Page 31 - ABA Salvoes 1999-2024

Also during this period I found myself on HMS Hermes for a briefing and was relaxing in the ward room which was situated about 4 or 5 decks down. While waiting for the appointed time to arrive “AIR RAID WARNING RED” was sounded and I found myself lying in the prone position on the floor waiting for the bang! For me that was without any doubt the worst moment in the entire conflict. I’m sure that I was in more danger on several other occasions ashore but to be caught onboard ship that far down into the bowels I felt so totally in the lap of the Gods. At least as a soldier on land I felt I could manoeuvre (run away), hide, dig a deeper hole or fire back and then in turn thank or not thank God on my own terms! Later NGFO 2 was deployed on a pre D-Day advance force OP on Sussex Mountain to cover the landings and diversionary raids in and around San Carlos Water. My abiding memory of this mission was our encounter with a “platoon” of penguins who discovered us shortly after we moved off the beach. They made one hell of a racket totally blowing any advantage that our supposedly stealthy night approach might have hoped to secure. Luckily there were no enemy in the vicinity but I must say it took some considerable time for my heart rate to stabilise! From D-Day we were heavily involved in the land campaign partaking in various bombardments, raids and FAC missions.
We were then deployed to 3 Para for the build up recces and assault on Mount Longdon. We had an NGS ship allocated to us on station nearly every night to conduct harassing missions, to support the recce patrols and to register targets for the fireplan in support of the main assault. Quite apart from the effect NGS was having on the ground the distinctive sound of the guns reverberating in the night served as an enormous morale boost for the “Toms” who would inundate the team with questions about what we were stomping. On the night of the assault we initially had two 105 batteries from 29 Commando and a type 21 frigate, HMS Avenger allocated to us. The ship was equipped with a fully automatic Mk 8 turret with a single 4.5” gun capable of producing a rate of fire of 24 rounds per minute. The attack was planned as a silent one and the approach from our start line took some considerable time longer than planned, not an untypical experience during the campaign. By the time the approach eventually went “noisy”, after one of our number trod on a land mine, we had closed to within about 100 metres of the forward edge of the objective. As the battle progressed we worked a cocktail of NGS and artillery mixing ground burst with air burst. A lethal combination amongst rocks and hard ground. The ship and artillery at danger close were enormously accurate and I felt very confident creeping it in very close to our forward troops while at the same time enabling them to maintain contact with the enemy. To quote from an article by B Company’s CSM WO2 J Weeks referring to the indirect fire support “without it we would have been bollocksed because we’d never have taken that ground”. Another satisfied customer and convert!
From there we were deployed to 2 Para for their attack on Wireless Ridge. What I found most interesting here from a Gunner’s point of view after years of “preaching” in the wilderness was the change in mind set of the planning team towards indirect fire support. They were not moving anywhere until they were happy with the fireplan and the amount of support available to carry it out. Bear in mind that 2 Para were the only battalion in the campaign to be committed to a second assault and then compare their support for this battle (2 x NGS ships, 2 x 105 Batteries and a Troop of CVRT) to that for Goose Green (1 x section of 105) I couldn’t help feeling there was an element of reinventing the wheel about what I was witnessing! Not all that unsurprising when you consider that these guys had been weaned on Northern Ireland and due to a lack of realistic opportunities to get exposed to live firing practices our usual major contribution to proceedings in the “All Arms” context was to give “Gunner Time!” From here we made our way into Stanley as the Argentinean surrender was being taken.
ENDEX Less of course for the unseemly jockeying for position in the pecking order to secure the earliest passage home in a ship that was not “Grey Funnel Line”! The skirmish made some of our earliest battles look like bun fights in the kindergarten! Some 50(+) NGS bombardments took place during the campaign from 14 ships firing a total of in excess of 8,000 salvoes. Also necessary to mention is that the Royal Navy sustained much of the damage to their ships and casualties to their personnel either on the gun line or advancing towards or withdrawing from it. So you will understand that we were not always welcomed on board with open arms – especially so in the case of the BK Bob Harmes who was ship wrecked three times and needless to say his reputation preceded him! It is not in doubt NGS played a significant part in the successful prosecution of the campaign. Looking back over the campaign some aspects that I recall most vividly include the absolute roller coaster and strength of emotions that bounced from the highest highs to the lowest lows. Sometimes from one to the other in a matter of moments. These encompassed everything from apprehension, excitement, fear, exhilaration, terror, misery, profound sadness at the news of friends having been killed or wounded through to the indescribable unbridled elation at having survived the ordeal. I also remember very clearly the severe battering the senses took, the dreadful stench of death, the noise, turmoil and all pervasive smell of cordite at the receiving end of incoming “neutralising” artillery and mortar fire, being pinned down by sniper, machine gun and small arms fire and the tremors brought on by this pummelling, the awful sight and sound at close quarters of people being killed, the cries of the wounded, the stickiness and warmth of blood on freezing hands when attempting to help the wounded and dying, the sheer physical discomfort brought about by the unforgiving terrain and dreadful weather conditions and anger at the inadequacy
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