6 June is a memorable date for amphibious operations both in Northwest Europe (1944) and in the South Atlantic.
With the task of cross-decking 5 Brigade from QEII to MV CANBERRA and MV NORLAND completed; and 5 Brigade now in the Falkland Islands. HMS NORTHELLA, together with two sister ships of the 11th Mine Counter Measures squadron (11MCM) and other Task Force ships, remained in South Georgia.
Information had been obtained, in the form of captured enemy charts that showed the locations of moored sea mines sewn by the enemy off Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands. With the land battle ongoing, the decision was pending as to when 11MCM would be tasked to clear this minefield; of course there could have been other minefields.
At one stage intelligence was received that an attack on South Georgia was imminent. Owing in part to their limited offensive or defensive capability, it was decided that the ships would put to sea and conceal themselves amongst nearby icebergs. I believe the ships hid amongst the icebergs for no more than a day, before returning to South Georgia’s fjords.
On 6 June NORTHELLA was berthed alongside HMS ENDURANCE on the pier at King Edward Point, Grytviken. ENDURANCE was equipped with a satellite telephone system; a rare capability in those days. NORTHELLA’s ships company was permitted to make calls to the UK using ENDURANCE’s telephone. It was late at night when my telephone call slot came up. The call was an emotion filled experience. My parents woke my sister Jacalyn, 6 June is her birthday, so that I could wish her many happy returns. You can imagine the effect the effect this call would have had on loved ones in the UK during a time that they were relying on Ministry of Defence (MoD) updates being broadcast on television that reported the progress of the Task Force at sea and ashore, including the tragic losses that were being sustained. Years later I learned that 6 June was also the eve of one of Jacalyn’s GCSE exams. So a late at night call on such a day, probably the first contact my family had received from me, although I had been writing letters, since HMS NORTHELLA departed from the UK in April, was not ideal timing.
The telephone call from ENDURANCE to the UK is recalled here as it illustrates what a different world it was in 1982, in communications terms. We take information feeds for granted these days; during LITTLE SCARLET’s circumnavigation of the island of Ireland we have rarely been without mobile telephone and Internet access. In 1982 in HMS NORTHELLA for news we were reliant on occasional updates via the overloaded MoD communications network, which was received encrypted via HF radio at a very slow rate and then printed onto rolls of paper. NORTHELLA was also able to tune into the BBC World Service, albeit this was rather limited as much of the BBC’s transmissions were being made in Spanish. Also there were eagerly awaited deliveries of mail, that included out of date newspapers. So no mobile telephones, no personal digital devices of any kind, these did not exist and if they had would not have had network connectivity. With one or two page sporadic updates via the MoD system and occasional English language BBC news broadcasts; imagine the speculation that was taking place amongst NORTHELLA’s ship’s company.
How would the UK’s lightly equipped land forces fare against an enemy who had been on the islands for some time with plenty of opportunity to prepare defences and whose home bases were 1800 miles away?
How could we best support the ongoing land battle while we awaited orders to clear the minefields?
The news reports could be concerning. At one stage in a broadcast there was speculation by an “expert” that the BBC were interviewing that the cross-decking of 5 Brigade was taking place at South Georgia. This was not helpful speculation when the ships undertaking the task were at South Georgia and were rather lightly armed.
