The Falklands and a lucky escape for a nuclear sub
Jettisoned bombs just missed Valiant
Commander T M le Marchand, captain of nuclear submarine HMS Valiant, remembers the conflict:
Valiant was on a deep and fast passage across the Atlantic when Argentina invaded the Falklands. News does not travel easily to submarines when deep, and it was by means of the BBC World Service that we discovered the reasons for the Prepare for War signals that had emanated from the Flag Officer Submarines.
Perhaps we could go straight down there . No, after two months at sea there was not enough food – as ever the human machine is the limiting factor in a nuclear submarine. So the plan evolved: get home fast, top up with stores and torpedoes, and deploy for a long trip, which in the end was to last exactly 98 days under water.
Earnest preparations at base ensued. Our weapon system was upgraded to the most recent Tigerfish development, stores and provisions for 95 days were stuck down below, and one member of the ship’s company married his fiancee. From the outset, we were utterly convinced that this was going to be a shooting war, and that our task was going to be to take the Argentinian navy out of the equation.
The submarine entered the war zone on May 1 after a high speed transit south. Drills every watch on attacking and torpedo evasion had made us confident that we could do our part; recognition was honed – strangely difficult when our enemy had until recently been friends: it has always seemed `not cricket’ to gather intelligence on those whom one expects to be on one’s own side.
More importantly we practised and became very skilled at operating the Tigerfish Mod 1 weapon system – in effect an underwater guided missile – which was to be our prime weapon against all targets, surface or submarine. Not for us the World War II Mark 8 – which was in fact the weapon which Conqueror employed with such devastating effect against the Belgrano.
On one occasion, whilst at periscope depth, we suffered a near miss from a stick of six bombs, the fourth one of which was close enough to spill cups of tea. Having to assume we may have been detected, though there was no other indication that we had, it was prudent to get some distance between us and where it happened. We later assessed that it was returning aircraft jettisoning their unused bombs before landing back at base that had so nearly scored a fluke hit. The moral was to get off track from their return route. We were lucky, but a few feet closer and it might have been something of a bad luck story.
A word about the ship’s company. We numbered 105, and kept to a six hours on, six off watchbill for the whole deployment. Keeping the highly sophisticated but 21-year-old nuclear submarine at peak performance for night after day was a fantastic achievement. Heroes daily dealt with steam leaks, hydraulic bursts and even the odd fire; one person, the smallest man on board, had to slide 12ft down between the pressure hull and the port main condenser (a space of nine by 18 inches cross-section) to replace a flange from which steam was leaking. Unrepaired we would not have been able to use full power – a crucial get-away requirement.
Discipline and morale were outstanding – the more so because no one was conscious that such characteristics were under trial. Throughout the deployment all were acutely interested in how the `real battle’ was going and determined to do all possible to contribute. There were no defaulters; no one was even ill.
Valiant returned to base in Scotland in early August. There was one single frozen chicken in the ship’s fridges.
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