‘It didn’t feel like we were winning’
HE WAS a young corporal when Argentina’s military junta invaded the Falkland Islands, 40 years ago this weekend.
A bitter 10-week conflict would finally see the British overseas territory liberated.
But that victory seemed far from secure when a 21-year-old Paul Moore, an airborne engineer attached to 3 Para, gazed down into Falkland Sound on May 22, 24 hours after landing in Port San Carlos.
Below him, the frigate HMS Ardent was sinking and HMS Antelope would soon be gone, attacked by Argentine air power in what become known as bomb alley.
“We’d already lost HMS Sheffield, the first capital ship lost by the Royal Navy since the Second World War,” said Paul, now 61, from his home in County Durham.
“It was a real sobering moment. It got very real, very quickly. It certainly didn’t feel like we were winning at that point.”
The sinking of the support ships – including the Atlantic Conveyor, carrying three of the task force’s four Chinook helicopters – meant they faced a 56-mile “tab” (a long-distance march in kit) over harsh, open terrain just to reach the start line.
“The long tab across the Falklands was horrendous – I remember it today and still shiver.we were constantly wet for 10 days and, by the time we got to Mount Estancia, our feet were falling to bits,” he said.
By June 11 the plan was hatched for a broad assault to gain the upper ground around Port Stanley. This meant three simultaneous night attacks on Mount Harriet,two Sisters and Mount Longdon.
“It was part of (Brig) Julian Thompson’s encirclement plan to take several hill positions to surround Port Stanley,” Paul said.
“We knew, from 10 days of patrols, that there were minefields. There’s nothing like a minefield to concentrate the mind.
“We were ordered to go up the western side, a long steady slope very open and very exposed.
“The Sergeant Major told us to have a word with the man upstairs because, for some of us, it would be our last chance.
“The word went down the line to fix bayonets and we started forwards.”
They began their attack, with orders for silence to maintain the element of surprise.
“Then one of the lads from 3 Para stood on a mine. It all went noisy after that,” said Paul. “The Argentinians put 18-year-old conscripts in the first lines. 3 Para went through them like a hot knife through butter. But then we came up against the regulars and we really had a fight on our hands.
“It lasted until the next morning. It was often hand-to hand.”
By daylight they had taken the hill, but then the bombardment began. “Most of our casualties were from mortars and artillery that morning,” he said. The battle saw 23 casualties and 47 wounded.
“Three of the lads were just 17. One lad died on his 18th birthday,” Paul recalled.
Fatalities included brothers-inlaw Scott Wilson and Keith Mccarthy. “I knew them well, and the sisters Jean and Linda,” he said.
Two months after he landed, Paul set sail for home. It was his 22nd birthday. But while the nation rejoiced, many of those who fought found they could not leave the horror of their experiences on those islands, 8,000 miles away. “A few of us lived in Consett and they threw us a street party. We couldn’t face it. We didn’t want the attention,” he said.
Though he and wife Lesley would soon be blessed with their first daughter Leanne, nothing would ever be the same for the career soldier.
“PTSD started affecting me in the late 1980s,” he said. “I started to be irritable, angry, and tense. I couldn’t relax.
“I was always hyper-vigilant. I was becoming increasingly difficult to deal with.
“In 1988 I was asleep and Lesley woke me up – I thought I was fighting a soldier and assaulted her. It’s something I’m deeply embarrassed about.” It was only after Paul, by then a Major with two tours of Iraq under his belt, left the Army in 2010 that he felt he could seek real help. Now, with an MA in veterans mental health and well-being, he chairs the Durham branch of the Armed Forces charity, SSAFA.
He said: “I speak to soldiers now and the culture has completely changed. They are encouraged to speak about mental health issues. I wanted to be part of that.”
But he added: “Very few under the age of 30 know much about the Falklands conflict. But they should.the men who died in the Falklands 40 years ago gave their lives for their country and for others.”
Next month, the keen motorcyclist will make his annual pilgrimage to visit the graves of soldiers who died in the conflict.