The Falklands War - The Untold Story (Full Documentary) | Timeline

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this is Stanley the Bulldog for compensation being instructed by the government of Falkland Islands to call you and ask you to repeat the message for am April the second 1982 Argentine Navy cameraman filmed their invasion of the for cover frogmen landed first from a submarine followed later by the main assault force [Applause] it was an historic day for Argentina por supuesto Rome Argentina magenta muy emocionado atomic I was thrilled as an Argentine and as a professional soldier I was thrilled to be taking part in the recover of these islands that have been in British hands for so long it made me very proud as you know listen this is the Falklands forecasting studios now we're just gonna call from Alistair grieve and Alistair I understand that you've cited some of the vehicles where are you giving this report for Mali are you standing up sitting down or what you're doing now all right the situation is you might hear is that the radio station has now been taken over we have three arts and toilet women we have everything recording to tape yes okay for the population and just a minute yeah we don't know if you take the gun into my back I'm gonna press right here if you take the gun away but I'm not speaking with a gun in my back everybody was very very low in spirit obviously we didn't know whether we were going to be shot or what was going to happen take them back to Argentina everybody knew of the regime over there the military government what they've done to their own people I knew they wanted the Falklands and future well we didn't we didn't know our future by 7:00 a.m. after fierce fighting government house was completely surrounded in like I said oh no I'm with prosing I captured two Royal Marines in a government house they were waiting there lying on the ground with all their weapons Trojan marine it that I saw another marine trying to reach government house so I covered him with my machine gun I made him come towards me me me today yeah well all along Saturday on this Estela suddenly you're in their hands I mean it's three casualties of theirs long in the guard in the government house I mean what sort of mood they going to be in you know when they're opposed sort of shot up and so when actually lied down oh yeah start big humiliated but I was felt also felt apprehensive about what was going to happen next but one of the Argentine officers he came along and yeah he struck one of the guards I'm told us to stand there and we stood up and yeah well I shut my hand shook a few of the guys hands and said that you know we shouldn't lie down and we should be proud of what we've done I was quite pleased that she was stopping you know I mean I bounced about it you know I didn't wanna sort of I didn't fancy saw her getting shot to bits later angel fundamental in a phantom of devahuti the Royal Marines lacks our motivation I think the reason for our motivation was the cause we were defending yes okay you have to understand we were defending something that was ours they were simply following orders as professional soldiers a super military professional attend defend gender a hotel or dinero que a gente de team Apogee remote Akkad a lot a public event en la Medina's operation nazuna Austral todo todo ese distancia que esta temporada de maras st marys kiss is Moroccan Tino the Malvinas are a national cause in Argentina we gate that hoople's in primary school learn about their lost heritage how the British stole the islands from them in 1833 Murphy youngsters are shown that the islands are part of Argentina's continental shelf la de forma golden in bells pastel la prolongation del continent a port debajo del agua from a South American perspective Britain's claim to the islands is absurd even an unpopular dictatorship would be acclaimed if it could recover the Malvinas when news of the invasion reached winners Aras the crowds went wild the military regimes record of violent repression economic crisis all were forgotten overnight the national dream of reoccupying the Malvinas had been realized nia-malika final agreements come over tambien I can't deny that I was immensely thrilled it was thrilling to see the huge crowd outside government house supporting our action regardless of their political beliefs the workers had demonstrated against the government in that same square only a few days before but now even the trade unions were there supporting Argentina stem so I can't deny that it was one of the most moving moments of my life the kiss-ass una vez mas emosionante y mas importante y una vida have you heard from the governor doors opening day in London there was outrage the government had allowed British sovereign territory to be invaded there were rowdy scenes in Parliament swiftly followed by resignations it is a national humiliation and I have been responsible for five affairs and I do not think it is right that when that happens the minister responsible should just go on as if nothing had happened and I think of the honorable thing to do is to resign Britain's prestige was severely damaged the government turned to the Armed Forces I think everybody thought it would all be over before we got there few little troops on the Leyland when the senior the Royal Navy comment it scurry home neither be all [Music] I thought why the hell did he want to invade somewhere that would sober Scotland one because nobody understood where the Falklands we're night and I haven't got a clue [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I've always said years ago to preserver a war very excited I'm coming back the Belfast where I was going you know they're not get me to war now I didn't join for war I didn't want to go because I thought well I've got to go you know tax payers within my wages for all these years and okay they've called my number for one so called all our numbers for once as the task force team south through the tropics few of those on board thought they were actually going to war [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in his matter all this it was really thrilled he said social life is fantastic you know we're playing darts and there's loads of people Carly cribbage games as lots of debt games going on I need any one of his letters and whatever's waiting for us down there nothing will look so bad if we've still got this happy and atmosphere on board ship [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it was a curious air of unreality on the way to ascension none of us really thought it would come to war at that stage every day we listen to the BBC World Service about the diplomatic maneuvers that were going on and we genuinely believed there would be a diplomatic settlement and they were we were merely in an extension of that diplomacy we had to learn Spanish virtually the only stuff that we did learn was things like mana Cerebus and Lindsey which means hands up and surrender we didn't think it was much point learning's sort of I'd surrender or anything like that many of them had adopted rather litter and gung-ho attitude one of the helicopter pilots told me that he'd never dropped a real depth charge on a live target and he was quite looking forward to it now and one of the harrier pilots said that what Britain needed was a small wall like this who would do where I'll no end of good [Music] [Applause] the Falklands became an armed camp in their thousands young conscript arrived from Argentina la primera vez congressional al pueblo de aqui todo lo que habia the first time I went into Ponce earlier I noticed that everything with English there was practically nothing there to remind me of Argentina I remember picking up a little nail and it had this made in England written on it Claro Clarita this year Valon Inga so I started wondering what it all meant I thought where am I what is this I had been told that we were going to the Malvinas to defend our people but it turned out that they want our people at all so you had to ask yourself who would be invaders them or us Kyrenia Malvinas operation theater command