Special Forces Pilot: A Flying Memoir of the Falkland War

272 Pages·2008·3.11 MB·English

by  Richard

First published in Great Britain in 2008 by
Pen & Sword Military
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright © Richard Hutchings
9781781594162

The right of Richard Hutchings to be identified as Author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.

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available from the British Library
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Epigraph
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded
state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is
much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight,
nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable
creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the
exertions of better men than himself.

John Stewart Mill
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Epigraph
Table of Figures
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part 1 - The Road to War
CHAPTER 1 - Will We, Won’t We?
CHAPTER 2 - The Passage to Ascension Island
CHAPTER 3 - Task Force Reorganization at Ascension Island
CHAPTER 4 - The Eve of War
Part 2 - Operations in the TEZ
CHAPTER 5 - Arrival in the TEZ – Operation Sutton Commences
CHAPTER 6 - HMS Sheffield, A Shattering Blow
CHAPTER 7 - HMS Yarmouth – ‘These Things Happen in War’
CHAPTER 8 - The Narwal Incident
CHAPTER 9 - Operation Sutton Continues
CHAPTER 10 - Pebble Island
Part 3 - The Mainland Option
CHAPTER 11 - ‘You’re Never Going to Believe This’
CHAPTER 12 - HMS Invincible
CHAPTER 13 - A One-way Trip to Argentina
CHAPTER 14 - Fog, Now What?
CHAPTER 15 - Chile? It’s F Freezing!
CHAPTER 16 - Arrival at Useless Bay
CHAPTER 17 - The Beach South of Punta Arenas
CHAPTER 18 - Survival in the Hostile Chilean Countryside
CHAPTER 19 - The Hill
CHAPTER 20 - ‘Are you the Three British Airmen?’
CHAPTER 21 - The Flight to Santiago, Courtesy of the RAF
CHAPTER 22 - Santiago – ‘It’s a Small World’
CHAPTER 23 - The Flight to London – What no Interpol?
CHAPTER 24 - Arrival in the UK – ‘We’re Not Expecting You’
CHAPTER 25 - The ‘Safe House’
CHAPTER 26 - The Aftermath
Epilogue
Glossary
Index
Table of Figures
Figure 1
Foreword
BUCKINGHAM PALACE

Over the last 25 years, the conduct of operations during the Falklands War by
sea, land and air has been comprehensively and, in some cases, precipitously
analysed. Many books and countless articles have been written by participants,
observers and journalists, which collectively form a body of knowledge and
commentary on many aspects of operations during the conflict. Some of these
accounts are widely acknowledged as accurate records of events at sea, on the
ground and in the air and others, which purport to be definitive, do not withstand
close scrutiny. What, for me, makes this book such an important addition to the
bibliography of the conflict is that, to my knowledge, it is not just the first
written account by a pilot who took part in Special Forces missions but also the
only helicopter pilot’s memoir from the war.

Richard Hutchings describes the operations undertaken by the crews of 846
Naval Air Squadron, who were trained to fly with Night Vision Goggles (NVG)
in support of Special Forces. In 1982, binocular NVG was a new capability
which was yet to be tested operationally. During the long but relatively quick
passage to the Falkland Islands, a high priority for the Squadron was to
familiarise selected aircrew with the goggles and to develop operational flying
procedures, drills and tactics for their use. Furthermore, a cockpit modification