Ascension Island

Anniversary of Falklands Liberation

It is entirely right and proper that Ascension Island should be remembered on the 251h Anniversary of the Falklands War. In the "lessons learnt from Operation Corporate", the Commander-in-Chief Fleet said: "Although 3500 miles from the Falklands, Ascension Is. (ASI) was vital to the success of the operation. It provided an airhead for transferring men and stores to ships, an operational multi-role airfield, a communications facility and a military training area. The consequent need for facilities was met with outstanding improvisation."
Commodore Clapp, Commander of the Amphibious Task Group went further, saying "without Ascension Island there would have been no Operation Corporate".

Island Base

The full story is told in a short book called "Island Base" by Captain Bob McQueen. This calls on contributions from a variety of the major players including the USAF Colonel in charge of the US facility, one of the local school teachers, the Captain of HMS Alacrity and the Senior RAF officer. The book explains the need for improvisation in setting up many facilities, and how the units on the island contributed to this.
It should be remembered that the Task Force had sailed at short notice from a variety of parts of the world: Without the facility of stowing the amphibious ships with the right equipment in the right place. For example, one of the Landing Ships Logistics sailed empty from Belize. Almost certainly, the most important task, carried out in difficult circumstances as described by Major General Thompson, was the cross decking and restowing. It also involved the transshipping of large quantities of stores and personnel. At one stage, there were over eighty ships at anchor off the island.

Five firing ranges

Equally important was the setting up of five firing ranges and the landing of all the marines and soldiers for the zeroing of weapons and a chance to exercise. While these arrangements did not always fulfill what General Thompson would have wished, they were better than nothing.
Space on the airfield became a critical factor. The apron would hold only twenty four big jets and, on one occasion, there were twenty six helicopters on the dispersal. The majority of movements, which reached a remarkable total of 350 in one day, were made up largely of Hercules bringing in sixteen million pounds of stores and six thousand personnel and the helicopters distributing these to ships at anchor. Helicopter movements outnumbered fixed wing by five to one. For most of the war there were only two Panam air traffic controllers.

Operation Black Buck

Operation Black Buck was a feat of consummate airmanship second to none and is well described in the chapter of the book by Group Captain Jeremy Price. Dropping stores, mail and personnel to the Task Force was much reduced after it had sailed from ASI. This was just as well that as the many sorties involved in each of six Black Bucks effectively closed the airfield for over sixteen hours.

Postage stamps in detail

Stamp issue: Ascension Island, 25 May 2007, 4 values and 2 souvenir sheets
Design: John Batchelor (illustrations) and Andres Robinson (graphic design)
Print: Lithography by Cartor
Stamp perforation 13 per 2cms
Stamp size: 30.6 x 38mm

More information

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