communique number four guarantees the continuity of the way of life or the people of the island respected for private property freedom to enter leave or remain on the island furthermore the population is exhorted to continue normally with their activities one of the first things they said when they arrived nothing would change and the next thing they said was how things had to change we had to drive on the other side of the road we had to have passes to go around Stanley it won't let ed if Stanley and people of course thought back to the Second World War and how it must have felt for the French and the Dutch and the countries you know in Europe occupied by the Germans from Grenada below but I mean it our military prisons grew till about ten thousand men surrounded the village so port Argentina became almost like a tiny island in a sea of troops yet I'm proud to say that throughout our occupation of the Malvinas it wasn't a single case of rape or attempted rape there wasn't a single case of assault there were a few burglaries any offenders were court-martialed and sentence whether they were conscripts NCOs or officers dientes ashiya-kun officials official Soldado and has next door it's unoccupied and it was very UK we had the care that has we realize or a lot of Argentinians banging on the door knocking my husband said well and let them break the door down our grass and give them the key he was immediately taken by the Argentinians and made to kneel at our front gate was a bitterly cold day Sunday afternoon for about 20 minutes over 20 minutes he was kneeling there in his shirtsleeves with a submachine gun of his back I never realized just what it was like when you can't sit down I tried to sit down I couldn't I was so tensed up other solos all I did really was walked to the kitchen made a cup of coffee and came back I didn't know that in 20 minutes half now one could drink so many cups of coffee and I've put on Land of Hope and Glory and opened the windows and I felt that no my husband's sense of humor that if he were to die the tip the last thing he heard was that at least he would die with perhaps a smile on his face the United States was anxious to avoid a war between two of its closest allies the whole conflict seemed to be strange it seems to be much less important than it obviously seemed to both sides because the Falkland Islands by themselves did not seem to be objectively that important if I may say so to anyone and yet suddenly they had become the focus of this enormous intense conflict Alexander Haig desperately sought the negotiated settlement on born his P shuttle was David comfort of course the most memorable recollection one has about London was mrs. Thatcher herself and the way she presided over the War Cabinet and spoke for Britain in the negotiations she would allow others to speak to address particular aspects of it based on their expertise but in all cases she would have the final word and in some cases she would explicitly overrule a senior member of her cabinet she was never in any doubt that may have been those of us who would one moment or other thought should we just give a little bit more would it finally and the problems which we hadn't yet faced of actually invading from ships in South County but she was totally resolute in London and we did not find a very positive disposition toward negotiation the view there quite simply was foreign troops have occupied land over which Her Majesty's Government is responsible and the issue at hand is the removal of the troops not the negotiation of the conditions after those troops are gone and that's about all we received by way of encouragement in London [Music] [Music] the stormy waters of the South Atlantic brought with them a change in the atmosphere on board the ships of the task for the closer they got to the islands the greater the need for military preparedness the Royal Marines who defended the islands in the original Argentine invasion had been deported to Britain by their captors now they were returning as part of the task force we were a little bit of a celebrity state as you know with the other Marines you know it's sort of it was it lighting I've been on the fire and it like sort of doing this than the other and you all sort of swept along with you the old thing about you know we're going to go down there and sort of dig these lawton as you got nearer the old for Queen and country and all that was going out the window you know and it was more of let's get down there do it and let's get back you know yeah you don't have to go down and do it great I was quite convinced we were going to fight I've got far too much imagination to be brave or gung-ho anything like that my company commander John Key's Lee was in many ways of the same opinion as me I remember once talking to him and we just had a photograph taken over hold of a company which was left flank and we looked at afterwards and he said to me well it's rather sad but some of those faces won't be there if we take a photograph on the way back I thought about it for some time and I decided to write my wife a letter and explain to her how much I loved her my feelings for her things that she could remember me by a piece of music a place to go I gave her some advice as to how to behave as a widow as I remember and it was difficult for me to write the more difficult one was to run to write to my son and I don't think like even now I hadn't I haven't reread it but it was certainly blotted with tears having written and then it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life I then posted him to my father I'd asked then asked him to pass them on in the event of my death arriving in when azari's the peace shuttle met a series of setbacks in his clear deny that the task will not be easy but the stakes are so great that they demand the ultimate effort on the part of participants in these discussions thank you the mood on the streets was jubilant the hunter promised the Malvinas would never be surrendered Argentina would never give up its birthright there was about their attitude the kind of frivolousness first of all as though they were not really serious as though they did not have a sense of what war would be like they had no sense of the tragedy of war and and the loss of life they had no sense that they were going to be defeated as I pointed out to them surely they were going to be defeated they had no experience of war they would be fighting one of the world's great powers which Britain is and they couldn't even treat the matter fully seriously they couldn't decide among themselves and it was clear by then that they had decided in fact to go ahead if for no other reason than that they were incapable of uniting in a decision not to go ahead to war it was our failure to grasp that agreement our failure to make it stick in Buenos Aires that in fact had removed the last hurdle and permitted the forces to engage and the and the killing to begin [Music] I do it [Music] [Music] made the first Briton launches an airstrike against Argentine positions around for stem we're woken by a friend saying they're here they hear they hear the British are here I was so elated I would turn our front window and jumped up and down and as I turned round I realized that the Argentinians have been shin gun nest just a few yards away from our heads were pointing a gun at me and indicating that unless I got down and we're going to shoot me so needless to say I very quickly got out of the window we were probably far more overconfident and we should have been and I think the general feeling was that well we've given the Argentinians a bloody nose and very soon they'll turn around and say that's if we don't anymore and everything will be over [Music] [Music] Argentina was not defenseless against the task force it too had a powerful navy which set out to find the British fleet and sink it there were new warships equipped with modern missiles but proudest of all was the world war 2 cruiser USS Phoenix now renamed after one of Argentina's greatest heroes General Belgrano evil alien serving on the Belgrano was the goal of every professional