1982 FALKLANDS WAR

PASSING THROUGH ASCENSION - PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD of PEOPLE, PLACES, SHIPS,  PLANES, Part 2 of 2

Taken by Bob Shackleton

57. "Probably" HMS Antrim. Note seamen on stages over the side painting out the ship's pennant number.

From Ian Inskip, Navigating Officer of HMS Glamorgan in 1982 - "the difference between the two (County-class) was that Glamorgan had a gap between her boats on the port side and Antrim did not. I am 95% sure it is Antrim (above right) and not Glamorgan.  I reckon both boats are next to each other, without a gap.  Also the anchorage position does not look familiar."

From Chris Parry, Wessex 3 aircrew at the time, retired as Rear Admiral in 2008 - "You are dead right with your designation of the photograph of HMS ANTRIM at Ascension Island.  The 'sailors' painting out the ship's pennant number are Sub Lieutenant Declan Ward and Lieutenant Chris Parry - who decided to do their bit for ship's company morale!"

58. Carrier Battle Group escorts including County-class destroyer, probably HMS Glamorgan, Type 22 frigate HMS Broadsword and Rothesay-class frigate HMS Yarmouth

61. Broadsword's pennant numbers being painted out at side and stern

62.

"Antelope arrived with the LSL's and left, I think, on the 30th April with them and RFA Pearleaf" (thanks to Frank Purcell)

65. Presumably HMS Onyx, the only diesel-engined submarine believed to have served with the British Task Force

67. HMS Onyx alongside RFA Tidespring, possibly when she had returned to Ascension with the Argentine prisoners from South Georgia (courtesy, Peter Robinson, Editor, RFA Historical Society, who was on her at the time)

70. One of the trawlers requisitioned as minesweepers - Cordella, Farnella,  Junella, Northella or Pict

71. Royal Mail and local supply ship RMS St Helena, later a minesweeper support ship

72. LCU F4 belonging to HMS Fearless (left - no enlargement). On the 8th June in the Falklands, she was bombed and sunk with the loss of six of the crew

LSL - Landing Ship Logistics, comprising Sir Bedivere, Sir Galahad, Sir Geraint, Sir Lancelot, Sir Percivale and Sir Tristram

thanks to Larry Collier. "I believe images 73, 75 and the close-up 94 are incorrect as this is not the Balder London. At the time of the Falklands I was Chief Officer on the ship. Although the images you have are similar, the bridge wings are different, as is the bow. The Balder London did not have a satellite system: we relied on morse code for communications which the RN communications officer sailing with us was unable to understand. Our own radio officer spent long spells sending and receiving 1000 word cables."

To Naval-History.net - My reason for writing is because I saw there were several pictures of a US Air Force C-141 Starlifter on the page, and I was curious if you knew the date the picture was taken. It's my understanding that the USAF had a regular mission that flew to Ascension Island twice monthly, so that may be one of those regularly scheduled missions. However, if the picture was taken during the Falklands War in or around the latter part of May, I suspect it was the plane I flew down there during that time.

While I am not at liberty to discuss the purpose of our mission, I can tell you that when we arrived at Ascension Island there was a faulted bus tie contactor on the #2 Main AC electrical bus. Our return flight was delayed while waiting for a decision on whether or not the aircraft was flyable. A day later it was determined that we could safely return to our home station at McGuire AFB, NJ. As I recall, when flew back empty, and the flight time was 11 hours and 45 minutes--the longest sortie I ever flew as a flight engineer.

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From Bob Shackleton - Rich is correct with his dates, the C-141 (70011) photo was taken on Ascension during the Falklands crisis.

The MAC flight was our (South African staff of the South Atlantic Cable Company) quickest means of travelling to & from Ascension, it flew from Patrick AFB in Florida via Antigua in the West Indies to ASC and then onto Johannesburg. The other option was to fly by charter from UK to Ascension, only 4 or 5 flights a year. The BBC Cable & Wireless & CSO used to change their staff by this means.

(On one flight) my children (were) on the flightdeck during a trip back to ASC in Nov 1978. The crew were always very considerate and the children were allowed to spend time on the flight deck during the flight. We had the pleasure of doing the JHB-ASC return trip six times in the 5 years we spent on ASC.

