Falklands vets call for Exocet answers
Lord Tebbit gives backing to demand for inquiry into missile that sunk HMS Sheffield
A FALKLANDS war naval officer whose ship was sunk by an Exocet missile has joined calls for an inquiry into claims France withheld from Britain secrets about the lethal French-made weapons.
Commander Mike Norman, who was second in command of HMS Sheffield, said it would be “terrible” if the French had held back information that could have saved British lives.
Commander Norman, who battled choking smoke to lead sailors to safety after the missile set the ship on fire, said he “absolutely” supported the idea of an inquiry into whether the French could have passed on information that might have disabled the missiles – the most deadly weapon in Argentina’s arsenal.
He lost 20 shipmates when the missile struck on May 4 1982, and a further 26 service personnel died after strikes on two other British ships.
Yesterday The Daily Telegraph disclosed that British officials suspected Exocets contained a “kill switch” that could disable them, but that France denied such a device had been inserted into the weapons.
British scientists had to resort to dismantling one of the radar-guided rockets to work out whether anything could throw them off course.
Members of Margaret Thatcher’s Falklands war government also called on France to respond to the allegations.
Lord Tebbit said the French should “explain themselves”, while David Mellor suggested France was not telling the truth about what happened.
Commander Norman, 78, who was first lieutenant on board HMS Sheffield and is the most senior living member of the crew, joined other survivors yesterday to mark the 40th anniversary of sinking.
He said: “If it was true, and they didn’t tell us how we could disarm them, I think it would be terrible, frankly. That was the one single weapon the Task Force was really worried about.”
Senior MPS have called for an inquiry into whether the government of president François Mitterrand bore responsibility for British deaths in the conflict, and Commander Norman said: “I would certainly be interested in that. Absolutely.”
Recalling the moment the missile hit the ship’s starboard side and set fire to the forward auxiliary machine room, he said: “I was overcome by smoke.
“I was below decks when the missile came on board, and I was choking. And I had to lead everybody out of the ops room where the missile came very close to, to get to the upper deck.”
The merchant ship Atlantic Conveyor was also sunk by an Exocet, with the loss of 12 lives, and an Exocet strike on HMS Glamorgan killed 14 sailors, though the ship survived.
The French government has so far failed to issue a response to questions about Exocets, which were made by the French firm Aerospatiale and fired from French-made jets flown by the Argentine air force.
The Ministry of Defence also appears reluctant to ask difficult questions of the French, with whom Britain signed a bilateral defence and security treaty in 2010, or the firm that took over Aerospatiale’s missile division, which is now developing Britain’s next generation of ship-busting cruise missiles.
Lord Tebbit, who was employment secretary in the Thatcher cabinet at the time of the conflict, said: “It really
‘If it was true, and they didn’t tell us how we could disarm them, I think it would be terrible, frankly’
wouldn’t do the French any harm to explain … why they thought it was not appropriate to tell us about this.”
Sir Geoffrey Pattie, who was defence procurement minister during the conflict, said he had been aware at the time that “kill switch” technology existed, but did not know whether the French had held back information about whether such technology was built into Exocets.
He said: “If there were any restrictions on what the British were being told by the French at the time I think it would be helpful – for historical accuracy, if nothing else – for them to reveal that.”
Many arms manufacturers included secret “kill switches” in weapons so that they could be disabled if they fell into the hands of a hostile state and could have been turned against their owners. British officials suspected at the time of the Falklands war that France did not want to admit to their existence because it would have deterred potential buyers.
Some even claimed the French were keen for Exocets to prove their effectiveness in the conflict as it would have boosted their sales.
Mr Mellor, who was an energy minister in 1982, said the French should come clean, but added: “I’m totally and utterly confident that there is no reason they would feel any particular concern for us, no reason they would tell us the truth and no reason they wouldn’t brazen it out in a very Gallic way.”
Yesterday, survivors of HMS Sheffield and relatives of those who died gathered at the National Memorial
Arboretum in Staffordshire to dedicate a new monument to them.
The Royal Navy ship was attacked in retribution for the destruction of the Argentine light-cruiser General Belgrano, which had been sunk two days earlier with the loss of 323 lives.
Reflecting on his ship’s part in the conflict, Commander Norman said: “I think to myself, what contribution did Sheffield make to the war?
“Well, two missiles were fired, one missile hit us and the other one fizzled out. And there was only a stock of five [air-deployed Exocets] that the Argentines had. So I guess you could say at the cost of 20 lives, we got them to use two missiles.
“There were a lot of lessons learnt for ship design and materials in ships, which burned terribly badly.”
John Young, 64, who was a weapons electrical mechanic on board the ship, thought it unlikely that knowledge of a kill switch would have made a difference. He said: “It’s flying at over 700 knots. The first time we really get to see it is about eight miles away.”
The Ministry of Defence made it clear yesterday that it does not want an inquiry, and played up Anglo-french military ties, including a joint nuclear facility “to sustain the safety and reliability of our nuclear weapons”.
Its spokesman said: “France is one of the UK’S most important European allies. The record shows that France supported the UK during the Falklands conflict, and we have no evidence to substantiate this allegation. French and British soldiers have served alongside each other all over the world for many decades, including in the Balkans, the Middle East and Afghanistan.”