inlet that separated the 'business part' of East Falkland, where the oil fields and the airport and the military garrison were located. Indeed, Choiseul Sound very nearly bisected East Falkland altogether. Only the narrow causeway at Goose Green prevented this freezing east-west seaway from cutting the big eastern island clean in half.
Much more pertinent, however, was the fact that it was so damned shallow. There was a kind of navigation channel along the northern edge passing the entrance to Mare Harbor, to which at least one Argentine warship was plainly headed.
But even in this channel there was never as much as a hundred feet of depth, and the rest of the seaway was nearer thirty feet, in some places only ten. It was strewn with uninhabited small islands, submerged rocks, kelp beds, and God knows what. It was a submariner's nightmare. No go. No even think about.
And somewhere in these treacherous waters Lt. Jim Perry had to find a place to drive the Zodiacs up the beach. He preferred to prevent his team getting wet, since there was nowhere for them to dry out. And the weather, according to local forecasters, was already rain, with squalls out of the south, despite late March being only the equivalent of late September in the Northern Hemisphere.
Lt. Perry's team had a formidable task. After the landing they had to establish a hide about a quarter mile behind the beach, from where they could move out and watch, log, and record all Argentinian activity…the times and strength of shore patrols, if any; the proximity of the nearest Argentine military garrison; the regularity of sea patrols moving along the shore, if any; the times and depths of high and low tide for the incoming British landing craft; sites for missile batteries; helicopter landing areas; sites for shore radar systems that would scan across the flatlands to the north.
And all of this without being caught. When Lt. Perry's Zodiacs came in for the landing, one of them would be dragged up the beach and hidden, just in case a fast getaway was required. These big rubberized boats would hold twelve comfortably, but one of them would have to take sixteen if they were required to evacuate.
Privately, Lt. Perry thought there would be no need for an evacuation, and in the end he might not bother with the getaway Zodiac, which was very heavy, cumbersome, and an all-around nuisance for mobile troops. For now it was on the probable list. But if the men of the SBS were caught, they would expect to eliminate their enemy and carry on with their tasks. Running away was not in their training manual.
Both Royal Navy submarines continued their run south for seven more days. At noon on Friday, April 8, they were one hundred miles northwest of the islands. Captain Vanislav's
New intelligence from the U.S. Navy in Ascension confirmed an Argentinian destroyer, an old Type-42, was moored on the jetties in Mare Harbor, while two guided missile frigates now patrolled two miles off Mengeary Point and Cape Pembroke, the two headlands that guard the entrance to the harbor and main town of Port Stanley.
The newest Argentine destroyer was currently making passage north, about three miles offshore. At the time the signal was sent, she was moving quickly, around twenty knots right off McBride Head, thirty miles east of the entrance to Teal Inlet. At the north end of Falkland Sound, another Argentinian guided-missile frigate appeared to be almost stationary.
According to the satellite signal, this ship had come in from the northwest and had entered the Sound through the narrows below Fanning Head. When Simon Compton showed the signal to Douglas Jarvis, they agreed it suggested the Argentinians planned to guard the Sound by sea, without building a missile launcher at the top of the cliff.
But the SAS leader could not take that chance. And his plan remained unaltered during the final miles of their long journey to the South Atlantic. Perhaps the more disturbing aspect of the signal from Ascension was news of the departure of three more Argentine warships from Puerto Belgrano, all making direct course for the Falkland Islands.
Any chance the Royal Navy once had of the Task Force making a covert entry into these waters was plainly shot. The Argentines seemed to be aware of every move the Royal Navy made on the voyage from Ascension. And they assumed, of course, the imminent arrival of probably two Royal Navy nuclear submarines. However, neither
In the normal course of a Royal Navy commanding officer's duties, he would have received the information about the enemy destroyer off McBride Head and the frigate at the north end of the Sound, then moved in and put both of them on the floor of the South Atlantic.
However, this was different. The submarines were obliged to do anything rather than get caught. The one massive secret that could not be revealed was the insertion of the Special Forces.
The slightest indication of a British attacking presence was likely to double and treble Argentinian awareness, and defensive positions. Right now the less they knew the better. And Captains Compton and Hacking moved stealthily, cutting their speed, reducing their engine lines on any probing sonar that might be transmitting on the north side of East Falkland.
The course of the two submarines diverted thirty miles north of Fanning Head, where the fifty-ninth line of longitude bisects the fifty-first degree line of latitude.
The water was still almost four hundred feet deep and would remain so for
For the final run across Foul Bay,
Captain Compton ordered the ship to PD at 1826, by which time the SAS team was preparing to exit the submarine. Each man was dressed in full combat gear, including the windproof, rainproof Gore-Tex light smock that covered their regular thermal clothes. SAS combat teams always wear the best waterproof boots money can buy, and they carry in their bergans light thermal weatherproof sleeping bags, plus a quilted combat jacket in case the weather turns especially bad.
Each man carried his own automatic rifle and ammunition, with a couple of hand grenades clipped to his belt. There was 'sticky' explosive for the possible attack on an Arg garrison at the top of Fanning Head. And there was plenty of concentrated processed food, water, and medical supplies. The transmitter, laptop computers, cameras, and radios were shared among the troops. Strangely, for the SAS, they would not bring a heavy machine gun, since their mission was supremely clandestine, and the object was not to get caught, rather than mow down the enemy.
Upon their efforts of observation, assessment, and transmission of facts, the success or failure of the entire British operation might depend. Every member of the submarine's crew knew the critical nature of the SAS operation, and every member of Captain Jarvis's team knew how high the stakes were.
At 1930, Captain Compton ordered the submarine to the surface, about one mile east of Race Point, tucked right behind the granite fortress of Fanning Head. They were still in a hundred feet of calm water, and the moonless night was already pitch-black. But this remained the most dangerous part of the operation.
No SAS operation of this importance ever takes to enemy waters with only a single engine, just in case one of them cuts out. However, these particular engines had been given the best servicing any Royal Navy engine has ever had. Nothing was going to cut out.
Deck crews were loading the boats even as the electric pumps drove the final pressure pounds of air into the hull. A thick boarding net and two rope ladders were rolled down the submarine's starboard-side casing for Captain Jarvis and his men to embark.
They trooped out of the fin, carrying their bergans and weapons, which were loaded into the boats at the last
