With LITTLE SCARLET sheltering from a minor westerly gale in Dingle in the west of Ireland. It is difficult to comprehend that 40 years ago today in the South Atlantic, HMS COVENTRY and MV ATLANTIC CONVEYOR were attacked, with tragic loss of life and the subsequent loss of both ships. Meanwhile on 25 May 1982, HMS NORTHELLA, together with two sister ships of the 11th Mine Counter Measures squadron (11MCM), was in South Georgia along with other Task Force ships preparing for the arrival of 5 Brigade aboard Cunard’s QUEEN ELIZABETH II (QEII).
Among other MCM11 tasks in South Georgia, tasks that including: assessing whether the disused hospital from South Georgia’s Whaling Station days could be resurrected, looking for a potential aircraft runway site, and later transhipping ammunition from MV LYCAON to warships who had expended their shells providing Naval Gunfire Support to the landing force. 11MCM was tasked to cross-deck 5 Brigade from QEII to MV CANBERRA and MV NORLAND. QEII sailed to South Georgia direct from the UK, while CANBERRA and NORLAND had participated in the landing of 3 Commando Brigade in San Carlos Water, West Falkland. QEII, CANBERRA and NORLAND were due to rendezvous in South Georgia waters on 27 May.
5 Infantry Brigade cross-decking was a surface ship and helicopter team effort. At one stage an aerial at the top of NORTHELLA’s mast prevented QEII’s forward flight deck from being used by helicopters. If I remember rightly, NORTHELL’s junior chef, whose name I unfortunately do not recall, solved this problem by climbing up the ship’s mast and cutting off the top of the aerial with a hacksaw. On another occasion NORTHELLA was hailed from the QEII’s bridge wing, that towered above the trawler. QEII’s captain enquired by megaphone “which one are you”; quick as a flash NORTHELLA’s commanding officer replied by megaphone “NORTHELLA, which one are you”.
The SCOTS GUARDS, one of 5 Brigade’s battalions, moved from ocean liner luxury, via a fishing trawler warship onto CANBERRA and NORLAND, the 5 Brigade designated landing ships. The SCOTS GUARDS would probably not have received complete orders for the landing of 5 Brigade and the Brigade’s subsequent tasks at this stage and therefore would have been full of anticipation as to what would occur next.
Throughout the time HMS NORTHELLA spent in South Georgia, the island’s wildlife seemed, perhaps wisely, rather uninterested in the activities of humankind.
