Battle for the Falklands: The Winter War. Patrick Bishop

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      On Friday, 30 April, we were told the Task Force would launch attacks the next day on the Falklands and that three frigates would start a naval bombardment. The carriers would stay in the northeastern corner of the 200 mile zone, the farthest point for land-based Argentine aircraft to reach. ‘I’m sure we’ll hit them very much harder than they’ve expected and we’ll soon have them back at the negotiating table keen for a diplomatic solution,’ Commander Tony Provest, the second-in-command, said.

      For us, the war started the next morning, at 7.44 a.m. GMT, about three hours before dawn. (Throughout the voyage the Task Force had used ‘Zulu time’ or GMT, and as a result we were getting up at about 3 a.m. local time and going to bed at about 9 p.m. local.) A Vulcan bomber, codenamed ‘Black Buck’ and flying all the way from Ascension Island refuelled by Victor tankers, dropped twenty-one 1,000 pound bombs on Stanley airfield. Only one hit the runway and the raids were repeated later in the war, with no more success. From the bridge you could see the Harriers being prepared for battle, the yellow tip on the Sidewinder missiles beneath the wings showing they were armed. At 8.15 the flight controller told a helicopter pilot: ‘The Vulcan has gone in. We are now at war.’ At that moment the departure from Portsmouth more than three weeks earlier belonged to another existence. At 9.05 four Harriers took off, their jets burning brightly against the clear, starry sky. They were to fly CAP (combat air patrol) while the Harriers from Hermes, who were expecting to lose three planes, would hit Port Stanley airfield with high explosives and cluster bombs. Others would attack Goose Green, thought to be the main base for the Pucara, the dangerous counter-insurgency aircraft.

      The pilots from the first excursion looked tense although they had seen no enemy planes. The dawn came up slowly, its pink fingers curling over the horizon revealing a calm sea. Soon afterwards we had our first air raid warning and were told that Argentine Mirages had been ‘splashed’. The announcements throughout that long and tense day tended to paint a rather more serious picture of events, with reports of Super Etendards unleashing Exocets at incredible ranges of 140 miles. (This later turned out to be missiles fired at one of the Harriers.) On the bridge we wore our anti-flash and scanned the horizon for enemy planes, chewing toffees. An officer held up a picture of a Mirage so we would know what they looked like. There were continual games of cat and mouse over the horizon as the Argentine jets tested the fleet’s responses, veering away when they were intercepted by Harriers. We were frequently warned: ‘There is a possible air raid building in the west. On anti-flash.’ After long minutes we were told, ‘It’s all right. The Harriers have chased them away.’ In the meantime the bombardment of Stanley airfield continued. Crewmen broke off for ‘action snacks’, drank their tea from ‘action mugs’ and then headed for ‘action messing’. The word had become something of a joke and they now looked forward to an ‘action smoke’ with their ‘action pint’.

      It was a day of confusion. At 5.45 p.m. with a weak winter sun washing over the ship, we were told our Harriers had attacked a submarine close to the Falklands. Moments later we were informed it was a rock formation which looked like a submarine.

      It was also a day of some success. It had shown the Argentinians what the Task Force was capable of and only one Harrier from Hermes got a bullet through its tail. The rest returned undamaged. In the evening Paul Barton, an RAF pilot attached to 801 Squadron, shot down a Mirage with a Sidewinder missile and a Canberra with three men on board was also splashed by Alan Curtis, who a few days later died in an air collision. The Argentinians said they had destroyed eleven Harriers, two helicopters and had damaged several ships and an aircraft carrier. In fact only two ships were slightly damaged by bombs and cannons. A Lynx helicopter, which was directing naval guns, was hit by machine gun fire. The main Task Force came under attack from three Canberras which were driven off, one shot down and another limping home.