MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands' forgotten soldiers, remembered at last
Former FIDF members with Governor Mr. Alan Huckle In case anyone, anywhere in the world is still in doubt, given the constant stream of journalists arriving and leaving the Falkland Islands during the last few weeks, April 2nd marks for Falkland Islanders the twenty-fifth anniversary of the invasion of their country by Argentina.
Despite the fact that the events of April 2nd 1982 and the subsequent seventy four days of the Argentine occupation were to change the Islands for ever, the anniversary usually passes in Stanley, the Islands capital, without any public commemoration, though no doubt the date is engraved for ever in the minds of those Islanders who are old enough to remember it. The lack of public remembrance in Stanley is in acute contrast to what happens in Argentina. Despite the fact that the recovery of the Islas Malvinas (The Spanish name for the Falkland Islands) is now seen by many as having been a last desperate misadventure by an incompetent and oppressive military government, on April 2nd there are parades and speeches, especially in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. Hopefully the acts of remembrance in Argentina will also include long overdue recognition of the suffering of thousands of conscripts. As the recently much acclaimed film, Iluminados Por El Fuego so graphically demonstrated and as ex-combatant visitors to the Islands have confirmed to MercoPress, the conscripts were sent to war ill-prepared and once there were badly led. Their principal enemies, apart from tyrannical officers, were hunger and cold and their return to their homeland, after a war in which many had no wish to participate, was marked at the time by silence and shame. If recognition has been slow in coming for many Argentine conscripts, the same can also be said for the members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF) â€" local volunteers - also at the time lacking in training and equipment. Spirited resistance against the invader was provided by the thirty-five or so Royal Marines of Naval Party 8901, but on the night of April 1st 1982, thirty two members of FIDF â€" ranging in age from sixteen to sixty â€" also volunteered to leave their comfortable homes in Stanley to defend essential installations against attack, with every reason to expect that they might never come back alive. In the event, all of the FIDF members did survive the night unhurt, and today, April 1st, their courage was acknowledged at a special service of commemoration at the monument to the British casualties of the 1982 war. In the presence of the Islands' Governor, Mr.Alan Huckle and the Commander British Forces South Atlantic, Brigadier Nick Davies, a large congregation heard the acting Minister of the Anglican Cathedral, the Reverend Cathy Biles, begin the service by reading a short account of the FIDF's participation in the defence of the Falklands in 1982. To honour the memory of two of the original thirty-three FIDF members who have since passed on, there was a minute's silence marked by the 'Last Post' played by a lone trumpeter. Later, to a haunting lament played by a military piper, 'Nunker' Summers, who, at sixteen tears of age in 1982, was the youngest member of force to turn out, laid a wreath. The service of commemoration was followed by a reception at Government House and the presentation of a special lapel badge to the veterans. In his address to the assembled party, the Falklands' Governor said of the FIDF that they were "something of a comfort to me" and acknowledged that the FIDF is now a highly trained unit, fully integrated with British Forces in the defence of the Islands. This public commemoration of the FIDF's part in the Falklands War was the first of its kind, and according to organiser, Anthony "Taff" Davis, possibly the last. Taff himself in 1982, recently retired from the Royal Marines and married to a local girl, joined the Defence Force some twenty minutes after hearing the news of the impending invasion on the local radio, despite the fact that his wife, Jackie was heavily pregnant with their second child, Sían who was to be born on the 11th of May, the third and last of the children born during the Argentine occupation. During the service of commemoration, mention was made of the families who waited in apprehension and uncertainty for the return of their loved ones. Of the night of 1st of April, which ended with him and his companions being briefly a prisoner of war, Taff Davis says that it was "an experience that I don't want to go through again". Because some of their weapons had been borrowed by the Royal Marines, according to Taff, the FIDF had only twelve modern self-loading rifles between them and less than two magazines each. The rest of the force was equipped with ancient rifles, some of which dated back to the First World War. Frazer Wallace, now General Manager of the Falkland Islands Government Air Service, was one of those equipped with an ancient rifle, which, as a recent recruit to the FIDF, he had never had an opportunity to fire. He spent the night prone on the ground in front of the very house, which he now owns. Feeling after some hours that he had been forgotten and abandoned, he returned to headquarters to discover that the FIDF had surrendered and the invasion was all over. Among the other problems experienced by the FIDF was that they had no radio communications either with each other or with the Royal Marine detachment who were engaging the invaders. This lack of knowledge of each others' whereabouts, which nearly caused two "blue on blue" friendly fire incidents, was one of the reasons why the role of the FIDF was limited to a static defence of certain key installations such as the power station and the water treatment plant. John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley
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