The Battle for Mountains Surrounding Stanley
Chapter 11 After the Surrender
lthough military units were adhering to a ceasefire by the late morning of 14 June, Argentina had not surrendered. Galtieri was pressuring Brigadier General Menendez to launch a counter-attack.
British special forces, however, using the local hospital radio network, had made contact with Argentines in Stanley in the hope of encouraging a surrender while the battle for the mountains was raging. Communications eventually reached Menendez, who agreed to discuss matters. Special forces therefore arranged a secret session later that day to set the stage for a meeting between Menendez and Major General Moore. Earlier, perhaps in anticipation of such a breakthrough, Moore had instructed both of his brigadiers to halt their brigade movements toward Stanley after securing the high ground. He wanted to avoid a fight in the capital itself if at all possible. The same afternoon, Brigadier Thompson with several of his staff walked into Stanley from the west and noticed a British helicopter overhead. He recognized it as carrying Lieutenant Colonel Michael Rose, Commander 22 SAS Regiment, and suspected that negotiations were underway. Rose, in fact, was entering the town on a prearranged route to meet with Menendez and discuss conditions for surrender. The Argentine general understood the hopelessness of the situation, and at 1830 hrs Rose advised Moore that Menendez was willing to surrender. Meanwhile, Admiral Fieldhouse and others in London anxiously awaited the outcome.
After a break in the wintry squalls that evening, special forces spirited Moore into Stanley to accept the surrender on the second floor of the Secretariat Building, which had been serving as Argentine headquarters during the war. Menendez was waiting in neatly pressed uniform and shined shoes when a smallish man in dirty battle uniform walked up the stairs. It was Moore, looking more like the vanquished than the victor. The meeting between the two generals did not last long. Menendez objected to the use of the term ‘unconditional surrender’ and so penned his own correction before finally signing the document, which became effective at 2130 hrs that evening. According to the agreement, Argentine units would keep their flags, officers would retain their firearms, commanders would remain in charge of their troops, a mixed working group between the two forces would form to resolve personnel and logistics issues, and prisoners would be grouped near the airport until they could be transported back to Argentina. The British would soon learn that Argentine military leaders exercised no more discipline over their units than they had during the occupation. Most, in fact, would remove insignias to mask their ranks. Moore’s transmission back to Admiral Fieldhouse following the signature that evening was brief:
IN PORT STANLEY AT 9 O’CLOCK PM FALKLAND ISLANDS TIME TONIGHT THE 14 JUNE 1982, MAJOR GENERAL MENENDES SURRENDERED TO ME ALL THE ARGENTINE FORCES IN EAST AND WEST FALKLAND, TOGETHER WITH THEIR IMPEDIMENTA. ARRANGEMENTS ARE IN HAND TO ASSEMBLE THE MEN FOR RETURN TO ARGENTINA, TO GATHER THEIR ARMS AND EQUIPMENT, AND TO MAKE SAFE THEIR MUNITIONS. THE FALKLAND ISLANDS ARE ONCE MORE UNDER THE GOVERNMENT DESIRED BY THE INHABITANTS. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
The succinctness of Moore’s message to Fieldhouse belied the enormity of the tasks now facing him and his senior commanders.
Falklanders had no idea that the British Land Force commander was in their midst. Most remained secluded in their homes or shelters, still fearful for their lives. Having grown accustomed to the sound of explosions for several weeks, they suddenly sensed an eerie silence enveloping Stanley. None grasped what had just happened. After the signing, Moore turned to Patrick Watts, who had been in the Secretariat when the general arrived, and asked where he could meet some locals. Watts was the radio broadcaster who had provided updates during the invasion, until the Argentines shut down transmissions.
He told Moore that over a hundred people had taken refuge in the Falkland Island Company’s West Store in the town centre, then headed to the store to tell them the war was over and Moore was on his way.
