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I had been with the girlfriend (GF) for 6/12; she was a wee buxom brunette, with a soft Welsh accent & was a senior
in the Queen Alexandra?s Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS). We lived in the hospital, in separate quarters. Even though NHS hospitals at that time would have allowed visitors overnight in the nurse?s accommodation, the RN still believed in their role in loco parentis & all you could do was watch TV in the nurse?s communal TV room, until 2200. So we used to go away for weekends to Southsea & stay in rented lets. These are flats that would be rented out to holiday makers in the summer but mostly empty during the winter. This arrangement suited us as we were still in the bloom of a physical relationship that had yet to develop into a more romantic liaison. We saw several couples from the hospital there; some of whom we didn?t know were seeing each other & some who shouldn?t have been seeing each other!When working in the RNH Haslar as trained staff, our rota was 6 wks days, 2wks nights & then 2wks leave. That was made up of 1wk night leave & 1wk?s annual leave. So whereas 95% of service personnel only got 6/52 annual leave, we could get 12. Nights were a 12 hr shift, starting at 1945 with handover & getting off some time after 0800. On your first wk your partner on the ward would be on their second. So when you did the drug rounds at least one of you should have been awake enough to prevent any errors. At the time NHS nurses were doing a maximum of 3 nights on wards.
I can?t remember how many days I was into my fortnight when the Invasion took place on the 2nd April but it can?t have been more than a couple. I had read of the escalating tension in the Daily Mail, which the Government had ignored & unlike the Labour Government in a previous era to tension, had decided not to send a submarine down to act as a deterrent. So I wasn?t so surprised when the news, that Argentine commandos had landed on the Falklands. I had another reason to follow the story, my mate Terry Bradford.
About a yr before I had been based at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, in Helston Cornwall; it?s a Search & Rescue centre covering the Channel & out into the Atlantic. There were two squadrons that provided this cover one of Wessex helicopters that covered the nearer areas & the Seakings, which covered the further, with their greater fuel endurance. We had been there for a couple of yrs, going out as medical cover, when injured yachties or trawler men needed evacuating. Terry had been promoted to Leading Medical Assistant (LMA) & was now due a draft.
One day Terry came to me with a draft, he had been ordered to the Falkland Islands, for 1yr tour as Blue Beret medic. ?So Simon, you have done geography, where are the Falklands?? It may seem strange now but most of the British public thought the Falklands were somewhere off Scotland! I told him they were off the Argentine coast & being posted there would be just like being on my dream draft, Diego Garcia (British Indian Ocean Territory B.O.I.T. the other lonely little rock that LMA?s could get drafted too) but opposite. He frowned. Well D.G is hot & sunny; the F.I.?s are cold & wet. DG has donkeys & F.I,
& penguins. D.G. is an overnight flight to the nearest hospital in Singapore & F.I.?s are even more remote from serious medical aid. But if you want to prove you can cope on your own in a remote environment, to achieve your goal of being LMA on a warship, this is the draft for you.Well dear readers Terry took my advice & accepted the draft. He probably could have got out of it, as there was a system to swap drafts & there was always someone desperate to get out of the hospital. He had to do 6 months training before his new draft: including abseiling canoeing & a beat up so he could participate in the RM activities i.e. actually keep up & be on the scene if an injury or incident occurred to one of his fellow 20 Royal Marines, affectionately know as Bootnecks.
I was surprised they didn?t put him through the Green Beret Course, as 6 months would have been long enough to do this but that would have meant being stuck in the RM & Terry was happy with that as he wanted his ship. One point he probably didn?t consider is that as a blue beret, you are a ?crap hat? to the Bootnecks & never accepted in the same way. After his training Terry went down with the 20 RM he would spend the next yr with, he was just 21yo (I was 22yo). It was during their handover week with the previous incumbents when an Argentine naval force arrived to this lonely British outcrop & the invasion started.
There was a fire fight & the RM did injure & kill some of the Argentines but I believe the Argentines wanted as bloodless takeover if possible & by shear force of numbers overwhelmed the situation. Rex Hunt the British Governor told the RM Major to surrender & famously refused to shake hands with the Argentine commander, as he had not acted in a gentlemanly fashion by invading.
Enoch Powell (he of the Rivers of Blood speech) stood in the House of Commons & decried the RM for not fighting to the last man, ?What was the point of having the RM there if they weren?t prepared to die to the last man?? Because they are not the French bloody Legion would have been my answer! All their most famous battles were ?glorious? defeats of expendable men. I suspect Powell never got another serviceman?s vote after that. The RM were always a token deterrent, 20 men can?t be expected to hold off an army. They were there to give visible proof of our sovereignty, with HMS Endurance Arctic survey ship (the Red Plum) as the sole naval ship permanently stationed in the area. And the area of F.I.?s, South Georgia & down to the Arctic, is extremely large, check it out on a map. They had raised the alarm through to London & fought until ordered to lay down their arms; their deaths would have been pointless & would have left al lot less manovering for the Governments to sort the situation out diplomatically. It was of course a massive humiliation for the troops & the when the Argentines photographed them lying in the dirt & then walking through the streets with their hands raised, the British public demanded action & therefore that sorry episode backfired on the Argentineans. Marines_surrender_at_Government_House.jpg
surrender1.jpgPhotos taken from the internet.
Terry was engaged to a young navy nurse, Claire. I knew Claire from our time in RNH Stonehouse in Plymouth. I think she had just finished her training when I went down there for my part three training, work experience on the wards. Knowing both of them meant that I worried about both of them, how would I explain my brilliant advice to Claire if anything happened to Terry?
Whilst I was sleeping during the day, ready for my next night shift, I was rudely awoken by a bashing on my cabin door. RNH Haslar was probably the only naval accom in it?s day that offered single cabins to junior rates, so hopefully not too many others were disturbed. ?Come out here Dove, I want a word with you!? I believe this is an acceptable civilian translation. When I carefully opened the door it was Terry, just having arrived back in the country. The RM team had been sent to Montevideo & flown back by the RAF. He was just in Haslar to collect his ?Survivors? leave pass (something usually given to shipwrecked survivors) & disappear for a few wks. ?You & your bloody ideas, you said it was a forgotten back water, a boring yr of isolation that would get me a warship?. ?Glad to see you back mate, sure your ship will come.?
I met him in the bar before going on shift
. I know in these non-smoking, non-drinking days this will sound strange, but it wasn?t against the rules to have a pint before going on nightshift. I didn?t do it usually to avoid falling asleep in the wee hrs. Those on the psychiatric ward used to do it on principal. They used to enjoy breathing on the senior rates, who were on the ?Basket Weaving Course? drying out from their alcohol abuse, aimed at returning them to the service, as more acceptable functioning alcoholics. Ah, wicked is the service sense of humour!
