Originally Posted by jim24

Ok, at the time I posted I had forgotten the fact that the helicopter was in fact a RM aircraft, but some reports say it was 656 sqn AAC.

Jim, the simple fact is that the cab and crew were 656 Sqn, not 3CBAS. therefore AAC. 656 Sqn were part of 5 Bde.

Originally Posted by cloudbuster

Jim, the simple fact is that the cab and crew were 656 Sqn, not 3CBAS. therefore AAC. 656 Sqn were part of 5 Bde.

I must admit I was being lazy in my checks I only checked the info here

06/06/1982 XX377 L Gazelle AH1 3 CBAS Hit by a missile fired from a British ship while near the summit of Mount Pleasant. All four crew were killed. The identification system had been switched off as it was interfering with the Army’s weapons systems. The ships crew had considered it to be an enemy aircraft

which I pulled from here
UK Serials

Should have checked my books

UK Serials has a number of factual errors, sadly. All that remained of 377 in 1985 was a skid lying alongside a fence, a long way from the summit.

Originally Posted by cloudbuster

UK Serials has a number of factual errors, sadly. All that remained of 377 in 1985 was a skid lying alongside a fence, a long way from the summit.

The memorial cross was already there when I got there, it was about half a K east of the quarry on the SE side of the mountain and the Reg. was laid out in white stones

What you'll find there now is a white painted "205". If you Google XX377, the wiki entry has a lat/long for the marking, which can be quite clearly seen on various sat photo websites such as GE.

I was on the advance party of 651 SQN so went from Ascension by Hercules and had an interesting 13 hour flight. Watching the Herc pilot for 20 minutes trying to catch up the Victor tanker for a refuel was fun.

Ref the Gazelle shot down, one of the pilots from the squadron we were reliving had been there during the war and told me how he had found bits of the British made missile at the crash site but was told to keep quite as it would be bad for moral. So it took the families six years to find out what was common knowledge in the AAC.

The widow of the Aircrewman killed turned up at Hildesheim with her knew husband driving a brand new Golf GTI, a lad coincidently I knew from my crewman's course. They were not popular and I seemed to recall he bought himself out not to long after arriving.

Seeing the minefield map reminded me (sorry about the pun) about landing in one when a back door of a Gazelle popped open after take off from Mount Kent. I told the pilot about the mines so we landed on a track, while I got out standing only on the skids and removed the bent backwards door. I then stuck it in the boot and we returned to Stanley. What fun it was to hover up those mountains following the BV tracks through the cloud to deliver a blue airmail letter. Mount Kent you could follow the tracks up and hop over the side of the helipad to descend through the cloud hoping there was nothing below. When the QHI found out what we were doing he went ballistic but everyone continued doing it or the lads would never get have got mail.

If you're doing Mount Longdon read 'Green-Eyed Boys' by Christian Jennings and Adrian Weale. It's a laugh a minute and rather divides opinion.

When the QHI found out what we were doing he went ballistic but everyone continued doing it or the lads would never get have got mail.

And very grateful we were too! Thanks

Would i be right in saying that the battle to take Mount Longdon was important because a) it overlooked stanley and secondly control of the high ground gives the troop leader better control of the bigger picture?

I know they are bone questions but i am an aircraft engineer field tactics not my strong point!

Not sure if it overlooked Stanley per se, but it dominated the ground you'd have to cross to get there.