Originally Posted by
BomberH
I have said this before in various publications/media, but I feel the need to say it again............
I was airborne in a GR3 from HERMES with two Laser Guided Bombs on a mission on 14 June 82.
I was just about to run in to deliver them on a target on Sapper Hill when I was told by the FAC to abort because the white flags were up and the ground forces were retreating into Stanley, and they did not want a couple of bombs dropped onto them that might make them change their minds and turn around.
The Laser guidance kits for the bombs I was carrying had been air-dropped into the sea to us by Herc from Ascension, so some serious effort had been made to get the kits to us. So I decided that jettisoning them into the sea was not the right thing to do, not knowing if this really was the end, or if it might start again the next day. I worked out that with minimum fuel I could do a vertical landing onto the boat with the bombs still on.
So I did.
Well, to be fair, the laser guidance kits had been dropped in the oggin once already....
Originally Posted by
BomberH
Before I got out of the cockpit after landing, an over-excited two and a half stripe staff officer arrived to tell me that the Captain wanted to see me now - so off I meandered to the Bridge, where I was shouted at by LM asking me what I thought I was doing landing on his boat with bombs still aboard. I explained that I considered them to be valuable items, and that I had been told that the white flags were up over Stanley, so that was why I had made my decision, not knowing if they might be needed again tomorrow. He stopped bo**ocking me, and told me to stay there, while he went to get Woodward. I then became the carrier pigeon who told Woodward that the land war was effectively over - and I was then allowed to get back to my Squadron and tell them.
Middleton's style of leadership is not one I enjoyed or would advocate.
Woodward seemed fairly relaxed about the information - but it must have been what he had dreamed of!!
You are in good company since Admiral Nick Hunt once told me that he, as a Rear Admiral, also received a "borderline bollocking" from Captain LM. NH as FOF2 was returning from a ship visit in a Lynx and passing ahead of HERMES which, with her very pronounced ski-jump, was anchored in Plymouth Sound. Always one for wind-up, NH instructed the Lynx pilot to stop and hover ahead of the bows and passed a message to HERMES saying, "Request permission to pick your rather bulbous nose" to which came the reply came, "Certainly not - my nose is always clean"......
Jack