Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Speech on board the Canberra (Falklands)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Canberra
Source: Thatcher Archive: transcript
Editorial comments:
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 2043
Themes: Monarchy, Defence (Falklands), Foreign policy (USSR & successor states), Media

My Lord Chairman, your Royal Highness, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen. First may I thank you My Lord Chairman for the splendid way in which you proposed the toast and also for the generous hospitality you have afforded us this evening as you give us all a chance to come together again to share memories and worries, days of happiness, days of sorrow, days of wonderful achievement on this the fifteenth anniversary of the day Canberra left with the troops to go down and join battle in the Falklands. Is it possible that it was fifteen years ago? Yes it is, but it was a fantastic achievement on behalf of all our armed forces supported by the people of our great country. We are also delighted that the Duke of York is with us. He was there as an ordinary serviceman. Right at the beginning of the campaign it was made very clear to me that the Duke of York was going and the Monarch also insisted that the Duke of York went. No question of advice being tendered to the monarchy, instructions were handed down to me which I gladly accepted and thought aren't we lucky they have such a wonderful Monarch and such a marvellous Royal family.

Nothing remains more vividly in my mind than the eleven weeks in the Spring of 1982 when Britain fought and won the Falklands War and restored territory and people to their rightful heritage. It is not very easy to take a decision which commits your country to fight a war eight thousand miles away from home. Especially when the circumstances came so quickly upon us. John Nott and I remember that day when he dashed in and said the Argentinian Fleet has sailed and from what they have put on board we think this time they may be going to invade the Falkland Islands. We called together quickly people from the Ministry of Defence, alas Peter Carrington was away, and Lord Lewin was [end p1] away so Admiral Leach came in and told us what we could muster and how quickly they could leave our country to go to the Falklands.

The Falklands were invaded on a Friday. We got the news from a ham radio operator because in fact the radio facilities had broken down from the Falklands. On the Friday night the Cabinet met and authorised the Task Force to sail. On Saturday Parliament was recalled, fully attended, only about 6 out of the 650 had a different view. It was an overwhelming view and the whole people of our country who were enraged that the Falklands had been invaded insisted that the Fleet went and the Task Force left on Monday. Other nations were astonished at the speed and efficiency of the way in which they put to see, and rightly so. These were days, all of us were involved and I see them round this table, I see them everywhere, there are too many to mention, will for ever remember they are etched upon our hearts. We were so very fortunate in all our Commanders. I have often thought that had we used computers in those days to assess the risk as to whether we should go, eight thousand miles away to the South Atlantic, arriving in the winter, our people having been on board for three and a half weeks, there were people in the Falkland Islands, far more Argentine troops than we could ever have, they were fresh, we would unload ours, they were tired. Had we fed it into a computer, the computer would have said “you would be mad to go.” But of course a computer cannot tell the spirit of the people. It cannot tell the spirit of the nation. It cannot tell the proud competence and resourcefulness of the Commanders, the marvellous morale and the resourcefulness armed forces, and their wonderful resolve never to be defeated. And so the Task Force sailed. We …   . we were naturally very worried indeed. We were so fortunate in every single Commander. Some of them around this table, some of them are scattered among you. I know from the books some of them have written how very anxious they must have been at some time. And so were we all because there were some very bad days. There [end p2] was some very bad news. One particularly bad day when we lost the Coventry and we didn't know for many many hours how many people we had lost on her. At the same time, when I got back to No 10 that evening, John NottJohn had gone on to be on the television, they are always incessant of their demands of everybody, because we thought we had lost the Atlantic Conveyor. We had. It was also reported, wrongly thank goodness, that we had lost the Invincible. What had we lost? We didn't know until the following morning that the Atlantic Conveyor had been lost. We had put 19 Harriers on her, we needed them, I knew we needed them, we had sent far too few at the beginning, had we lost them? No. Fortunately they had been flown off. That was a great relief. There were something like 19 or 20 helicopters on her, they were not recovered save one. We had much equipment on her, we had 4,800 tents in anticipation that they might be needed for prisoners of war. They were lost. I wasn't too perturbed about that. The helicopters were a very very bad loss indeed and we lost the Captain of the Atlantic Conveyor. All of these things and many others and we knew we had losses, we didn't know how many, and we weren't able to tell the people. All of them somehow we overcame. Perhaps it was only the difficult news that was reported to us and the good news came later, but it was due to the remarkable morale of the British forces, the skill and wisdom of their Commanders, that that eleven weeks battle was won.

