The Battle to Recapture South Georgia

Within a week of the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982, a naval task force had been assembled and dispatched from Great Britain. It contained not only the major combatants of the Royal Navy– two carriers, plus destroyers, frigates and three submarines– but the all-important amphibious assault ships without which a landing was unthinkable. Also included were “STUFT,” Ships Taken Up Front Trade; these were civilian container ships, North Sea ferries and even SS Canberra, a luxury liner, all hastily modified to accept men and material. The last transported a large part of the landing force, including 42 Commando, RM (see Vaux’s Take That Hill! for a description of going to war aboard a cruise ship). At the end of a supply line some eight thousand miles long, with the closest air link in Ascension Island, and in the onset of the antarctic winter, operating in these conditions would test the Royal Navy’s famed ability to hold on station until the job was done.

Almost immediately a smaller task force was broken out and sent on a separate mission to re-take the island of South Georgia, which had been stoutly defended by a small Royal Marine garrison only a few weeks before. This small force consisted of two surface combatants, HMS Antrim and HMS Plymouth, one support ship, FRA Tidespring, the redoubtable Arctic vessel, HMS Endurance. Embarked were a handful of helicopters, one reinforced company of Royal Marines from Vaux’s 42 Commando, and units from the SAS and SBS.

The story of the recapture of this lonely island not one of disasters narrowly averted, but one of disasters sustained and surmounted. Awful weather, pressure from higher headquarters, confused command relationships, uncertain intelligence about the enemy, missed opportunities and botched attempts culminated in a rapidly planned but violently executed attack on the Argentine positions, with accurately delivered naval gunfire playing a starring role.

Operations began at South Georgia on 21 April 1982, and by 26 April the Argentine garrison had surrendered. Great Britain had gained a small but important victory; the Royal Navy’s task force could now turn its attention to the main objective.