SAS veteran: I quit Forces out of guilt over botched Falklands mission

 An SAS officer has revealed that he quit the Armed Forces out of guilt following a botched operation in Argentina during the Falklands War.

Capt Andy Legg commanded a team of eight men for Operation Plum Duff, one of the regiment’s most audacious ever missions 36 years ago.

Following the sinking of HMS Sheffield by an Exocet missile, the SAS team was sent into Argentina to destroy enemy aircraft capable of carrying the country’s three remaining Exocets.

But due to a combination of bad planning by military chiefs, poor weather and a lack of food, Mr Legg was forced to abort the mission after eight days. Had he chosen to press on, the patrol would have eventually come up against 3,000 Argentine soldiers. Capt Legg has now revealed that through a combination of guilt and anger for not making the operation work, he quit a few months later.

Now aged 64, he has decided to sell his medals. They are estimated to fetch £40,000 at auction at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury, Wilts, on May 3. Alongside them is the “ropy” Thirties map he was given for the mission.

Mr Legg said: “No blame was attached to me, but inside I felt bad because some of our colleagues had been killed in the South Atlantic yet nothing had happened to us.” The father of four lives on the Isle of Wight with his wife Jane.