Falklands major savours return

Press, 18 June 1982, Page 6

Falklands major savours return

NZPA-Reuter Port Stanley The Royal Marines major who 10 weeks ago surrendered to Argentine forces on the Falklands has- returned to the capital, Port Stanley, supervising the hand-over of weapons by thousands of defeated Argentine soldiers. Major Mike Norman, who led the British garrison which was overwhelmed by Argentine troops after a brief fight, watched as his Marines took rifles, pistols, machine-guns, and mortars from queueing Argentines and stacked them in'giant piles, weapons op one side and ammunition on the other.

“It’s nice to be back. There is no feeling of revenge. I just feel sad for the civilians here because the Argentinians made such a filthy mess of Stanley,” he said. Shivering in bitter winds, the Argentines had been marched from the airport or positions around the town to the weapon collecting point and were then marched back., to their freezing dug-outs.’... At the airport, . farther along the road; the windswept runway and apron were littered with wrecked aircraft. • There were nine Pucara ground-attack planes, some badly damaged in British air raids(.. There was one wrecked fighter jet' but at least five fighters, appeared serviceable. A huge bomb crater on one side of the runway had beep filled with earth, and planes, had clearly been using the airport freely. The tiny terminal building was pock-marked by rocket

fire and, surrounding buildings were ’ gutted. Small groups of Argentine soldiers stood around, trying to shelter from the biting wind. Deserted pill-boxes housing machine-guns were dotted along the airport road-, every few hundred metres ' and abandoned heavy gups, radar vehicles and armoured cars stood; nearby. In the harbour an Argentine fast patrol boat was moored. On Davis' Street, near the airport, one building had a gaping hole in the wall and many homes were boarded up, their windows smashed and their curtains blowing in the wind.

In Port Stanley, the British land force commander (Major-General , Jeremy Moore) said that the number of prisoners appeared to have been exaggerated, according to Bryan Hanrahan, of the 8.8. C. He reported that the latest Argentine count was 6200 in Port Stanley and 1800 in the ■West Falklands. There appeared to be no more' than 9000 prisoners altogether, living off their own rations and in their own bivouacs. .. ; General Moore’, also said that British casualties in the land fighting between June 12 and June 15 had been 33 dead and 140'wounded. Michael Nicholson, of Independent Television reports: They (Argentine soliders) have been allowed to take with them their blankets, sleeping bags, if they have any and only the officers appear . to have any — a water bottle and as many

ration packs as they can carry. But food and water is not the main concern. Whatever else may have been said for the British naval blockade, there is no immediate shortage of food here., ’ What is worrying, and what may soon become critical, is how the thousands of prisoners can survive the bitter, cold and the snow and the icy winds while waiting on the airstrip for a passage home.

■ Hundreds of British tents .that would have provided .them with shelter were lost when the Atlantic Conveyor was sunk by Argentine missiles. : . For this reason,. “the threat that these men may become weakened, even die from exposure” the British military here are accelerating the process of getting them aboard ships, hopefully to take them home to the Argentine, possibly to the Port of Santa Cruz. The Canberra and the Norland and several British warships are'now steaming to pick-up ■ points; ships have already picked up prisoners, off the , West Falklands at Fox Bay. They will all rendezvous at Stanley , to take on as many more as they can. for. the first journey to the Argentine port. If all goes well, the prisoners here could be off the Falklands within a/week. >• But all this 'depends, of course, on the co-operation of the junta in Buenos Aires and how anxious they are to receive their men home.