Thursday 15 April 1982 was effectively the last leg of US Secretary of State Al Haig’s burst of shuttle diplomacy.
The former General was back in Buenos Aires for four days in a final round of talks with leaders of the Junta; by April 19 Haig could see little hope for further progress and the shuttle diplomacy mission was essentially finished.
By 15 April guided missile destroyer HMS Glamorgan, steaming roughly north from Ascension Island, had close to around 200 miles distant from aircraft carrier HMS Hermes.
At that point Admiral Woodward climbed aboard a Sea King helicopter on the destroyer’s flight deck and flew on in glorious sunny weather to the veteran carrier, transferring his flag as the Commander Carrier Battle Group, and setting course once more to Ascension.
The rigours of sailing the deep Atlantic Ocean, let alone fighting in the unforgiving southern wastes, was already becoming apparent – amongst the routine reports passed on to Admiral Woodward when he joined Hermes were notes that HMS Arrow, HMS Glasgow and HMS Coventry had all developed defects in their propulsion systems, which had been working at high speeds for long periods on their dash south.
* These posts can only give a brief sense of what was a complex and fast-moving situation 40 years ago, and cannot cover the involvement of every ship, squadron and unit in detail – for a much more comprehensive account see naval-history.net at https://www.naval-history.net/NAVAL1982FALKLANDS.htm
Today’s image from the Imperial War Museum collection (© IWM FKD 212) shows Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward, Task Force Commander, with his staff in the Captain's Day Cabin on board HMS Glamorgan before the Flag Transfer to HMS Hermes off Ascension Island. During this time the cabin was converted to a Staff Office.
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