Watts had barely arrived, at about 2220 hrs, when Moore walked in and told everyone he was sorry it had taken him so long to get to Stanley. Soon locals in the store hoisted the smallish general atop their shoulders and gave him a drink.1 News about the end of the war spread quickly around the small community.
After visiting the local hospital to meet more locals, Moore mentioned to Watts that he would appreciate a cup of tea. They went to the residence the broadcaster shared with his mother, where all relaxed with some tea and cakes. Before the general headed to Government House for the night, he declared it to be
‘the best dammed cuppa I’ve had since I set out’. The civility of this gathering belied the chaos that was brewing outside on the streets of the capital.
By then, a handful of others had arrived in Stanley to join Moore, including Colonel Ian Baxter, his deputy chief of staff for logistics, who had the unique experience of drafting the terms of surrender that Moore presented to Menendez. He arrived via helicopter on the same prearranged route about twenty minutes after Moore. It would have been a surreal scene had anyone been there to observe the Brits disembark their helicopters in battle uniforms that evening and walk across the sports field on which they had landed. Some Argentine soldiers were milling around, still armed, as others continued to straggle on to the streets from the surrounding hills. And although they surely anticipated they would find damage, it
must have been particularly surreal and unnerving for the newly arrived Brits to see the carnage, filth and disorder then characterizing the capital.
Walking from the landing area across the muddy sports field that evening, Baxter could see dozens of shipping containers on side streets, their doors open and their insides stuffed with things like sides of beef and bacon, bottles of olive oil, cases of wine, clothing and other items clearly different from the supplies Argentine conscript soldiers in the field had been receiving. But some containers also were filled with crates of ration packs that had never made it to the front lines. Now Argentine soldiers were looting these containers, taking whatever they wanted. Vehicles packed streets that were ankle-deep in mud.
Weapons, ammunition, dead men, occasional body parts and debris littered the town. Even more startling, perhaps, was the complete degradation of sanitation. Argentine leaders had not enforced basic sanitary measures in units during their occupation; forces had built no field latrines in the two and a half months since the invasion. Soldiers therefore had been defecating wherever and whenever they pleased – on the streets, in the town hall, in the hospital, the post office, on jetties, in virtually all public places as well as in houses where they were staying. Artillery, cannon fire and bombs, coupled with Argentine sabotage, had crippled local services, including plumbing. Permeating the air was the stench of garbage, carcasses rotting in freezers without power at the town’s slaughterhouse, dead bodies and human excrement. If there was any moment of peace and quiet in the scene before the new arrivals, it was when they saw a white horse tethered near the Secretariat Building eating grass. The following day, they would discover that someone had shot the horse dead. Stanley had become a horrible place.
Shelling in past days had left several houses and buildings aflame. Now, as they learned of the surrender, some frustrated Argentines added to the chaos by setting fire to other houses, a store and the dockyard. The local fire brigade manned by residents sprang into action and tried its best to douse the flames. Reportedly, other frustrated Argentines set booby traps in houses and buildings. Although peace was at hand, order in the capital was still far away.
With government no longer existing in the Falklands, responsibility for controlling the situation and for restoring order now fell squarely on to Moore’s shoulders. He would be in charge for the near term, not just of the needs of his land forces but also of the civilian population throughout the islands and over 8,000 Argentine prisoners crowding into a town with a normal population of barely a thousand. After the surrender that evening, Moore instructed Baxter to coordinate with Menendez for the handling of prisoners.
