The Carrier Battle Group sailed from Ascension on the morning of Sunday 18 April 1982; Hermes weighed anchor at 1000, and the rest of the flotilla formed up and sailed south with her.
The Group at this point comprised aircraft carriers HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible, County-class destroyer HMS Glamorgan, frigates HMS Broadsword, Yarmouth and Alacrity, and RFA ships Olmeda, a fast tanker, and Resource, a stores support ship.
Fears that the Argentinians might put a submarine in the area meant that lookouts were particularly alert to white ‘feathers’ on the surface, that could indicate a periscope, or a suspicious contact on sonar.
Ol-class fast tanker RFA Olmeda, part of the Carrier Battle Group, reported just such a sighting on the morning of 18 April, one of numerous such alerts that proved to be false alarms – a patrolling Nimrod was able to report the presence of many whales in the vicinity of the Battle Group, and the ‘feather’ was presumed to be the splash left by a fin.
Later that day Olmeda undertook replenishments at sea (RASes) with both aircraft carriers.
* 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 MH 27588) shows fast Fleet tanker RFA Olmeda.
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