Page 26 - ABA Salvoes 1999-2024

more than in peace-time! Nigel Bedford’s FO3 team joined BSM Richards in HMS ALACRITY for a night bombardment of the Stanley Peninsular and westwards, while FO4 and I cross-decked to HMS COVENTRY, where the Captain met us and said his orders were to get to the Sea Dart line by first light to try and catch the C130 which was re-supplying the Argie garrison through Stanley.
I was given a target update by David Drysdale from HMS HERMES, but we were too late for the 0500 hrs C130, so moved down to Stanley and launched Kevin Arnold for air- spotting. The visibility was poor and there was much air activity round Stanley, with the result that we were at air alert most of the time. Another Cl30 came in later in the morning and HMS COVENTRY launched three Sea Darts at it. The first passed close to the plane and was seen by the air-crew, but it failed to explode, the second went rogue and the third vanished. Tried another bout of NGS but developed a gun fault. Then a slow moving target was picked up over the land and a fourth Sea Dart was loosed off; this time an orange ball of fire fell out of the sky. It was an awesome sight from my grandstand on the wing- bridge, and I couldn’t help being sorry for the occupants of what was later identified as a Puma heard from FOF1 that we were to be relieved on the gun-line by the HMS GLASGOW/HMS BRILLIANT combo. A Lynx duly arrived and Kevin Arnold and I had a very unpleasant 20 minute night transfer in a gale with zero visibility. The ship put down a series of floating flares, but even so we missed HMS GLASGOW the first time and had to go round again. I take my hat off to our superb pilot, who gave us a running commentary on what he was doing, not all of which we wanted to hear! Found HMS GLASGOW eager to start NGS, as this was their first bombardment. After briefing the ops room and gun crew, came onto line and engaged selected targets from the updated list. Then came onto our combo station, launched Kevin in the Lynx and started a second bombardment, but he reported bad visibility so moved down to the south to investigate a surface contact. We had fired 221 salvos (ships are beginning to get the hang of this after the constraints of peacetime restrictions). Got a signal from FOF1 to say that we would cross- deck back to the HMS COVENTRY/HMS BROAD- SWORD combo on the gun-line. This is getting quite tiring as we have only had a couple of hours sleep in the last 48. However, as HMS COVENTRY is away to the west of the Falklands doing another combo, we were told to go back again to be beastly to Stanley, which we did, firing a further 67 salvos.
The crew appear to be thoroughly enjoying this, but the situation was about to change a bit. Having sent Kevin up again in the Lynx he reported AFVs had been spotted on the shoreline. I went up to the GDP but couldn’t see them. Nevertheless we fired 9 salvos direct and understood they had landed on target. The Lynx had to be brought back as Pucaras had also been seen. Meanwhile, an air attack picture had been building up on the plot and I went up to the bridge to see what was going on. We failed to lock
onto the first pair of A4 Skyhawks, but the data had been passed by CAIS Link to HMS BRILLIANT, which shot down one in a fireball; in fact nothing but small pieces could be seen falling. The second of the pair appeared to dive into the sea. I didn’t see the next two A4s, but one bomb looked as if it was going to hit the bridge where I was standing but it bounced over us, landing near the stern and saturating the Lynx. A third pair of A4s came in very low out of the sun, which I saw with my binos about two miles away and just had time to warn “Bandits Green 30” before they were on us. There a dull thud on the starboard side while we waited for the bang — but nothing came! The wing- bridge reported a corresponding hole on the port side — the bomb had gone straight through, stopping one Olympus engine. We crept off the gun-line at 7 knots, counting the minutes to sunset with CAP keeping further raids at bay! Damage assessment teams arrived by Sea King and FO4 and I returned to HMS GLAMORGAN, to be welcomed with “We thought we’d seen the last of you”! It had become clear that the TEZ was not leak-proof, and intelligence pointed to an airstrip on Pebble Island, West Falklands, being used by the Argies as a staging post for Pucaras, Cl30s and possibly other aircraft, and as an EW radar and manned OP, reporting air and sea movement to the north of the west island. So FOF1 decided to mount an SAS raid to destroy the installations and aircraft located there. Capt Barrow and I took a Sea King to HMS HERMES where we were briefed by FOF1 and his staff. Chris Brown with the SAS came along to discuss his Fireplan ANTARCTIC FOX. It was now 13 May and it looked as if the Landing Force operations (Op SUTTON) would begin in about a week. I spoke to BC 148 Battery in HMS FEARLESS, as I was getting conflicting requirements for the deployment of NGS assets, especially in view of the Pebble Island raid. The ships earmarked for the raid were HMS HERMES (OTC) with the SAS and FO5, HMS BRILLIANT as guard, and HMS GLAMORGAN as the gun-ship. The Fireplan was on call and went according to plan, despite the SAS deciding that they wanted star instead of HE at the last moment. We had no casualties and although no radar was found, 11 aircraft were destroyed and an ammo dump blown up. HMS GLAMORGAN fired 90 HE and 12 star. Chris Brown’s post-op report gives an idea of what it was like at ‘the sharp end’.
Pebble Island Raid by Captain C C Brown RA. Capt Brown (NGFO5) was the spotter for this raid. His team normally consisted of himself and 4 men, but due to the shortage of helo lift he had to do without them. A recce had already been carried out by 17 Tp D Sqn 22 SAS and the raid would be mounted by the Sqn as a whole. Capt Brown had already taken part in the bombardment of Grytviken and Stanley Airport. HMS GLAMORGAN had also bombarded Stanley Airfield on 1 May (50 HE) and the Stanley area on 1/2 May (72 HE).
Aim: The aim was to destroy the enemy on Pebble Island in the priority 1. Radars and aircraft. 2. Materials and
24 | Amphibious Bombardment Association