sailor because of her tradition and because of what she represented the Argentine Navy the nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror had been patrolling the South Atlantic for a fortnight it shattered the Belgrano for two days just right ahead on that very 94 at 4:00 p.m. on the 2nd of May under direct orders from London it fired three torpedoes at the cruiser to stockholm supreme air explosion few realmente la que causó la mejor cantidad de muertos NL bouquet a first explosion was the cause of the greatest number of deaths on the Belgrano about 275 sailors died as a result of that explosion and the massive flooding they followed four seconds later came the second torpedo fifteen feet from the valley but those 15 feet practically disappeared on the water all the crew members assembled by their life rafts waiting for the order to abandon ship prácticamente para que el agua tamil official the ordinary heaven God I finally decided to give that order s and surely it must be the most painful and tragic order in a naval officer's career debe ser la más importante llama tragically toda so vexed oreal Marinero una se siente facilitate Odin over Wendy no Padre Sur de gente en de we knew there were more people below decks and there was nothing they could do to rescue them no we would have cried but it was just impossible all we could do was cry and collect the wounded from the main deck and take them to the life rafts most of them have been burned by the explosions and the fires we knew that we were leaving behind lots of our friends they were below decks hoping that we could somehow rescue them we just couldn't get to them I couldn't bear it leaving them behind I can click on it so the severe kala hotel and Fuko leaders is that truce amigos not a fatal one then there was nothing you could do driven by strong winds towards the Antarctic Ocean the life rafts from the Belgrano drifted in sub-zero temperatures after two days some were recovered by the hospital ship by a Paraiso many of the Belgrano sailors had died of exposure they had literally frozen to death venya sobre el paseo de la belleza save a que en un último intento de sel visualize oddly regain reversible i remember we cited one life raft and it had somebody on top of it who seemed to be asleep he was so well wrapped up that all you could see was his face he had this survival suit and his life jacket he was well prepared at a distance he seemed to be sleeping peacefully with his hands folded under his face like the guy he had obviously climbed on top of the life raft looking for rescue ships when we brought him aboard we found out that he was dead compromise que vea fuzzy see you that young officer was lieutenant Jurado sevilla dueling Jamaa telephony calling me homage or maybe hostess occasion that night my other son called and they asked me whether I've been listening to the radio I said no I'd be watching the television it had been listening to some ridiculous stories on a foreign radio station but he didn't say anything else so I went to bed when early the next morning I switched on the radio and the first thing I hear is at the Del Grande has been attacked Casey you do oh dear honest Bombardier Oh reconsider here del gran oh come on I rushed to the phone to call my son my sister and it turned out that I had been up all night listening to the news that was the start of my longer my Long Knives valeriano de la la researches a lunes nobody's here the next day non news on Tuesday nothing that afternoon the parish priest at the church just across the road from my home said a special Mass or my neighbors and relatives came to pray for my son safe return but it was not to be no question de Grasse Araminta prophecy so we are go to it was just a boy he was six foot five keep him in your memory so happy so healthy listen fellas uh Sonny's oh well you wouldn't like to see me crying like this a bit in the Basilica does the widow see with the moment commander speaking today we've had a large measure of success the belt Rada the Argentinian Cruiser has been torpedoed the south of the Falkland Islands by one of our SFM any euphoria following the sinking of an enemy vessel was short-lived Argentine Navy pilots were determined to hit back [Music] [Music] they took off from airfields in southern Argentina the crook'd with exercise missiles and went in search of revenge [Music] hms sheffield was on the lookout for enemy aircraft well forward of the main british feet slide arrow one public target zero one zero one zero four factories off this sea was very calm we were looking out to sea and i thought that it looked like a torpedo was on its way because the sea wished shimmering and shaking if you like and so i said i thought there's a torpedo the pilot also had trained his glasses around to the same spot and he said no it's an exercise he austere watch and other members of the bridge crew started to take cover but i remember myself in the second officer watch becoming transfixed to than the miss islands way in which really does amaze me now on i come to think that we watched it almost to the point of impact when we quickly huddled together and dropped to the floor you [Music] San Carlos the place chosen for the British landings the Special Boat squadron had been watching the area in secret for weeks they were amazed to find it only lightly defended in feeding candy olive we couldn't possibly defend every single spot where the British forces might have chosen to land we didn't have enough resources we had to defend the main target it taught to Argentina we need that of course the Argentinians are trained by the Americans or infant's by the Americans and believed that we were also they therefore thought if they were doing it they would land understand it and they assumed that because we had American influence we would land estates to send it we didn't do it that way and quite about anything else it would have caused terrible and typically unforgivable casualties to civilians and it's just not the British way of doing things we prefer a more subtle approach to to these matters shoo whoa a super toaster Vittorio yeah say via des picado empo collab rumah a no solamente estaba no cierto i went up to the observation post and the mist was lifting i could clearly see several frigates and transport ships and there were dozens of helicopters flying about a landing craft coming towards us said Tara no fear Mayday realmente airing picante and let me tell you it was quite a sight I had never seen such a fleet deployed in front of me there were 5,000 troops about to land and there I was with my 40 men when we hit the beach in my particular boat the ramp went down and a naval order which is part of their drills I suppose went out as troops out and not a soul moved in the boat because of course when you move a paratrooper collectively don't shit shout out who shout and go and this raw marine shouted again trumps out nothing happened and then a quick witted some major shouted go I have already flooded off the boat the actual landing was a bit farcical in the sense that we all thought they're going to war but there was no opposition so you had five six hundred screaming paratroopers coming off a landing craft onto a beach never having done that sort of thing before I was so used to going to war or exercise by parachute that chaos reigned for some little time where companies had to regroup and go after their own individual tasks so if the landing had been opposed I think we'd have been in a little bit of trouble in the early stages as his troops came ashore brigadier Julian Thompson feared an air attack on the ships at anchor in San Carlos he tried to alert London to the danger without success I was very conscious of the fact that I was responsible for the lives of a large number of men I sent a letter in which I said we will of course carry out the landings that's what we've been told to do but you should know that if we are attacked by the air and the enemy are successful in their attack we will take very very heavy casualties indeed politicians must never show military advisers that they are fearful of too