Ships Diary: Introduction

Rod Morris

This is Somerset Tue 20th March 2012

There was one word you did not want to hear in the operations room of a warship operating in the total exclusion zone around the Falkland Islands in the late spring of 1982 - "Handbrake".
Let me explain. The Royal Navy had two aircraft carriers (HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible) operating 40 Harrier fighters which formed the sum total of our ability to engage the 120 aircraft of the Argentinian Air Force. If we lost a carrier, we lost the war. Each of the aircraft carriers had a "goalkeeper" in the shape of a Type 22 Frigate.

HMS Hermes was paired with HMS Broadsword, while HMS Invincible had the ship on which I was serving, HMS Brilliant. It was the job of the "goalkeeper" to move up alongside their carrier and to engage any incoming missile with our 'Sea Wolf' missile system. If we failed in that task then we would take the consequences.

The main threat to the carriers was from an AM 39 Exocet Missile launched from an Argentinian Air Force Super Etendard fighter-bomber operating out of Rio Grande Air base in Patagonia. The "Super E" would fly east from its base, fast and very low to avoid radar detection to the "in range" distance from the task force. At this stage the Argentine pilot would have to gain altitude, switch on his I-band radar and have just a couple of sweeps to provide the missile below him with the information required. He could then launch the Exocet (the French word for Flying Fish) and head home for a well earned steak chimichurri in the officers' mess. In the darkened operations rooms of the task force the two sweeps of the I-band radar would be detected and the message would flash round the task force - "Handbrake!" This meant that an Exocet missile had been launched and would be with us quite shortly.

May 25 is Argentina's national day and it is also the name given to their aircraft carrier Veintecino De Mayo. It was clear that on such a day the Argentine Air Force would come out to engage us and so the task force was on heightened alert. One crucial thing the Argentines did not know about was the Special Air Service presence watching their air bases and providing the Northwood HQ with information about aircraft taking off from them; these reports were then sent to the task force. Onboard HMS Brilliant that day we were operating in our usual goalkeeper mode close to HMS Invincible. Our Commanding Officer was the softly spoken Submariner Captain John F Coward - who not only commanded HMS Brilliant but also commanded the respect and absolute confidence of his ship's company. The Captain came onto the main broadcast shortly after breakfast and said "D'ye hear there, captain speaking, we have received a report from the flagship that Super Etendards have taken off from Rio Grande Air Base and we can expect some trade in the near future, so I think it best at this stage that we proceed to action stations" The action stations buzzers then sounded and we made ready.

It was a bright, clear, sunny day and the ships of the task force were all locked down at the highest state of readiness. Watertight doors and hatches were closed to prevent fire and flood spreading. Anti-flash hoods and gloves were worn. Guns were manned. War-shot missiles were on the launchers. Sea Harriers were patrolling the skies in Combat Air Patrols. We were as ready as we had ever been.
"Handbrake!" The call went out. Exocet release had been detected. Chaff rockets were fired from the warships to confuse the radar of the incoming missiles. The captain came onto the main broadcast again, calm as ever and said "D'ye hear there, captain speaking, Exocet release has been detected and missiles are in the air so I think it best at this stage for those who can to take cover as best you can".
We waited. And waited. The main broadcast then crackled and Lieutenant Iain Shepherd spoke "D'ye hear there, navigating officer speaking, missiles visual" Two AM 39 Exocet missiles were doglegging their way through the chaff clouds seeking a target. They then found one. "D'ye hear there, navigating officer speaking, the missiles are now heading for Atlantic Conveyor". The Exocets slammed into the largest and most vital of merchant vessels in the taskforce, carrying the Chinook helicopters that were going to enable the Royal Marines and Paras to move onto Port Stanley.

I watched the fires in Atlantic Conveyor engulf the ship. We took some of the survivors onboard with the majority of them saved by the frigate HMS Alacrity. I remember an RAF wing commander climbing the rope ladder on our port side. He stepped on deck, gave an extremely smart RAF salute and said "permission to come onboard, sir". The Merchant Navy purser of the Conveyor came down to the wardroom wearing a Michelin man suit, which he unzipped, stepped out in immaculate uniform and asked when the bar would be open.

The sailors in my department formed the first-aid parties and I will never forget the sight of an old Atlantic Conveyor chef being comforted by Junior Assistant Cook John Batterby, still 16 and the youngest Royal Navy sailor in the task force.

Atlantic Conveyor went down with the kit we thought we needed to win the war. The Royal Marines ashore at San Carlos were asked by an embedded reporter how they would get to Port Stanley now. "We'll yomp it" was the reply - the rest is history.

HMS Brilliant returned to Devonport to a rapturous welcome on July 12, 1982. The two aircraft carriers were never hit. I returned to the Falkland Islands in HMS Brilliant the following year and deployed again in HMS Euryalus in 1987.
This article is dedicated to my good friend Lieutenant Dick Nunn DFC Royal Marines, whose grave is in the military cemetery at San Carlos.

Laon Hulme

BEING AT THE RIGHT PLACE

It has been said that we are all the sum of our experiences, training and capabilities - to which my dear Wife, Karen (later to be "link wife" for all BRILLIANT's in the Portsmouth area), would add:
If one then 'finds' oneself in "the right place at the right time" to be able to "make a difference"
this is probably part of a 'Great Plan'.

To appreciate how HMS BRILLIANT - a one year old, Sea Wolf armed, ASW frigate - was able to conduct vital Sea Harrier fighter control force defence duties on 21 May 1982, the day of the landings in the Falklands campaign, is a story of team work, training and true fighting spirit - which started much earlier…..

I have never understood why some liken a modern ship's Operations (Ops) Room, with its glowing screens and its highly trained warfare specialists - all communicating in (generally) hushed tones through headsets with boom microphones, to be a "Gloom Room", for this is where the action is in a Royal Navy which is all about power projection and the international influence this brings.

As I sought to specialise, those responsible for my training recognised that I had a talent for exercising three dimensional aircraft control (both fixed and rotary wing) and I soon found myself working with highly professional aircrew whose prime purpose was to project that power.

After qualifying as a fighter controller (FC), consolidation of my air control skills was conducted in the aircraft carrier HERMES and the destroyer HAMPSHIRE before being given the ultimate accolade of being trusted to help train later FC qualifiers as the School of Maritime Operations Course Officer. Subsequently, after qualifying top of the last (ever) long "D" (Direction / Air Warfare) course, I became Operations officer of NEWCASTLE, then a "brand new" type 42 destroyer, before being appointed as the Staff Warfare Office to Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) and directly responsible for the effective functioning of all surface ship's Operation Rooms.

Then selected for a First Lieutenant appointment and advised that my air warfare experience would 'steer' me to a Type 42 destroyer I was amazed to take a call in FOST's Ops Room from Captain Coward, a nuclear submariner, who asked me directly if I would be his second in command in the "brand new" BRILLIANT, an Anti Submarine Warfare Frigate whose only air-defence capability was the point defence weapon system - Sea Wolf.

My being "at the right place at the right time" in the Falklands Campaign effectively started then.

SUBSEQUENT EXTRACT - XO's WAR DIARY
15 Apri l 1982
We are all wearing Identity discs and Geneva Convention ID cards.
We could not have had a better preparation for this.
We are a finely tuned fighting machine that will cause the Argentineans a lot of trouble.

I could not be happier with John Coward in command.
His single-mindedness of Aim in preparing and driving the ship is most heartening.
He has a shrewd ability and judgement and we are all very much as one in wanting to act boldly and with daring.