Later that year, with a couple of friends I took a week's holiday in the West Country. During one of our days there, we took a boat trip around Devonport dockyard, which is where I took this photograph.
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As a child, perhaps unlike many people, I had heard of the Falklands Islands. All they meant to me, though, was the place far away in the South Atlantic from which Brunel's steamship SS Great Britain was rescued in 1970.
As I write this, it's February 2002. Just under twenty years ago the Falklands leapt from their obscurity when they were invaded by the Argentineans. Like most people I watched the TV coverage of the subsequent battles leading to the liberation of the islands then dismissed it all from my mind.
Later that year, with a couple of friends I took a week's holiday in the West Country. During one of our days there, we took a boat trip around Devonport dockyard, which is where I took this photograph.
The ship is HMS Broadsword, a Type 22 frigate and the rusty marks are not a sign of neglect - they're bullet holes. She was involved in some very heavy fighting on May 25th (Argentina's National Day), coming under attack by A4 Skyhawk jets. A bomb from one of these planes hit the starboard side of the ship (not visible in the picture) and went right through, exiting via the flight-deck, fortunately without exploding on the way. To read more about the attack and Broadsword's war, please visit the Broadsword Falklands 82 website.
The sight of this changed how I thought about the conflict. It was no longer just something from a distant place seen on the TV, instead becoming very "real".
This page is respectfully dedicated to the memory of all those who lost their lives in the 1982 Falklands campaign.