the battle for san carlos - wordpress.com · 2019-05-21 · may 21, 2019 remembrance ni falklands...
TRANSCRIPT
May 21, 2019
remembrance ni
Falklands liberation - On this day in 1982 the battle for San Carlos
Type 21 frigate HMS Ardent sank in Falkland Sound after suffering severe damage in bombing attacks by Argentine aircraft on 21 May. 22 of her crew were killed.
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On May 21, 1982, the operation to liberate the Falklands from the Argentine junta moved into its decisive phase as the ground campaign began.
Six weeks after sailing from the UK, the task group began putting Royal Marines and soldiers ashore at San Carlos, a remote bay on East Falkland, with the ultimate goal of seizing the capital Stanley, 50 miles away.
The four day Battle of San Carlos began as the British Task Force attempted to make landing on the Falkland Islands.
British commanders had chosen San Carlos as their landing spot as it was far enough from Stanley to prevent a rapid Argentine response and provided cover from the Exocet missiles that had proved so damaging in previous engagements.
Despite the Argentine high command insisting that this main landing was a diversion, their Air Force launched a number of sorties, severely damaging Royal Navy ships but suffering heavy casualties in the process.
San Carlos gained the nickname "Bomb Alley" over the four days of fighting. It was nevertheless an extremely close affair. Argentine bombs were not properly maintained and even when they hit their target, often failed to detonate; which was fortunate for the British.
Argentina lost 22 aircraft at San Carlos. 1 British destroyer and 2 frigates were sunk.
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Frigate HMS Ardent was one of the outer screen of ships attempting to shield the landings from air attack.
A succession of direct hits and near misses left the Type 21 a blazing, twisted mess, each blow from the enemy bombs “as though a giant was holding the ship by the stern and whacking it down on the sea”, her CO Cdr Alan West – the future First Sea Lord – recalled.
As valiantly as his sailors fought off the foe and tackled the flames, Cdr West was eventually forced to abandon ship, signalling to HMS Yarmouth: “Take off my men.”
Twenty-two men died on HMS Ardent – the heaviest loss of life of any RN vessel in the 1982 conflict – while the frigate succumbed to her ‘wounds’ the next day… as the land forces consolidated their bridgehead.
The British forces successfully established a beach head on the islands and the land campaign to reclaim the islands began.
Roll of Honour - May 21Representing their comrades who died on this day
1917
+DORNAN, George.
1 RInF. Privat. 16945. Died 21/05/1917. Born in Lisburn, he was a veteran of the Boer War, re-enlisted at Glasgow. Involved in the landings at Sulva Bay in Gallipoli where he subsequently contracted malaria, he was back at the Front
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for three months before he died of wounds. son of Robert Dornan of Lisnagarvey Cottages, Lisburn. Abbeville Communal Cemetery, France
+GURNELL, Robert Matthew
18 RIR. Second Lieutenant. Died 21/05/1917. Age 20. He joined the army as a cadet and received his commission in 18 RIR “a short time” before his death. He arrived in France on May 2 and was KIA in Belgium less than three weeks late. On writing to his mother, Captain Somers his C.O. said, “I know that it will be a consolation, which all who have lost loved ones out here look for, to learn that it was in the performance of his duty he fell. He was killed by an enemy sniper at 5 a.m. on the 21st inst. I can assure you his death was without suffering, as it was instantaneous. I arrived just in times to be with him in his last moments”. A member of Boardmills No Compromise Lodge 221 I.O.G.T., he was the younger son of the late Lawrence and Mrs. Gurnell of Boardmills and formerly of Lisburn. Pond Farm Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. McComb family headstone in Boardmills Presbyterian churchyard.