Meanwhile, 5 Infantry Brigade and 3 Commando Brigade had stopped their advance as they awaited news of the surrender. Some units were anxious to be the first to enter the beleaguered town. Moore, however, did not want the situation in Stanley to be exacerbated by an influx of several thousand British troops. He had instructed Wilson to prepare his units to return to the Fitzroy area. Thompson’s men had reached the town limits on 14 June. His commanders then started seeking shelter for their men on the western edge of Stanley, and 2 Para and 3 Para took up positions in the grandstands of the racecourse and in huts and houses on the outskirts of town. Lieutenant Colonel Nick Vaux, the Commander 42 Commando, discovered a seaplane hangar as he looked for temporary quarters for his men and there made a gruesome discovery:
Entering the sea-plane hangar was like walking under a vegetable strainer. Everywhere narrow shafts of light speared the gloom through myriad punctures from a cluster bomb strike. Inside was the anticipated squalor. It became quickly apparent that this would be worse than usual as the two companies began to clean up. A useful-looking wheelbarrow under a tarpaulin turned out to contain a dismembered corpse. On a balcony upstairs was a pile of amputated limbs from which the blood dripped down onto the floor below. Outside more bodies were piled together in the mud. We gradually came to realize that this had been a macabre mortuary.2
The hangar eventually housed two of Vaux’s companies, once they had cleaned up the mess. After weeks of operating in the open, often in harsh weather, British troops welcomed whatever shelter they could find. The day after the surrender, Moore selflessly dubbed Brigadier Thompson the ‘Man of the Match’ for his leadership throughout the campaign. He also instructed Thompson to assign one of his units to start disarming Argentines and to concentrate them near the airfield. The task fell to Vaux and his commandos.
Although the war on land was officially over now, much had to be done before some semblance of normalcy could return to the island. Argentines had abandoned much of their gear upon learning of the surrender. Helmets, rifles, ammunition and other equipment now littered mountainsides and trails. The people of Stanley lacked basic services. There was no running water. Residents were relying on the little water remaining in tanks at their homes; the town’s water purification facility had been badly damaged by shellfire during the final assault. The sewage pipe to the sea had been severed. Two of the three generators in the town’s power station were not working. In many places, power lines cut by shellfire were draped around buildings. Roads remained largely impassable because of mud and abandoned equipment. Surrounding the town were minefields and booby traps, complicating movement on land and also on beaches where the Argentines had anticipated an amphibious assault. And beyond the capital, miles away in settlements, the inhabitants faced similar challenges. Argentines had taken whatever they wanted from them too. Falklanders had been surviving for over two months on what they had on hand or were able to retain. Those in Stanley now eagerly opened their homes, took in as many of the British as they could, and looked after them. Local hospitality of this kind would continue for many months, until more permanent accommodation for the military became available. Ada Watts, for example, turned her entire house over to the British forces and returned several times a week to cook meals for those staying there.
Of primary importance to British commanders at this time, of course, was the welfare of their men, who
had been sacrificing so much for the past month in the islands and also for the previous two months to get there. Thousands of troops remained in field locations, many in the open with only personal gear. Most had not enjoyed a hot meal in days. Many had not showered in weeks or even changed their underwear recently. A common complaint after the war concerned the poor quality of the combat boots some had been wearing. It was not unusual for men to remove boots from dead Argentine soldiers to replace their own. Trench foot was a common ailment; so was the diarrhoea, known as ‘Galtieri’s revenge’, due to the lack of fully sterilized water. These men had been struggling in tough field conditions, always under threat of possible attack and the stress of combat. They, too, needed reconstitution as well as a good break.
Ordnance Squadron Commander Anthony Welch thought that Brigadier Thompson recognized this and purposely ‘let his commandos go for a day or two to get it out of their system’. He was right. Thompson realized that his men needed some time to relish their hard-fought victory. Liquor allocations were established, and celebration commenced within British ranks, with the lone pub in Stanley quickly back in operation. But with all kinds of abandoned equipment lying around, and many exuberant men happy the war was over, it is not surprising that looting by British troops started as well. Concerned that troops might get their hands on drugs, Commander Rick Jolly of the Medical Squadron smashed hundreds of capsules of Argentine morphine hydrochloride.3 Thompson was aware of the potential for things to spin out of control after the victory. About forty-eight hours after the surrender, he called his commanders together and told them to re-establish discipline in their units and get their troops back in proper uniform.