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To Bob Shackleton - Thanks for taking the time to research the dates on the C-141 pictures.  I rarely carried a camera during my time as a flight engineer, so it's nice to go out on the Web and relive the days of my youth through the photos of others.  I spent twenty years in the Air Force, and the three days I spent on Ascension Island during the Falklands crisis were the closest I ever came to being in an actual war.

To the best of my knowledge, our mission to Ascension is still classified, so I can't go into too much detail.  But I can tell you it started out as a presidential support mission.  Enroute to Washington,D.C. we were told the mission had changed, and we had to remove all the passenger seats when we arrived. From there, we flew with an empty cargo bay to NAS Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico where picked up a load of cargo and flew directly to Ascension Island.

Landing on a large rock in the middle of the ocean at night is bad enough, but we had to do it in the dark for security reasons.  The tower turned on the runway lights when we were less than a mile out, and then they immediately turned them off as soon as we cleared the runway.  Even the "Follow Me" truck was running with no lights.  From there we parked in the exact same spot where you photographed 70011.  I was afraid we might be stuck there for a few days with the electrical problem I described earlier, but we were quickly cleared to fly back to New Jersey the following day. I wonder why?

Normally any electrical problems of that nature would ground the aircraft.  Instead we had a quick radio conversation with the 21st Air Force command post staff who briefed us on what to do if we lost the #2 engine generator, and then we were back in the air. I suspect they didn't want the aircraft on the ground there any longer than necessary for political reasons, or perhaps because it made a rather large target!

I'm sorry to say that the entire C-141 fleet has been decommissioned and is being scrapped at this time.  Fortunately, a former C-141 pilot has setup a website dedicated to the Starlifter and what's become of what was once known as the "work horse" of the US Air Force.  Feel free to drop by if you have time.  It's located at http://www.c141heaven.com .

As for the fate of 70011, I can only offer you this -http://www.c141heaven.com/67/pic_67_0011.html. Oddly enough, 70011 was one of the "Double Zero" series of C-141s that were rumored to be "jinxed" for some reason.  This small group of aircraft--all made in 1967--seemed to have a higher than average number of incidents for some reason.  One aircraft--70019--was supposedly haunted by the ghost of a crew chief who died on board the plane during a maintenance accident. 

Most of the images of individual ships and aircraft are low resolution, taken from the larger originals

from Battle Atlas of the Falklands War 1982

The movements of the ships and aircraft squadrons featured in these photographs can be traced week-by-week in the "Battle Atlas"

 

19. ASCENSION ISLAND - Stepping Stone to Victory (concluded)

 

 

British Forces Support Unit Ascension Island

 

Responsible for this array of activities was the Support Unit commanded by Capt R. McQueen (awarded CBE) RN. Involving all three services, some 1000 men, occasionally rising to 1500 did everything needed to support the Task Force, work the airfield in cooperation with the resident Americans and defend the island against possible attack by Argentine forces.

 

 

Summary of Main Roles

 

 

ROYAL AIR FORCE DEFENCES

 

Surrounding area - Nimrod maritime reconnaisance aircraft from early April.

Local air defence - three Harrier GR.3's of 1(F) Sqdn from early May until relieved later in the month by three Phantom FGR.2's of 29(F) Sqdn.

 

RAF-manned mobile early warning radar on Green Mountain. 

Ground defence - HQ Unit, No.3 Wing and No.15 Field Sqdn, RAF Regiment. 

Other RAF Units - one 202 Sqdn Sea King and one 18 Sqdn Chinook helicopters for vertrep duties from early May.

 

Also air movements, mobile servicing, tactical communications and meteorological units.

 

ARMY included:

Royal Corps of Signals - established rear link Communications Centres for the Task Force. 

Royal Engineers - constructed 3½ mile fuel pipeline system to the airfield along with 180,000 gallon bulk fuel storage, and a desalination plant.

Royal Army Ordnance Corps - operated the pipeline system capable of delivering up to 300,000 gallons each day.

Royal Corps of Transport - 47 Air Despatch Squadron prepared stores for air dropping.

 

ROYAL NAVY

Naval Party 1222 - arrived in early April to receive men, stores, equipment, and helicopters flown out from Britain and to arrange for transhipment south.

Fleet Air Arm - maintenance personnel prepared the arriving helicopters

No.845 NAS - one Wessex HU.5 of D Flt, provided vertrep and crossdeck delivery services together with the two RAF helicopters which arrived later.

 

Links

Internet version of Ascension Island's only newspaper, The Islander