Sailing into bomb alley

On April 2, 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a remote British colony in the South Atlantic.

The attack would lead to a brief but bitter and bloody war.

Argentina claimed Britain was occupying land it had inherited from Spain in the 1800s. But the UK, which had ruled the Falklands for 150 years, decided to expel the invaders and free the 1,800 islanders.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ordered a military task force to reclaim the islands, 8,000 miles away, along with South Georgia, where another Argentine force had landed.

In the fighting that followed, 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen lost their lives, as did three Falkland Islanders.

Gordon Monks, now 53, had just turned 23 in 1982 and was a tactical signalman in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), which operates the Royal Navy’s supply ships, when he heard about the invasion.

He said: “I was on a weekend off in Rosyth in Scotland, where my ship was docked, and my brother and I were travelling in a car when we heard the news of the invasion on the radio. I think I swore. Straight away I knew I had to get back to the ship.”

Mr Monks’s ship, the RFA Resource, was a 22,000-tonne ammunition ship.

He said: “When they announced we were to sail down there, I also thought it would all be resolved before we made the three-week trip – but how wrong I was.

“Whether we were going to war or not, we knew Argentina had a formidable air force and not a bad navy. This would not be a walk in the park.

“We were put into the main carrier force with the Hermes, Invincible and a number of other ships and then we joined the main amphibious group in San Carlos Water, off the west coast of East Falkland, from where we were to unload 100 Marines and their ammo and kit.”

But the British fleet was first rocked by two incidents.

First, the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk off the Falklands by the British submarine HMS Conqueror, with the loss of 328 Argentinian sailors.

Two days later, on May 4, the Argentines hit back. The first anyone knew that something had happened was when HMS Coventry received the message “Sheffield is hit”.

HMS Sheffield had been hit by an Exocet missile fired by an Argentine jet, which killed 20 of her crew and crippled the ship.

Gordon Monks said: “The Belgrano was obviously an enemy ship, but as sailors we all felt its loss. War is a nasty business and we thought of all who lost their lives.

“The Sheffield really rocked us though. We took on 100 uninjured men from the ship. Many were in shock and in tears. Obviously traumatised. They had lost everything when the ship went down.”

On the night of May 21, the British began their reconquest of the islands at San Carlos, when Royal Marines and paratroopers went ashore, soon silencing limited Argentine resistance.

Mr Monks said: “The atmosphere was buzzing with tension and excitement.

“We were anchored close to two other ammo ships – the RFA Fort Austin and RFA Stromness. We looked pretty impressive, but when you thought about it, we were in fact three massive floating bombs.

“Nearby were the RFA Sir Galahad, and the landing ships HMS Fearless and HMS Intrepid, plus a host of other smaller ships and merchant vessels.

“We were to go in and drop off our 100 Marines, but then something happened none of us was prepared for – the Antelope was hit.”

The frigate HMS Antelope was attacked by four Argentine Skyhawk planes, with two 1,000lb bombs piercing the hull but failing to explode. Bomb disposal teams went aboard to try to defuse the bombs, but one went off, killing a Royal Engineer and starting fires which overwhelmed the ship, detonating her ammunition. She sank the following day.

“I will never forget what I saw,” said Mr Monks. “We couldn’t do anything but watch this mighty ship hit and the explosions before she split in half and sank. I didn’t feel angry. Just terribly shocked.”

San Carlos Water was quickly nicknamed ‘Bomb Alley’ by the British and the RFA Resource was right in the middle of it.

Mr Monks said: “Most of us were seeing combat for the first time, plus 30 years ago we didn’t have the communication and things like mobile phones we have now.

“We would get to see newspapers, but they were often very out of date. We knew our families would be worried, but we just got on with doing what we were trained for.”

The Resource spent two days anchored off San Carlos Water, during a series of air attacks by the Argentine Air Force.

“I felt a mix of fear and adrenaline – fear because of the very real possibility of being hit by one of their bombs from their Skyhawks or Mirages, and adrenaline because I knew I just had to get on and work,” added Mr Monks.

“You would hear the chatter over the comms saying a hostile was approaching, then the buzz of the planes, the deafening rattle of anti-aircraft guns, the planes firing back and hopefully not huge explosions afterwards. Then it would happen all over again.

“I was often on the bridge and you would see the planes swoop by. Too fast to see the pilots’ faces. You knew it could be us any time. It was scary. But there was nowhere to run.”

Mr Monks and his shipmates ate when they could, slept in their clothes and showered wearing gas masks and lifejackets, hoping that they would make it out of San Carlos Water in one piece.

The Royal Navy would have suffered much heavier losses, but for the repeated failure of Argentine bombs to explode, due to the failure of fuses to detonate them.

On June 14 the Argentinians surrendered and the task force’s ships were able to begin the long voayage home. Sailing back into Plymouth, to a heroes’ welcome, Mr Monks spent two days with his parents and younger sister.

He said: “People put out the bunting and to begin with I found it all a little difficult to take in. People were so kind and generous, but it was strange to be stepping ashore after four months to such a fuss.”

Twenty years on, he went back to the South Atlantic.

He said: “I returned to the islands with the South Atlantic Medals Association.

“It was larger than life all over again. But it was also like putting a jigsaw together and I felt we all shared experiences and had a better understanding of each other, because of the trip.

“Thirty years on, especially now the argument over sovereignty is simmering again, it is difficult for me to remove the Falklands from the back of my mind. You can’t just close the door on it.

“In the meantime, I would not say I am proud to have been in the Falklands Conflict. Pride is not the right word.

“I did my job, and what was required of me. And I guess I am proud of that.”