Friday, April 25, 2008

On this day - Falklands

The mood is changing as we head south, well as we head all over the place really. We are on emcon which means that there is no electronic communication and only a minimum of radar from the ships on the periphery of the task force which are guarding us. We have been practicing action station and anti Exocet drills. The scary partis that as embarked forces all we can do is return to our cabins and site, with 24 (or so) other souls and wait for things to happen. That is scary.

Despite all the efforts to get organised on Ascension Island one of our Landrovers is on another ship. This is one of our jammers that hasn't been fully built and commissioned and I have to get there to build it so it can be made operational quickly when we land. I am trying to hitch a lift on the Helicopter Dispatch Service but as the weather is closing in an d the sea getting lumpy they are frequently cancelled.

Meanwhile in the outside world its starting to look like the inevitable will happen as also on this day:

A small British commando force re-takes the Georgia Island. The Argentine submarine ``Santa Fe'' is attacked and disabled. The commander of the Argentine forces on the island, Captain Largos, signs an unconditional surrender document on board the British HMS Antrim. The notorious Alfredo Astiz, who is at the time, a Lieutenant Commander in charge of a small party based in Stromness surrenders with his company and signs an unconditional surrender document on board the British HMS Plymouth without firing a single shot violating the military code's article 751:
"A soldier will be condemned to prison for three to five years if, in combat with a foreign enemy, he surrenders without having exhausted his supply of ammunition or without having lost two thirds of the men under his command."

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