Jump to content

Exercise Spring Train

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dumelow (talk | contribs) at 08:03, 11 October 2020 (→Afterwards: img). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Exercise Spring Train

Background

Regular Royal Navy exercise[1]

Annual.[2]

British national exercise 20 to 27 February 1977 USS Miller (DE/FF-1091) participated.[3]

February 1978 near Gibraltar. Hermes particpated.[4]

1982 exercise

March-APril 1982 off Gibraltar.[5]

18 destroyers and frigates participated.[6]

Incliuded:

Sheffield, which was returning frm a deployment to the Gulf. Was due to return to the UK within 6 days when ordered south. Many of the ships of the exercise were in port at GIbralat on 2 April.[7]

Froigate Brilliant.[8]

HMS London, which had before been confined to Portsmouth due to restrictions on fuel expenditure. LEft for the exercise in mid-march[9]

The supply and support ship RFA Fort Austin was ordered to leave the exercise on 29 March to proceed to the SOuth Atlantic to resupply Endurance.[10]

Austin met with Endurance in the South Atlantic 14 April.[11]

HMS ANtrim's Wessex helicopter took part in live firing exercises on 1 April. From 2 April was involved in vertical replenishment of stores from homeward bound ships to those of the taskforce. Arived Ascension night of 10/11 APril.[12]

Woodward met with Sir John Fieldhouse aboard a ship of the 1st Flotilla at the exercise on 30 March to discuss sending a taskforce to the South Atlantic. Thatcher ordered Woodward, via Leach, to consolidate the task force at the exercise and steam south in a covert manner.[13]

The cancellation of Spring Train became known to the Argentine intelligence via media reports from London. Gave an indication the the British were preparing military action.[14]

Had Argentina waited a few more days to launch their invasion the Spring Train ships would have returned to British ports and their crews sent on Easter leave, which would have led to a delay in the British response.[15]

1982 phase 1 lasted until late March when the ships returned to GIbraltar for rest and resupply. Phase 2 began 29 March.[1]

Fieldhouse was aboard HMS Glamorgan observing the 1st Flotilla under Woodward performing the exercise when he received news of the invasion.[16]

HMS Spartan was recalled from the exercise and exchanged her practice torpedoes for live ones at Gibraltar dockyard. Sailed south within 48 hours of being recalled. Joined by other submarines from Faslane.[17]

spartan, being fortuitously on exercise, was the only submarine that could be sent at short notice.[18]

First Flotilla was joined by additional ships, including carriers sent from Portsmouth.[19]

Seven destoyers and frigates from Spring Train went south and were joined at sea by four other destroyers and seven frigates from the UK.[20]

Six vessels sailed on 2 April with an additional frigate from the exercise sailing the following day[21]

20 vessels of the 1st Flotilla participated. Woodward commanded. Fieldhouse commanded Woodward to join him on Glamorgan from his command ship Antrim upon receiving news of the invasion. Met for around one hour to discuss the role of 1st Flotilla in the taskforce, Fieldhouse then was helicoptered to Gibraltar to return to London.[22]

Coventry, Glasgow and Sheffield participated. Those from the exercise who were considered unsuitable for deployment to the South Atlantic becuase of their mechnical state were returned to the UK, though supplies from these were crossdecked to the south-bound ships in a 12-hour oepration, foodammunition and spare parts were transferred, the south-bound vessels returned practice ammunition and crew members granted compassionate leave from the campaign (these were replaced by volunteers from the north-bound). Telegrams home were also transferred.[23]

Nuclear weapons

There is some evidence that some of the British vessels may have retained tactical nuclear weapons that they were carrying when sent from the exercise, though these were removed en-route and consigned to a vessel kept outside of the conflict area.[24]

John Nott stated that the ships sent carried their "full range of weapon" and "sailing under wartime orders with wartime stocks of weapons". The government reiterated that nuclear weapons were not applicable t the Falklands conflict but did not deny their presence. The Observer at the time reported that nuclear weapons were almost certainly present on some of the ships and its correspondent, Andrew Wilson, claimed to have spoken to one frigate captain who refused to leave for a war zone without his complement of tactical nuclear weapons. Sheffield was reportedly one of the vessels carrying the weapons. Wilson reported that the task force was carrying nuclear depth charges for the sea kinggs and free-fall bombs for the Harriers which were part of its usual NATO equipment. According to MP Tam Dalyell some of the weapons were reputedly recovered by helicopter when the ships were in the Western Aprroaches, by a MoD concerned about sending such a large proportion of its arsenel away from teh UK.[25]

