Bittersweet memories
As I read your feature about Scots in the
Falkland Islands [January 2019] it brought the memories flooding back. As a 17-year-old sailor and the youngest Scot to serve in the campaign
I was part of the task force that helped liberate the islands from the Argentine invaders in 1982.
On surrender day I managed to hitch a ride on a chopper and landed in Port Stanley where two women from the islands ran up and hugged myself and my two ship mates. We stood there rather embarrassed as they thanked us for coming 8,000 miles to save them. Of course we modestly replied that we had just manned our action stations onboard our assault ship HMS
Fearless while the Marines and Paras did all the fighting. We explained that it was our job to land all the troops, vehicles and ammunition while dodging the endless air attacks from the Argentine airforce. Thankfully we were relatively lucky but seven other warships were sunk in just a few weeks in the San Carlos Bay area or, as we knew it, ‘Bomb Alley’.
Thirty-one years later I was fortunate enough to spend two weeks on the islands where I was treated like royalty. I enjoyed penguin spotting, golfing and fishing but I was also there to lay a wreath and pay my respects to all of my shipmates who never came home.
Nowadays it’s a regular stop for cruise ships and a simply magical place where myriad wildlife can nest and breed undisturbed in perfect silence. What a difference from 1982. David Cruickshanks, Strathmiglo, Fife