Remembering all those who died

[Administrator]

Remembering all those who died in the Falklands War
and All those who returned but were forever changed.

[Administrator]

Thirty-nine years ago the invasion of the Falklands Islands took place and thirty nine of Britain’s finest warships and submarines prepared for war. In the background and very rarely spoken or written about was another invasion fleet being formed. The Forgotten Fourth Service. Forty Merchant ships of various kinds amassed, nicknamed STUFT ships (ships taken up from trade). These were the troop ships, hospital ships, ammunition and store carriers, tankers full of aviation spirit, petrol, FFO (Fuel furnace oil for the Royal Navy), food, medicine, salvage tugs and even water carriers in case the Argentinians had poisoned the local water. Unlike the armed forces each member of these crews were volunteers. Some of the elder crew members had even seen action during WWII and were ready for it all again. Alongside these Merchant ships were a further twenty-two ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), all manned by Merchant Navy volunteers, as well a further two ships with volunteer crews from the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service. These Merchant men were in the thick of the fight. Atlantic Conveyor sunk by exocet missile, three RFA ships damaged, one other sunk. Tanker British Wye having a lucky escape as a bomb dropped from an Argentine aircraft bounced off her deck into the sea. Finally the war being won the Merchant troopship Canberra sailed into Southampton to a hero’s welcome with the crowd singing Rule Britannia. The Royal Navy received their own hero’s welcome on returning home, but the Merchant fleet are all but forgotten and simply took up their former trading for our Island nation and are only remembered by the men who sailed on them, and those amongst us who knew and served with some of them.

Billy McGee