Operation Paraquet 1982
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November 17, 2020'Humphrey' the Westland Wessex HAS.32
November 17, 2020SAS troops board the Commando Wessex HU.53
November 11, 2020Although dressed in white Arctic clothing, after exposure to a night of sub-zero temperatures, gale force winds and driving snow, the SAS troops were already in varying stages of hypothermia.4
November 11, 2020Yankee Foxtrot, with Tidd at the controls and with half the frozen soldiers safely loaded, was the first to pull up into the icy but clear sky, when, without warning, it was enveloped in a tidal wave of a snow shower.5
November 11, 2020In an attempt to return to the landing zone, the tail and left wheel of the Wessex hit the snow at about thirty knots, bringing the aircraft crashing down on its left side and sliding it onwards for fifty yards.6
November 11, 2020Tidd slid open the flimsy cockpit window and clambered up onto the side of the aircraft7
November 16, 2020Out on the snow, the soldiers were divided between the two remaining helicopters. With ten people now crammed into the Wessex 3 and fourteen in the Wessex 5, the depleted formation rose to the hover once again.8
November 16, 2020As Stanley navigated over the ridge of the glacier with the use of Humphrey's Wessex 3 radar, Georgeson in Yankee Alpha followed a few rotor lengths behind. Then, another ferocious snowstorm hit the formation just at the wrong moment, barely ten seconds after launch.9
November 17, 2020Yankee Alpha's starboard wheel caught in a hidden and small ice crevasse and the aircraft toppled over onto its side. While it was amazing that no one was severely injured, Yankee Alpha was not so lucky, the second and last troop carrying Wessex was out of action.10
November 17, 2020With no radio contact, an overloaded helicopter and appalling weather conditions, there was nothing Stanley could do but to return to HMS Antrim11
November 17, 2020After Humphrey received a thorough safety check by the engineers, Stanley decided to have another go at rescuing the survivors.
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9 11 November 2020, 13:05
Album info
Operation Paraquet was the code name for the British military operation to recapture the island of South Georgia from Argentine military control in April 1982 at the start of the Falklands War.
11 images
Westland Wessex HU Mk.5
![GB GB](/s/images/flags7/32/GB.png)
No. 845 NAS XT456/B-N
1966 - HMS Bulwark
BS381C:220 BS381C:361