attack aircraft at a local airstrip on pebble island lying north of West Falkland three types of aircraft were at Pebble Island two of them dangerous to the proposed British landings there were six FMA I ate 58 pakoras a twin-engine turboprop ground attack and counterinsurgency aircraft armed with bombs rockets and machine guns as well as those based at Pebble Island there were several at goose green airfield on the Falklands three of these aircraft were taken out by Royal Navy sea Harriers dropping cluster bombs on the 1st of May 1982 the Argentine Navy based for turbo mentor light attack aircraft at Pebble Island that could carry bombs and gun pods and there was a single Coast Guard short sc7 sky van utility transport aircraft reconnaissance missions flown by the picaros and mentors might compromise Royal Navy operations preparatory to their insertion of the landing force to recapture the islands it was decided to give the job of neutralizing the threat to the famed Special Air Service regiment the SAS the original special forces unit that had been much imitated that never surpassed pebble island had a population of 25 British people and 25,000 sheep the Argentine's moved in aircraft personnel and stores the airfield was protected by a platoon from the third marine infantry battalion in total there were about 150 armed Argentines on the island elements of the SAS were already aboard the flagship the carrier HMS Hermes the plan was to insert boat troop D squadron 20 to SAS by Klepper canoe to conduct a reconnaissance of the airfield followed by the rest of the squadron attacking the aircraft the radar site the ground crews and the Marines before being taken off by helicopter the recce element reported strong headwinds that would reduce the assault window from 90 to 30 minutes from the Hermes launch point so the plan was changed destroying the aircraft was now the priority with everything else as a secondary priority time permitting on the night of the 14th of May 1982 a pair of Westland seeking hc4 helicopters set off from Hermes with 45 SAS aboard they landed 3.7 miles or 6 kilometers from the airstrip the SAS were armed with American m16 rifles many with underslung grenade launchers each man also carried two bombs for the 81-millimeter mortar and many also had the l1a1 66 millimeter law a light anti-tank rocket supporting the SAS offshore was HMS Glamorgan a destroyer and the frigate HMS broadsword the SAS approached the airstrip without detection dodging marine sentries they slipped among the aircraft and laid charges at the given signal the charges were blown and the SAS wrecked the aircraft with automatic fire and anti-tank rockets the same time HMS Glamorgan opened fire shelling the airfields buildings stores and defensive positions the Argentine Marines only attacked as the SAS were withdrawing one British soldier was injured and one argentine officer killed all the SAS made it back to the helicopters and were extracted back to hermes it was a textbook operation and the damage inflicted on Argentine aircraft significant six procerus were destroyed or damaged along with four turbot mentors and the sky van the SAS had once again lived up to its motto who dares wins thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also support my channel at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 939,931

Rating: 4.9330692 out of 5

Keywords: Pebble Island Raid, SAS Raid Pebble Island 1982, Falkland Islands, Margaret Thatcher, Mark Felton Productions, SAS, Pucara

Id: tuSXwOKsjdA

Length: 5min 32sec (332 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 29 2019