1918
+THOMPSON, Herbert
RASC. 15th Division Train. Driver. T3/O31111. Died 21/05/1918. Age 22. Born in Shankill, he lived and enlisted at Belfast. Son of Joseph Thompson of Ballydrain, Dunmurry. Duisans British Cemetery, Etrun, Pas De Calais, France
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1940
+WHITE, Samuel
2nd Battalion Norfolk Regiment. Died 21/05/1940 at Le Paradis Massacre retreat to Dunkirk
1941
+BEATTIE, Tudor
RAFVR. Sergeant. (Wireless Op./Air Gunner). 974076. Died 21/05/1941. QUB Fifth Year Medical Student. Faculty of Medicine 1931 - 34. Son of the Revd. James Moore Allen Beattie, and of Margaret Jane Beattie, Portrush. Allouagne Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France. QUB RH
+FERGUSON, Clifford SamuelRAFVR. Leading Aircraftman. 1109099. Died 21/05/1941. Aged 18. Holywood Cemetery, Co.Down
+O’NEILL, William JC/KC 91458. HMS Juno. Died 21/05/1941. Age 27. Enrolled 1937. Ship sunk off Crete by German and Italian bombers. Member of Myroe L.O.L. Carrowclare, Limavady
1942
+SHAW, Edmund Verner
RAFVR. Flight Sergeant (Pilot). 748518. Died 21/05/1942. Aged 22. Son of Edmund and Mary Shaw, of Belfast. Dundonald Cemetery
1944
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+BOWMAN, Geoffrey Alexander
RAFVR. Flying Officer. 149526. Died 21/05/1944. Aged 25. 53 Sqdn. Son of Hugh and Annie Bowman, of Bryansburn Rd, Bangor, Co. Down. Brother of WRNS Petty Officer Rosaleen Wood. Three of her brothers served in the RAF. Eric, a Sergeant - Pilot, died when a Stirling crashed on Christmas Eve 1941. Geoffrey, Flying Officer, was lost in a Liberator over the Bay of Biscay 21/05/1944. Hugh, Flight Sergeant, was stationed in Imphal 10/1943 - 1945, with South East Asia Command during the major Japanese offensive and was injured from shrapnel. Runnymeade Memorial, Surrey
+WILSON, Samuel Robinson
2nd Bn. The London Irish Rifles, Royal Ulster Rifles. Rifleman. 7020667. Died 21/06/1944. Aged 23. Son of John Wilson and of Sarah Wilson (nee Hayes), of Rasharkin. Orivieto War Cemetery, Italy.
Veteran
BEAMISH, Cecil Howard
Air Vice Marshall, Director of Dental Services, Royal Air Force.
Cecil Howard Beamish, LDS (QUB 1936)CB (1970), FDSRCS, come from Coleraine, served during the Second World War and was later Director of RAF Dental Services from 1969–1973.
He was the youngest of the Beamish brothers, the others being Victor, George, and Charles, all RAF officers and
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accomplished sportsmen. Beamish played rugby for London Irish, the Barbarians and the RAF.
His brothers were Group Captain Francis Victor Beamish DSO and Bar DFC, AFC, Air Marshal Sir George Robert Beamish KCB, CBE, and Group Captain Charles Eric St John Beamish
Born 31 March 1915. Son of Francis George Beamish, and of Mary Elizabeth Beamish. The sons were born in Dunmanaway, Co. Cork, before their father who was an inspector of schools moved to a post in Coleraine. They lived in Castlerock, County Londonderry, and were educated at Coleraine Academical Institution.
In 1955 he married Frances Elizabeth Sarah Goucher and they had two two sons. He died on 21 May 1999. Family plaque in Kildollagh Parish Church, the Loughan, Coleraine.
In the newspapers
The Northern Whig on 21st May 1918 - carried an account of the service of “Major Holt Waring, 12th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, formerly 11th/13th Battalion. 41 years of age, died of wounds, 15th April, 1918. Husband of Margaret Waring, of Waringstown, County Down. Deceased is buried in Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road Military Cemetery, Belgium.”
On this day - May 211927Aviator Charles Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St Louis, lands in Paris after the first solo air crossing of Atlantic
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1932After flying for 17 hours from Newfoundland, Amelia Earhart lands near Londonderry, becoming the 1st transatlantic solo flight by a woman
1941German airforce occupies airport at Maleme, Crete. See tomorrow’s account of HMS Gloucester and HMS Fiji.
SS Robin Moor becomes the first US ship sunk by a U-boat during World War II
1942Convoy PQ16 departs Great Britain for Russia
1982 On May 21, 1982, the operation to liberate the Falklands from the Argentine junta moved into its decisive phase as the ground campaign began. See article above and tomorrow’s posting.
Acknowledgments CWGCIWMNorthern Whig
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