Paul Rogers claims that a number of nuclear weapons which reached Ascension Island were offloaded to RFA Regent which sailed for the Falklands but was kept outside the conflict zone. There was also speculation that Coventry was carrying nuclear depth charges when sunk, though Rogers considers this unlikely. Some sources claim Sheffield was also carrying nuclear depth chartges when sunk though Rogrs cosniders the evidence largely circumstantial.[26]

Afterwards

A Tornado at RAF Gibraltar during Exercise Spring Train 1989

Spanish government protested the exercise and associated British ship moements in April 1983.[27]

Soviets also decried the exervise, held mid-April, as a provocation.[28]

1st - 21st April 1989 HMS Ark Royal (R07) poarticipated. [29]

References

  1. ^ a b Ships Monthly. Endlebury Publishing Company. 1982. p. 16.
  2. ^ Sked, Alan; Cook, Chris (1993). Post-war Britain: A Political History. Penguin. p. 403. ISBN 978-0-14-017912-5.
  3. ^ "USS Miller (DE/FF-1091)". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  4. ^ Hobbs, David (2013). British Aircraft Carriers: Design, Development & Service Histories. Barnsley, Yorkshire: Seaforth Publishing. p. 284. ISBN 978-1-84832-138-0.
  5. ^ Dorman, Andrew; Kandiah, Michael D.; Staerck, Gillian (2005). The Falklands War (PDF). London: CCBH Oral History Programme. ISBN 19 0516507 2.
  6. ^ "UN intervenes in Falklands dispute" (PDF). The Times. 2 April 1982.
  7. ^ Hilton, Christopher (2012). Ordinary Heroes: Untold Stories from the Falklands Campaign. History Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-7524-7776-3.
  8. ^ Hilton, Christopher (2012). Ordinary Heroes: Untold Stories from the Falklands Campaign. History Press. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-7524-7776-3.
  9. ^ Ballantyne, Iain (2003). H.M.S. London. Leo Cooper. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-85052-843-5.
  10. ^ Hilton, Christopher (2012). Ordinary Heroes: Untold Stories from the Falklands Campaign. History Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-7524-7776-3.
  11. ^ Preston, Antony (1987). History of the Royal Navy in the 20th Century. Presidio. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-89141-283-0.
  12. ^ "HMS ANtrim Flight ROP 17 July 1982" (PDF). Royal Navy.
  13. ^ Hannigan, Major Timothy J. "British Triumph on East Falkland". Marine Corps Command and Staff College. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  14. ^ Van Der Bijl, Nick (2014). Nine Battles to Stanley. Barnsley, Yorkshire: Pen and Sword. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-78159-377-6.
  15. ^ Van Der Bijl, Nick (2014). Nine Battles to Stanley. Barnsley, Yorkshire: Pen and Sword. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-78159-377-6.
  16. ^ The Annual Obituary. St. Martin's. 1992. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-55862-319-4.
  17. ^ Wilsey, John (2002). H. Jones VC: The Life and Death of an Unusual Hero. Hutchinson. p. xxvii.
  18. ^ Hastings, Max; Jenkins, Simon (1983). The Battle for the Falklands. M. Joseph. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-7181-2228-7.
  19. ^ Macdonald, Peter (1990). The SAS in Action. Sidgwick & Jackson. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-283-06018-2.
  20. ^ Cant, Christopher (2001). Air War in the Falklands 1982. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 1841762938.
  21. ^ Villar, Captain Roger (1984). Merchant Ships at War: The Falklands Experience. London: Conway Maritime Press and Lloyd's of London Press. p. 9. ISBN 0851772986.
  22. ^ Hastings, Max. Battle for the Falklands (Audiobook ed.). Audible Studios. p. Chapter 4.
  23. ^ Hastings, Max. Battle for the Falklands (Audiobook ed.). Audible Studios. p. Chapter 5.
  24. ^ Herring, Eric (1995). Danger and Opportunity: Explaining International Crisis Outcomes. Manchester University Press :Distributed exclusively in the USA and Canada by St. Martin's Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-7190-4292-8.
  25. ^ Rogers, Paul (2019). Paul Rogers: A Pioneer in Critical Security Analysis and Public Engagement: With a Foreword by Jenny Pearce. Bradford, Yorkshire: Springer. p. 124. ISBN 978-3-319-95150-8.
  26. ^ Rogers, Paul (2019). Paul Rogers: A Pioneer in Critical Security Analysis and Public Engagement: With a Foreword by Jenny Pearce. Bradford, Yorkshire: Springer. p. 125. ISBN 978-3-319-95150-8.
  27. ^ Harbron, John D. (1984). Spanish Foreign Policy Since Franco. Canadian Institute of International Affairs.
  28. ^ Newsbrief. The Institute. 1983. p. 5.
  29. ^ "HMS Ark Royal V - 1989 Ship's Movements". arkroyal.net. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Exercise_Spring_Train&oldid=982935390"