many characters if you do that you will put caution on the commander's right down the way when caution come they may not get the right answer [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] people you're a fast jet pilot you've got to be good or you're dead I think it's a matter which country you come from because they've got have bloody good reactions and got to be good and the Argentinian you imagine with holidays with racing drivers polo players and what better sort of chat to have sitting in a fighter xi diamond draw you know the world a drain that beers I said my altimeter thirty feet but I must have gone lower than that because the alarm went off several times we were flying at 450 knots and at that sort of height well it's quite a peculiar experience yeah I saw the mast of the figured up ahead and we lined up for the attack so if they are not better in attacking they knew what are you doing they knew how to attack the ship they all lined up one after the other and came up this turn at that time the captain ordered full speed we tried to maneuver in there 20 millimetres to bear but it seemed whichever way captain turned the ship there's an aircraft lined up on the stern need to come in it will get our direction under him okay area incremental so velocidad and maximally the ship was reacting well I could see that it was moving at top speed make him for the open waters in the middle of the channel trying to maneuver away from us when you have unions he may atella by this time the ship was directly below me so I banked over here drop the bombs and the scale I certainly felt that the skipper below me knew what he was doing it a copy as I flew away I heard my wingman say well done sir which meant that at least one of my bombs had hit target Jamie numeral que decía muy bien Senora assume indica lucky day me home bus I won below him the pilot my Crabtree just went very silent as we came down over the hill and flew through the smoke and in the back we couldn't see what was happening and we could smell the fire smoke and then we came to the hover off the port quarter and looked at and it's a sight I shall never forget the fires of hell burning in that ship she was a tanker the gun pointing straight up to the sky all the hydraulic power gone the flight deck just smashed in and opened up with a can opener I remember waking up again the dining hall was pitch black I could see that my hand was injured but all we had 95 level like I just see a mess and ice of bloods around the hand and there's no pain no feeling at all ie football league and so so finger pick on these days my problem at a quick feel over the wrist my body and I had a large piece of form a like a sticking up the top of my head here I pulled out two away I then tried to get up and I was only unable to I could get up on all fours but I was unable to crawl out from whatever it was that was stopping me moving dreadful feeling dreadful and think about getting help in getting out I thought a little cheated in the fact that I'd survived this far you pray and I could hear somebody moving around in the debris and he came up to me and said oh I'm eight right and I think you know okay get this thing off my back I couldn't even see the man sir dark that is something or what I was thinking about those days my at that time my wife was five months pregnant at the time her first child and I wanted to get home but like I'm a bike like a miracle am the ship must have slid around but we got a breath of sweet tasting air and the hole in the side I still just caught up so Aaron it was did and took a large long fold and we started moving back into the ship I sent them all off and then ISIL stood there on the bridge on my own people getting all my men off by then and I Yarmuth I put her Stern on to our bow because we were sinking about this time and I finally walked by them and stepped on and it was very sad and as we moved away from her I never lost my chaps were in tears we yes I was yes when they look beyond me horn bus not do this yeah when I've on the ship I'm not trying to kill anybody I certainly wasn't trying to kill the ardent crew what I'm trying to do is to put the ship out of action even though hopefully without causing any casualties that's how I felt throughout the war because and that's how all my colleagues felt clearly of those hours to put it out I gotta come with when captain West well I tell him that I regret sinking his ship and I'm sorry that some of his men had to die but I was doing my job just as he was doing his meter así como el estado con primo [Music] [Music] we were called by a team at Minerva contact Northwest 40 miles all we saw was one vicara that was flown by chat or major tomba my first run-in I shot at him and shot half his left aileron off and said his right engine on fire so I was hitting alright pulled away and thought he would go to the ground not a bit of it there's a momento me ro ll ER I'm Aryan avail I look to my wing and saw a gaping hole it looked a bit like a rose with open petals sooner Ra's al Ghul of pitiless a weirdo military then I saw the two Harriers flying over me my plane was shaking but it was still flyable so I flew on trying to get away pero se lo commandos action Alan vomit or a functional ambien this time I came in slow I put my flaps down to bring my nose down so I've been aimed more easily noticing the height in my head up display I carefully but tracking nice and smoothly and fired a long burst into him set the port engine on fire knock bits off the rear fuselage and the canopy shattered EC and dot ODS off I go they see that I veered and I felt another burst hitting my crew so large the plane was still shaking and then an engine with a fire I could see I was beginning to lose control the fire started spreading and then suddenly I completely lost it I had to eject I feel very near the plane we've got about 40 or 50 meters away Madhavi on he gave up lady gum in the wounds and I thought well what a character I mean he should have got out off the first pass he stayed with it until they just wouldn't fly got out just before it hit the ground and apparently walked back to Goose Green he was captured later and I had nothing about the highest respect for him I mean that was real bravery I called the ops room after having shot him down and said more trade that means anything else for us to do and the fellow said wait I said what do you mean wait he said lecture we just had our options draft and we'd gunfire 30-millimeter can the man across the desk room he has lost the top of his head and I've been hit in the arm and I'm just collecting myself and I felt awful I said okay sorry about that within seven seconds he was back online saying right we think we've got trade for you up to the north [Music] Argentina's pilots sustained heavy losses only a few survived being shot down person I meant a pencil again I won with a side Allah I really thought they were going to throw me overboard because well I suppose that when he just been captured there you can't be a bit paranoid they were taking off my survival suit I'm pointing at me with this rifle but I also have this great sense of relief after all I was alive I wrap the blanket rounding let's get em away on to this one then I look down and I noticed that my left leg was at a strange angle it was dislocated I was in terrible pain so they injected me with more female painted an M on my forehead he has got a complete for and our justification of his left knee probably rupturing some of his thigh muscle he had a dislocated left kneecap patella bone which I have reduced the dislocation we've now wrapped him up he's got a nasty lot of bleeding around the joint as he an antenna a pin so he can be done wholly tambien they took me to hospital and this doctor told me here you are just another patient DeLeon and the truth is that's exactly how I felt from there not with you of course I was in British hands but I was never really treated like a prisoner I was just another patient they don't know it but at that although many Argentine planes were shot down the task force remained vulnerable to air attack on