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.

Surviving the First Attack and the Hunt for the Bismarck

Alf Burton spent 23 years in the Royal Navy, beginning his career just as the Second World War broke out. His service almost ended before it began: while working high up a funnel on HMS Edinburgh in the Firth of Forth, his ship was strafed in the first German air attack on Britain. Sixteen naval personnel were killed across three ships and Alf’s funnel was left riddled with machine-gun holes.

In his interview, Alf speaks candidly about life at sea. He recalls the poor condition of some wartime vessels, the sheer scale of the guns on HMS Rodney, and the moment an ingenious German pilot nearly sank her. He gives a gripping account of the chase for the Bismarck and a bird’s-eye view of her sinking — a reality for which no training exercise could prepare the crew.

His memories offer an extraordinary window into the Navy’s endurance and transformation, from the war years to his later reflections on visiting a modern warship.

Alf died on Thursday 27th January 2018, aged 1998.