We never thought of how to fight this battle. We didn't know where we would land. It was all done in a way I believe only the British armed forces could do it and we pay tribute to everyone. I was like to say especially to Admiral Fieldhouse whom I went up to see quite frequently at NATO, he was not only a tower of strength he was also a model of humanity, and as you have said My Lord Chairman, he was supported by another model of humanity and common sense in Midge. I would also like to thank the Merchant Navy. Canberra of course was taken up very quickly from trade, cruising on April 2nd in the [end p3] Mediterrnean, left from Southampton on April 9th with 3,500 people on board. Canberra, and later Lord Lewin, who was a member of our small wartime committee, which Harold Macmillan had advised me to set up, Terence LewinTerry came in and said, “we have got to send some more troops. Now this is the thing that happens in wartime, you haven't sent enough.” We had sent down something like 9,000 or 10,000 people altogether at the beginning and we went down in the first Task Force 25 ships, led by two aircraft carriers, eleven destroyers and many Royal Fleet Auxiliaries and some seven from Gibraltar. By the end of the campaign-it's as well you don't know what is going to happen in wartime because we couldn't have stood it-by the end of the campaign we had sent down in all more than 25,000 people, some had calculated nearly 29,000 and 100 ships. And we found them all. Terry came in and said “I have got to have a big ship to take another three or four thousand troops down and then came his full line. I want to take up the Elizabeth II, a massive big ship.” I said “What?” He was having me on I thought, I wasn't perturbed about the cost, we don't economise at these times on cost, I am perturbed about her size. Oh they would go down to South Georgia and they would get the Canberra to go in and they would decamp off the troops there in three ships. In the end we said yes. You will be amazed that I said we won't be perturbed about the cost. I had long since decided we didn't decided under these circumstances. And also Harold Macmillan who had come to see me early in the campaign said, never put a representative from the Treasury on your wartime committee. So I didn't. The Sir Geoffrey HoweChancellor of the Exchequer was very upset. But his absence was very beneficial. I knew full well that we had in fact a very good contingency reserve. And so gradually one after the other of the obstacles was overcome. I should add also that when we sent the original ships we took I think the correct decision of putting the press on board. Now you might find it strange that I say that was the correct decision because there were times when they weren't always co-operative as when the QEII was decanting her troops and I heard on [end p4] the 7 o'clock news that morning that she was going to decant them, the way it was happening, and within eight hours the planes from the Argentine were overhead. Fortunately they got away and I was none too pleased about that. But on the whole it was a very good decision that we put the press on board. How else were we to keep reports coming during the three weeks that they were going down? And they were marvellous.

Then we had the marvellous day when Brian Hanrahan said I counted the planes all out and I counted them back. … it was a great tribute to the planes. Effective action can only be taken by strong nations able to call upon the total loyalty and support of its citizens. We are such a nation. The public insisted that we remedy this wrong and that we restore our high reputation and by the end of this wonderful campaign Britain's standing in the world had been transformed and we had recovered faith in ourselves as well as free the territories and peoples of the Falkland Islands.

Some of the world was astonished. It also had an effect on East-West relations. I remember a Russian General coming to see me and saying we Soviets never thought you would go to fight. And if you did go we thought you would lose. Diplomacy was clearly not his strong suit. It wasn't mine either. I said rather tartly “Britain doesn't lose.” And the message got across.

These were days we will never forget. Anxious nights. The most intensely lived days I can ever remember. Even coming towards the end, the Saturday before eventually the surrender on the Monday I was expecting to receive a report from Admiral Fieldhouse that the attack on Tumbledown Mountain had started, it was going to be difficult, it was a very difficult fight. 7 o'clock in the morning, I had a telephone call from the Private Office, there is a message in from the Falklands, I'll send someone up with it. I dashed to the door of the [end p5] flat expecting to receive that. It was not. The difficulty to the end, it had been HMS Glamorgan had been hit-the last Exocet of the campaign,-which had not been fired from an aircraft but from a land base. It had scored a hit on HMS Glamorgan, she was damaged but not fatally. Some of her people were wounded and she was sailing away at 12 knots. Fortunately as John Nott came up the stairs, because we had to attend The Trooping of the Colour later, and if I tell you that the Trooping of the Colour that year was smaller because of the smaller number of forces, it was the only time I ever remember when the skies were grey and it rained. And I must tell you that I thought it was right that it rained that day. And he said, she is now steaming at 20 knots and she got away and we were very relieved and later that day I was up at HQ and the attack on Tumbledown started. Right up almost to the end we had to suffer these terrible problems and difficulties and we couldn't always let the families know.

When the message came on Monday that after the attack on Tumbledown the white flags were flying over Port Stanley I went across to the House of Commons. There was no way in which I could give them the news except on a Point of Order so we rose to great rejoicing of all members and all people. It was indeed a wonderful piece of military operation. A wonderful performance of all our armed forces and also of the merchant navy and the wonderful example of the support and dedication of the British people.

May I finally say this. It was not done at great loss. As we know and we heard this evening. At the memorial service at St. Paul's when the Queen unveiled the memorial tablet to all of those who lost their lives, there was a reception afterwards and I and many of the rest of us were among the relatives, one very nice Scottish mother came up to me rather quickly, I could see she was very anxious, I went up to her. And she said this to me, she had lost her son who [end p6] 19 years old in the campaign, so she said to me, “you will never let the Falkland Islands go will you Mrs. Thatcher, you will never let them go?” I said “no, never.” And I believe that pledge will be honoured by future Prime Ministers, Parliament and people of our great country that we may finally honour all of those who gave their lives for the liberty and land of the Falkland Islands.

May I ask you now to rise and drink a toast to Her Majesty's Armed Forces our thanks for your splendid service. Her Majesty's Armed Forces.