May the 25th Atlantic conveyor was hit by Nexus at missile when we drove up there was a chaplain for merchant seaman's mission in Manchester and passes Claire and adult you know waiting for us on the road and I saw his little blue badge his lapel and you also must get on something's wrong so he said can I speak to in the house place for suggestion also I said the children go in the kitchen please and sent them away in the kitchen he took me in and out he said I'm afraid of some bad news for you I said just how bad he said I'm afraid is the very worst and then I couldn't get rid of the man I just wanted him to go he says chill make another a strong cup of tea I can remember that and they came and kept saying what so much I said quiet I'll see you later and then he went and then of course I told the children digital I just said that the ship had been hit the dad had been killed and they sent me a but you look at map saying Frank folks spiders see on Wednesday the 26th of May I got a plastic bag analysis type his wristwatch you st. Christopher is where they drink very upset about and taking this readily enough because it it worried me was very very tight he'd never taken it off and I worried how they'd got it off his fingers huh and he always used to wear a cap down below because he didn't just write your oil in his hair and his cap was in this plastic bag but they're all wet still as it come out of the sea British forces digging in at San Carlos were held up by the loss of vital equipment on the Atlantic conveyor but Julien Thompson was under pressure from London to get on with the war at the time it was clear to me that back in England there was a political need for a victory so that we could be seen to be doing something seemed to be winning I think there were many others who were worried initially that having got a beachhead at San Carlos we were going to get stuck there and not be able to break out of it because everybody has memories there were memories of the time we took to break out of the beachhead in Normandy and in terms of the whole of the Falklands wasn't the big area but just it was stuck in a very small area and confined there would have had all sorts of troubles in every way not least on the diplomatic front because if we didn't get a move on all the proposals for ceasefires would become stronger and cease fires which would have conditions which would not have been beneficial from our point of view all those risks so a breakout was very important there you are quite happy or they'll in mind if you like dying for your Queen and country you certainly don't contemplate dying for politicians I was summoned often to the radio telephone to speak with the superior cause in Northwood and on one particular occasion I can remember after a particularly irritating turf and colonization walking out of the tent and saying to myself in on somewhat of a temper I shall win the war for these buggers and then I shall go on direct orders from London the second parachute battalion launched an attack on the Argentine stronghold at Goose Green it's dark there's an enormous mountain noise there's incoming fire to you there's white phosphorous going off to provide smoke and illumination there's tracer coming towards you and going to get away from you there's fear running through you you close up towards the trenches you throw grenades you fire your weapon you burn it it's savage gutter fighting everything you've ever experienced before is nothing like it it is basic killing in command of two para was Lieutenant Colonel H Jones H Jones of the warrior it wasn't a peacetime soldier he was single-minded he was aggressive he was determined charismatic leader everybody knew that he was in charge the co got on the radio to a company and told him to get a grip and speed up and continue the movement which they couldn't so he said not having any of this and decided to go up and join a con to say he got a little bit pear-shaped would be slight understatement when he made up his mind that a thing was going to be done then it was going to be done you don't actually get time to think if the CEO says you do something then you do it you might think daddy fool afterwards ordering it but you get out and do it and the co said we join a company and we're going over the top so we joined a company and we went over the top want to actually got down there then we're in a slightly better position but when I got there guns the co he didn't stop he kept running so I thought here we go and all of a sudden somebody behind me shouted out watch out there's a trench on the left and I shall return to watch his back because I could see what was going to happen and he ignored me or didn't hear me I would think he actually ignored me and charged up the hill to neutralize the trench that I was firing out as he got to within six or seven feet of that trench it actually got shot from the trenches behind you know that you could actually see and I saw the rounds striking the ground behind him coming up gradually getting towards him and actually shot him in the back and the impact of the rounds hit him actually pushed him right on top of the trench that he was going for the Sigma's in his headquarters had prepared a phrase sunrays done so that we would had I would know that something was wrong with him which would be the key for me to step in to the breach and in this confusion over the radio came this cry sunray is done I couldn't believe it and I actually answer verification and cars are Blackburn his Sigma shot it again sunray is down for chrissake and then the surge of apprehension and fear and would I perform well enough what do I do now what's the situation up there ran through me you know slightly numb in the fact that you're SEOs aren't supposed to die and the actual implication of the commanding officer taking on an enemy position frontal was sort of comic book stuff that you read about and you don't really think that it should happen I turned him over because he was lying on his back got his webbing off and actually found the wound and at this stage he was still conscious although slipping into unconsciousness so I stayed there trying to keep him warm with extra wind proofs and his own quoted jacket and unfortunately some time later he died a tenant Colonel Joe captain good captain day less than inspiring [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] next to the prisoner of war Cade was the sheep pens was actually a pile of ammunition that had to be moved and we had a rough idea that it was booby-trapped and the RCI's antennas officers if they would move the ammunition for their own safety so a detailed officer meant to actually help move the ammunition which was artery shells and mortar ammunition and they're moving it and all of a sudden there was a bang and there was a booby trap there and the soldier involved right next to the booby trap was actually in a vacuum flames and explosives and the only thing that could be actually done for the soldier because we couldn't get to him was actually he was shot to take him out of his misery because there was nothing humanly else to be done for him and then I actually thought I'm lucky it was an eerie sort of silence pitch dark freezing and then the mind just ran riot and I felt tears trickling down the siding we face where when I thought about good blokes actually died that day and the fact that more were likely to die tomorrow here and there lump came in the throat and I lay there for a good couple of hours actually going through the events of the day in readiness for the advance on Stanley reinforcements were brought in to San Carlos to avoid a long march the Welsh Guards were moved aboard the ship Sir Galahad it sets sail for a place called bluffco due to bad weather the Sir Galahad was diverted away from bluff Cove into a small Inlet called Fitzroy major UN south Taylor was horrified by the ships arrival crammed full of troops in broad daylight it was in grave danger of Argentine air attack he wanted the men moved urgently off the ship to the safety of the shore just 200 yards away and I put it to the senior officer they could