He declared a curfew for military units from last light to first light, declared the town’s pub off limits, established guards over supply areas and instituted patrols to keep units inside designated areas. The celebrating soon came to an end, and the immense work of reversing the supply chain and restoring order in the Falklands began. Early decisions to hold many units in field locations outside Stanley certainly lessened congestion in the town as well as easing command and control issues. Shortly after the surrender, the Division relocated soldiers from 5 Brigade by helicopter from their last field locations at Sapper Hill, Tumbledown and Mount William directly back to Fitzroy and Goose Green, where they vastly outnumbered the tiny populations of those settlements. Most of Brigadier Wilson’s men would never walk the streets of Stanley.
Without communications across the island or into all settlements, Moore asked Commodore Clapp to gain a better appreciation of the situation and needs in the settlements. Clapp kept the LPD Intrepid with its additional command and control capabilities near San Carlos to assist assessments in that area; he relocated Fearless to Port Stanley to help coordinate logistics requirements. At the time, there was much uncertainly about conditions, including the number of people in settlements outside of Stanley and of Argentine prisoners on the island. Helicopters went to every settlement in West Falkland and in East Falkland, including Lafonia, to visit each home and determine needs. It was clear that logisticians would have to provide supplies to other parts of the island, but actual needs would remain unclear for days.
Concerns also persisted about the attitude of Argentina, given Galtieri’s personal refusal to surrender.
Consequently, Woodward kept ships at sea on alert, since the surrender Menendez had signed only applied to land forces. Clapp maintained procedures restricting coastal ship movements outside of San Carlos, Fitzroy and Teal Inlet by day, so that vessels remained protected by at least some Rapier air defence. The shifting of supplies from Ajax Bay started under cover of darkness.4
At the time of surrender, Stanley was well beyond the distribution points for land force logistics. The supply chain then spread backward from Teal Inlet to the west and Bluff Cove to the south across the island to Ajax Bay, where the bulk of Commando Logistic Regiment and supplies remained at the FMA.
Logisticians now needed to reverse the Division’s supply chain so that leaders could care for their own troops and provide essentials to the Argentine prisoners now concentrated in Stanley. Simultaneously, engineers needed to tackle a wide range of projects within the capital to re-establish basic services like water, electricity and sewage. The airfield required repairs so that aircraft could land safely after the long flight from Ascension. The British also needed to confront the horrific challenge of locating and defusing untold thousands of mines that Argentines had buried and scattered outside the city, around paths leading outward to the mountains and on beaches. Some of these challenges could be resolved in short order;
others would be more complex. Winter weather had prevailed since mid-May. Freezing temperatures and strong winds would continue now for several months, making conditions for repair and reconstruction far from ideal.
The British focused fast on getting the many thousands of prisoners of war back to Argentina. By this time they had assumed responsibility for over 10,000 enemy prisoners of war on ships and around East Falkland. Without a fully useable airfield, and with no port facilities aside from jetties for small craft to help shift supplies, the continued presence of prisoners in such large numbers simply prolonged the discomfort for everyone, complicated logistics and created the possibility that the situation would worsen.
Covered shelters were not available to protect all prisoners from the weather. Their tents having gone down with the Atlantic Conveyor, the British had no alternative but to resort to pickets and wire to confine and segregate most prisoners. This situation was far from ideal.
The Argentines were not only dejected because of their defeat. Some were angry at the way they had suffered on the surrounding mountains as they risked their lives. Conscripts straggled back from field positions into Stanley, many with trench foot and diarrhoea themselves, to see stacks of food and clothes which they had badly needed in the mountains. It was clear that severe inequities existed in the provisioning of units and ranks. Some platoons appeared well fed; others began scavenging for whatever they could find while they had the chance. Argentine leaders had failed to get supplies to many of their men. Returning from the field, soldiers probably found themselves with more rations than they had seen