Having joined the Navy first as an engineer, then as a Seaman Officer, Malcolm had reached the position of Lieutenant Commander Staff Officer and was incredibly busy on the HMS Antrim taking part in Exercise Spring Train by Gibraltar when they starting to hear rumblings about what was happening in the South Atlantic. It then came as no surprise when they were mobilised to head south. Malcolm recalls that there was initially a degree of making things up as they went along as they didn’t know what to expect and nobody, except one Royal Marines Officer, had ever been to the Falklands. One of Malcolm’s jobs was to work on deception tactics such as laying chaff around this ships to appear a larger flotilla and charting a course which looked like they might actually be heading for Argentina. At Ascension, Malcolm transfers to HMS Hermes where he recalls a frenzied race for better sleeping conditions when the Admiral said the officers could share his cabin which included the luxury of a double bed and shower. During this time, Malcolm had two main responsibilities. When on watch he was the Anti-Submarine Warfare Screen Coordinator and when not on watch he managed communications, including highly classified messages. He vividly recalls hearing the tragedy of the Sheffield directly through his headphones but that they only had a brief time to reflect before pushing on with their jobs. Malcolm describes some of their biggest challenges being rudimentary communication, lack of advance warning about airborne attacks and confusion which could arise from the three services not really having collaborated since WWII. He also remembers the tragedies of helicopter crashes and a Harrier exploding, he thinks it was often luck that meant things weren’t worse. Malcolm says it was difficult readjusting to life at home and is grateful to the public who offered members of the task group free holidays. It was a week in Wales with his family, away from home and work, that finally helped him decompress. He reflects that the Falklands will probably have been the last time the Royal Navy will fight a fleet action in that way.

Eric was born in Reading and after leaving school, worked in a camera factory. The factory was a reserved occupation and subcontracted to the Royal Air Force where Eric undertook precision work making gun cameras for fighter planes. At the weekend he was part of the Caversham home guard and recalls having little free time as a young man. After four years working at the factory, Eric volunteered as a Seaman in the Royal Navy, training at HMS Royal Arthur in Skegness, first as a telegraphist air gunner and then as a wire man. From there he went to the Coastal Forces base HMS Saint Christopher in Fort William Scotland. He was trained on motor launches and torpedo boats and passed a gunnery course. Eric joined HMS Forward Newhaven (Coastal Forces Maintenance Unit 1) for training, camped at the stone frigate HMS Collingwood and then went straight to Gold Beach, an allied area of German occupied France. Once there, he dug trenches in Arromanche Normandy and sea patrolled Mulberry Harbour, temporary piers built by the British. After leaving Normandy Eric went to Italy, mine sweeping with coastal forces. Eric describes his experiences working with important figures such as Admiral Ramsey, Captain Peter Scott and Field Marshal “Monty” Montgomery, the pressures these men were under and their different ways of working. He also reflects on choosing to focus on the good times after returning home.