find on his turn of of the gun ahead that my considered in professional opinion as a land court officer and somebody involved in a previous warfare foot or missile my career was that they should get off first and then wait he was adamant that bluff Cove was his destination and not fitzroy i was equally adamant that i was not going to take him to bluff cocaine anything in daylight and I was of course tragically proved correct and if you are say to another my craft for sunk I pointed out it was any two hundred yards away it would take maybe only 20 minutes to get all his men off he said he wouldn't put his men in in a mixed layers of ammunition but we heard from citrus trim but we had the baits alongside to take them in off I explained to him that this is war we didn't operate to peacetime restrictions during war and that the men were in grave danger and I think that was probably the most serious but most often made point that I put across and eventually in a fit of extreme anger I told him that he was behaving extremely responsibly and that I would not be held responsible for what happened to his men and a poor country clear three or four hours eight and I approved at some correct [Music] [Music] there's parties screaming shouting I wish everyone big favor there's no way the flames to escape rebounded and come back and caught the most of my back I legs not sure I actually caught fire and as always coming trying to get out I fell over I saw demands [Music] it was read out the deck as if the metal had been in a foraging a blacksmith - it was like a as if I was seeing double there was a hand and the ripples the skin of the am should actually come off to the top here and it was like a glove on top and it was flapping about in both hands when I came round I don't know how long I couldn't been out that long anyway so all I could feel was a burning sensation on the lower part my left leg so I didn't think nothing of it so I also mostly tied to stand up not thinking missing of it and I remember looking at my left hand because that's what I was more worried about because it melted and when I stood up my leg had gone it was just little bits left of it [Music] as I was looking out you see other people are injured probably your mates whatever but you couldn't recognize them because of the blackness of the face head burns it's gone all black and they started bubbling and sort of scabbing scabbing up and it smelt awful I was bleeding from the head but there was nothing desperately wrong with me and I I knew where the door was and I started thinking about getting myself out and I tried to get up onto my knees and the thickness of the smoke which was layered stopped me breathing straightaway so I had to go back down onto the floor unfortunately I was in somebody else's remains and at that time but I I felt it I couldn't see it so I just I started making my way towards the exit which I where knew it was and a chat from the back of the room very very muffled because of the smoke and the darkness he started screaming that he'd lost his leg and that was the the biggest deciding point in my life whether or not always going to go and help him will get out nobody would have ever known because it was just him and me left alive in the room and I decided I wanted to be a hero so I went back for him and we were calling through to each other through the darkness and I was still desperately trying to talk my talk myself into turning around and making my way to the exit anyway I found Kevin Woodford by accident and I must have trodden on the stump of his leg because the next thing I know a fist came out of the darkness and clobber me one and kevin was very very obviously hysterical I couldn't find my morphine or his morphine everything was confused for me and we carried the morphine run our next it's called on the pond and he was a big man and the only thing I could do was to put my arms underneath his arms and start dragging him along the floor in the direction of where I knew the exit was well all the armchairs and said he had turned into barricades and as he was so heavy and I couldn't lift him and I couldn't breathe as well because this mug I was having to bulldoze my way through the barricades and I very quickly lost all my strength and I was just losing control completely I got in about three-quarters of way down the room when I was bred to him that I had to leave him I was going to go get help [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] but now a couple hundred I was in the stretcher and I was supporting my left leg in the air and obviously it was a lot of bits hanging off it so I suppose it look very phonetic when they actually got me off the helicopter I looked down there was a film crew there and they seemed to jump at me so I was a bit annoyed at that I've been aware that I swore at the motto does the old-school way or whatever and there they were filming me probably because it seemed the state on my leg casualties were airlifted to the British hospital ship Uganda Chris white suffering from shock and convinced he'd left a man below decks to die tried to take his own life and I noticed that they hadn't taken my aamna pon my morphine ampulla off of me which was a fixed my dog tags around my neck and so I basted the morphine to myself into my chest aiming for the heart and I just lived my shirt over to one side punched it in but obviously the needle wasn't deep enough and I was spaced out for one a little while after that the Padre came down he'd heard about this particular person who kept on trying to do these silly things and he'd also been talking to a young man up in intensive care who had had his leg taken off by the action on the Galahad and he put two and two together and he came down and took me to Kevin Woodford and I could I couldn't recognize Kevin because as I said when I first met him it was in the dark we took one look at each other first inches and that was it it's a less incredible feeling all the burns victims were treated together in a converted officers mess on board Uganda it was also sort of stench of burning not and quite close by to this to the mat there was a very tiny galley but it's not like fun with burnt toast and when you just sort of open a door and there was about 40 pairs of black spaces and it it was a feeling of Apollo as better than we just want us off covert open and turn lane line and then we thought God - the hardest hire you have on your face [Music] and you just walked in and trying to smile and and get on with your job [Music] and had very little hair no eyelashes no eyebrows their hands at that time they've been put into what I call calamity and bag which a bag that go over the hand a special cream that they use for very bad burned we just wanted to go back to your room and cry your eyes out because he's found so definitely find his paper I could have got those men off in 20 minutes no question of that box over and anybody within a professional sense would have taken the advice of the on-the-spot expert regardless of rank but unfortunately I was not wearing the rank of Lieutenant Colonel who as far as I can make out was the only man who's prepared to listen to him and I think probably in my career that was the most angry I have ever been although I was not directly involved it was certainly the only time in my career that I felt almost shame at being involved in something that has gone wrong and although I blame myself partly for not insisting with even more vigor that the men were brought ashore I feel that I am not actually to blame for the deaths of his name and it gets with me even after six figures the distance from San Carlos to Stanley is 60 miles British troops had to walk the whole way this yump was carried out in extremely harsh conditions freezing temperatures snow and driving rain fresh water you can get so obviously you know you take what you can you know at the ground and um we would sort of stamp onto the peat or dig holes until we got a puddle it was also sod on the ground and scooting water in a mug and put some sterilized and tablets in Nice water was absolutely black but I mean you drank it no matter how many sperry tubs you you sterilized and tablets just going to end up taking out on ya now myself pussy on it I never had any underpants on and by the time you've got to Stanley and there's quite a few guys I had because um you know having the shit one of those in our tree I just underneath it and just cut through his underpants and just toss them away and just carried on walking I mean there's nothing else he could do I mean lead the dot he just said you know then thing you can do because you're losing body fluid is to just drink lots of water of course we're drinking that crap again as the British troops closed in the Argentine conscripts could only wait dug in on the mountains around Stanley they prepared for the final battles it's a conversaciones innocent emotion in those last days we talked about was how many would die five ten twenty we felt this impotence but I'm waiting for death and there was nothing we could do about it so you look back at what you've done in your life but we were 19 so there's not much we could have done really if I ever heard it for the British - there was an anxious wait troops had to sit it out until the order to attack was given nothing happened and the tension was pretty sort of electric and we were all moving an extended line and still nothing happened and we were just waiting and after a while you know people you will also feel almost a sense of relief people will be anything well they've they've bugged out they're not here anymore and just as we were beginning to feel that it was suddenly literally the horizon just lit up in complete sort of sea of white flashes [Music] that initial firefight was quite incredible it was like being at the wrong end of the machine gun range and the noise was incredible and I think we were fairly stunned for it for a minute or two and you really had the feeling that if you raised your hand you know each slightly in the air it would be shot off you guys will know another really big or adversity is only one delayed the grenade exploded near us and lifted the soldier up in yet there was shouting screaming and explosions and bullets flying complete chaos anyway he stood up and shouted I'm hit im hit that lady arrow mediator he was swearing and screaming at the top of his voice but he could still walk he turned to me and said here take my rifle he handed over examination to another soldier and then he started shouting I'm leaving I'm leaving I suppose he meant it was over for him that he'd had enough this was all happening with the British troops right in front of us very close by it was all so crazy it's hard to explain now see people say football at that anyway he started walking away and they threw a phosphorus grenade at him before and he actually could fire and he started screaming he was like a human torch but what really bothered us was that he was lighting up a position so that the enemy could see us so we started renting him away he was at that point we didn't care whether he lived or died our total internal machinery salicin deposit armory you know well you can always tell if you're close to someone when they've been hit because you hear the crack of the bullet but you also hear a sort of horrible sort of sort whack as the bullet hits sort of solid flesh bone and it's pretty unpleasant it's extraordinary this phase very grim and you just even if you've never heard that sort of thing before you just instinctively know exactly what happened and one of my soldiers Vera nitesite suddenly saw one of them and we heard the crack and we the thump as it hit the Argentinian there was a moment's silence and it was most terrible screaming from his Argentinian and he was screaming for his mother and there was complete silence from both sides at this point and both of us listened to it and I'm sure we in a way were just as horrified as the Argentinian it really was an awful noise and it went on and on and on Tamina Gabrielle you Millie Wendy you've won the video ante then I finished loading and when I stood up there was a British soldier right in front of me we borrow other's time they rule over us and then he shot me they shot me in the head I felt as though I was falling backwards in in slow motion they must have thought I was dead they just let me there but in fact the bullet hadn't hit the skull run down my helmet and hit me in the back of the neck maybe whatever and I thought my god I'm alive I turn around I don't know how and started crawling back on no force bit oh I got it I tried to stand up but I couldn't Sally got viendo I reached the edge of the mountain and I remember seeing the whole valley beneath me it was like a vision of hell thank you the most terrifying sight I've ever seen explosions fires machine guns rattling soldiers yelling and screaming many fellow bomb before you go Amit Reza Dora gritos Courtney I felt everything spinning around when I tried to stand up I fell down the slope you won't know me buddy McKay let me get on board where are they all thought I was dead I was conscious but I just couldn't move a single muscle so they rolled me up in this blanket and put me on top of this pile of bodies no serious yeah a Lovato did it cleared it away later a sergeant came along jotting down the names of the dead soldiers he was crying he looked desperate well it was such complete chaos and he started talking to me and I must have blinked this Oracle me it does suddenly he realized that I was still alive because when they tell you as we started going up the mountain and the enemy we're just melting before us we just went faster and faster until we got to the top and in a way we almost couldn't believe that we'd got to the top and they're just four kilometers away or something and clearly in view with Stanley we could see the lights and I think for a second or two we just sort of stood there looking at this with them euphoria that you know we'd done it and of course that was fatal because at that moment from 200 meters away an Argentinian automatic weapon of some sort and several other weapons open up on us and in that initial sort of burst which was almost a sort of ambush really three of us were hit I saw the person in front of me to spin rounds of a pirouette round he'd been hit in the head and the force just sort of literally knocked him spinning like a top and there was a crack behind me and someone had been hit behind me and it all seemed to be in slow motion in fact it was just my brain thinking rather faster but as I turned to run into the nearest cover myself I suddenly felt something like enormous love hammer blows on my legs and the tracer from the rounds was like sort of you know it's the scarlet rods all around me and I noticed with my right leg especially both my legs but especially my right leg was very sort of um stiff already and there was a sort of brief burning sensation through through the muscle on my right arm I put my right hand down to touch my leg and two of my fingers went in up to the knuckles and at that point that I realize I had actually been hit the stretcher-bearers found it very difficult to get into us eventually they did and they started carrying us down and then the next thing I knew was that I was lying a short distance from my stretcher and it was complete silence I never heard the blast or anything whether I've been knocked unconscious for a short time I don't know I turned round and the stretcher bearers basically were in pieces at least one of them was completely blown to pieces it was really was wretched I just couldn't believe it as the British moved on towards Stanley Argentine dead were left scattered across the battlefield burying them was a gruesome task the first car came across from he he had all of this partridge face here is totally missing and he had of the chest upper chest wounds have total gives dogtags out and while I was doing it I was talking what I was good okay yeah right I'm just going to undo his dog tags and right yeah ah here they come yep not because I was trying to talk lads what I was doing obviously I was just trying to stop myself from thinking about this going because you know you'd find a wallet on him and a big picture in there of them with their wife and kids and I was looking an awful liar you know fucking out you know that could have been me line there everybody we came across was all twisted you could see the agony you know that these guys are billion when they died I mean that their legs are all twisted their arms and then we found down an Argentine officer he'd been into the udder a belly wound I can't remember if Annan and now they call me over said I'll call over in live and have a look at this guy and one over and he was sort of East I speak to me in English and he was telling me you know that eating wives you know why we were fighting either I feel bad about the bodies you know the state of them and everything and now the way we sort of just kind of toss them into a hole yeah I they just kiss him the guy that was injured um you know I've wished Nate that he'd never spoken English like you know him I he died can we stop them it'd still be four years to cry about whew a few dead people because obviously you can't cry then you know you got a job to do and you do it I still feel even now feel them you know why I'm crying or what I'm afraid I'll just I just don't see them enemy [Music] [Music] entonces yo na nak toma de conciencia reggae yeah we realized that it was pointless to carry on we have no more cards to play raluchi de a penis a Vsauce our artillery was down to about 10 or 12 guns upon radio director we had no L support not Englishman the British were just of our shows shelling us for our rifles also propios our men were exhausted they had fought hard and had lost much of their equipment if we carried on we would just have been wasting life that is the conclusion I reached revolution so then I discussed it with the high command before accepting the British offer of a ceasefire and to start of negotiations resolved via acceptance si el fuego fishy opa los ingleses amassed Raz pro Haren la conversación eco reckon dientes peasant en algún waha muy grande para mira it really hurt we have been defeated and I felt defeated what really stuck in my mind was seeing the Union Jack flying after surrender that was quite a blow I was so angry and frustrated that I broke down in tears I remember thinking about all I had been through the hunger and the cold loneliness the death of so many of my friends and after all that there was the British flag flying over us it was unbearable [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] as I walked around the corner and actually Stanley came into view I thought bloody hell was it all worth it it was smelly dirty and it just wasn't my idea of what Stanley was going to be the whole place was chaotic with guns and ammunition lying about your dead body every other building seemed to have a red cross on it and there was the smell which is unmistakable of death and we eventually went to the top floor of a little house which we requisitioned which we shared with one of the companies of tu perra and during the night we turned on one of our radios to BBC World Service and we heard about the surrender from the BBC 8,000 miles away which was being conducted in a building 800 yards from where I was sitting and we all felt most enormous sense of relief and my main feeling was that no more young men were going to have to die it was not like winning a football match run you know that it was just a normal sense of relief that it was over we'd all go home [Applause] we sailed in early that morning everywhere we look to the small boats packed with people to cheered us in and it was a brilliant feeling really because you know it makes it then seem worthwhile [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] just upset you you felt very bitter towards the people that were coming back but as individuals just because they'd all come back and Frank haven't on the surface isn't a lot of razzmatazz him coming in many aspects was fairly subdued as a personal experience for many of us there was a feeling that we didn't want to leave the environment in which we had spent so long on our own comrades amongst our friends people we knew and going into a world which was full of people didn't know what we'd gone through who were perhaps putting the wrong connotation or what had happened who perhaps reveling in the fact of victory for the wrong reason and I actually some ways tell some of the luxans who was down the brow of that ship in amongst it all returning to Buenos Aires conscripts found that life seemed to go on much the same as before the war Tanaka I will eat it boy as human as odd to us I don't know what I remember we went out to this bar and I walked in the knife Ford well this can't be a very happy place after all this being going on I went out to the bar and I ordered a beer when I looked around me and the place is full of happy faces everyone was having a good time celebrating as though we just won the World Cup you think that nothing had happened in Argentina no episode aired I can enough cantina nunca pasinetta too soon a Supra Walter and I asked myself how many fathers did I kill what was the point did I do all this on my culture what's my country are you my country get all those of you laughing and dancing and having a good time or we suffer it's not resentment I'm not asking for any reward all I'm saying is look we risked our lives at 19 many didn't come back but we didn't what are we supposed to do now vamos a ganar guessing I asked to go down to Southie and drive along the seafront before we finally return to our home as I drove along the front there people were having their summer holidays they were eating their ice creams they were sitting in their deck chairs and they were generally passing the time of like the time of day enjoying themselves and I felt as if I wanted to pick them up and shake them and say look there is a war going on people are getting killed and somehow I felt for them that the war was something that happened at 8 o'clock in the morning when they picked up their newspapers or switched on the radio or at 9 o'clock at night when the TV news came on I think going for the first sort of few days I couldn't I didn't like all the young flag waving [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] strangers would come up and say something stupid like did you kill anybody you know or they'd be sloughing on the back and buying the points and you'd go along with it a bit yeah I was down there and all that lot but you never really tell them what it was like you just tell them well basically what this is the British public D now I don't know any best moment the the whole affair is one of tragedy it's a war is a messy dirty miserable business and we should never ever allow ourselves to get war we the British people are proud of what has been done proud of these heroic pages in our island story proud to be here today to salute the task force found to be British we went to fight because they had invaded British territory it's really all a question of pride I think Britain had to have that pride of the self or as a nation we would have just been what now they had to do it how the price and my family paid no one will ever know exactly what prize we made perhaps it was worth it for bread and sake you

Info

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 1,828,987

Rating: 4.704185 out of 5

Keywords: falklands war, falklands war documentary, full documentary, history documentary, channel 4 documentary, full length documentaries, the falklands war, falkland war, bbc documentary, falkland islands, the falklands war documentary, war documentary, world war ii (military conflict), falkland war documentary, war documentaries, timeline documentary, battle of britain, falkland islands war

Id: V887sYcmIAc

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 101min 27sec (6087 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 14 2017

Reddit Comments

https://youtu.be/V887sYcmIAc?t=3391

This guy at 56:30, H Jones is the Leeroy Jenkins of the Falklands. Was the CO too.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/EightballTV 📅︎︎ Sep 01 2018 🗫︎ replies