Live ChatMark Trainor served 14 years in the Royal Navy, and endured the fateful day that HMS GLAMORGAN was hit during the Falklands war, which saw 14 fellow Shipmates killed in action.
Mark is the Divisional Secretary of the SSAFA’s Grimsby & Cleethorpes Division in Lincolnshire, and here he relives his time down in the South Atlantic, remembering those that paid the ultimate sacrifice and the realities of this brutal and costly war.
“I was born in Cleethorpes which is on the north-east Lincolnshire coast. It is a strong fishing town, or it used to be. When the fishing declined there wasn't a great deal to offer. But I always remember a conversation with my grandad: 'The fishing, if it doesn't keep going, go in the Navy.'
“I joined the Royal Navy at 16 years of age. I'm from a Naval background so it was the 'done thing'... I underwent all my basic training and I served on a couple of Leander-class frigates. Then in 1980, I joined HMS Glamorgan where I spent the next 5 years. On board the ship, it was very soon recognised that I had an admin ability and I became the XO's Writer, the XO being the second-in-command.
“I served for 14 years. It was the best thing I ever did; it wasn't easy at first because you've got to do as you're told, but I had a bit of a jump start because from an early age I'd joined the Boys' Brigade.”
HMS Glamorgan was one of 127 ships involved in the Falkland’s Naval campaign, after being diverted from a training exercise off the coast of Gibraltar. On the cusp of his 21st birthday, Mark along with 500 other sailors set a course for the Falkland Islands and war.
“Nobody knew where the Falklands were, I thought they were in Scotland somewhere, but fortunately there were a lot of ships in the Med, on operations, on a training exercise, so that's where the story starts. Although you know what you're signing up for when you join the military, whether it's Navy, Army or Air Force, nothing ever really prepares you until you're actually there and you see the devastation that it will cause.
“The reality of it didn't really sink in until we were there. The sea was rough, there was lots going on. We constantly changed time zones."
The ship is going 24/7, there's people on watch 24/7...
“You would be wearing your overalls, you would be carrying an S6 Respirator, a life jacket, ... Anti-flash. These things were with you all the time and it wasn't really until you started hearing the first aircraft that you couldn't see... it was pretty scary, to be honest, because we can hear them, you can't see them, and then you wonder, 'Is it friend or foe?'"
Mark recalls the news reaching HMS GLAMORGAN’s ship’s company that HMS Sheffield, a Type-42 destroyer, sinking following a bombing assault by Argentina air forces on 4th May 1992.
“So, the reality was there... there were enemy attacks on GLAMORGAN on more than one, two or three occasions.
“I was on a ship with the best family I could imagine... whether you're in the Navy, the Army or the Air Force, they are your family and we looked out for each other.
“We were getting briefings every day... I was the XO's Writer, so part of that job would be the daily orders and all the admin things... that stopped because my trade was sonar... So, my on-watch action station was in the sonar room.”
By the morning of the 12th of June 1982, the day the GLAMORGAN was hit, land-based operations on the Falkland Islands were coming to a close, with the major assaults on Stanley, Mount Harriet, Mount Longdon, and Two Sisters all being successful. However last-ditch Argentinian attacks were still to come.
When our ship got hit, it was just a thud, that's all we heard. And then we started hearing we'd been hit. When we went round to the port side, there was a big hole on the deck in front of the hangar. The hangar got taken out.
“... I was on the starboard side, off-watch action station with the Seacat loader [Seacat missiles were a short-range surface-to-air missile system]. All we heard was a thud, but there was no panic. You've got to deal with the situation.
“The ship’s engines were stopped, I remember that, but below the hangar was the galley. We’d just come out of action stations, so there were people along the passageways queueing up for breakfast. In a galley, the bulkhead's, and deckhead, like Formica [laminated layers of plastic bonded to board or paper], it's just like razor blades going everywhere... and our Chief Cook, Pony Moore, had it all in him.”
“The Exocet missile didn't explode but it caused total devastation... there's smoke everywhere, they'd shut the engines down and you just did what you were told: try and save life.
“The Stena Seaspread, which is a huge tug, came alongside and they basically repaired the GLAMORGAN. Once she was repaired, you go back in. You had to go back in."
There was nothing to say you weren't going to take a second hit.
“...the ship took that hit at 6:37 on 12th June 1982...13 people did die on the ship that day. Our memorial park in the Falklands lists 14. That was somebody I knew very well, Jock McCann, he died when we got home... I always think about our Shipmates who never returned to port with us.
“...at 19:00 the same day, we stood on the flight deck and the 13 that crossed the bar (died), were buried at sea. That was hard, it's hard now...it comes back to you, it never leaves me, and that's where we were, two days before the end of the Falklands.
“Nothing prepared me for burying people though and I'm very clear with this because it's still there, this wasn't like putting somebody in a coffin. What the medics did, they tried to match up parts of the body as best they could and they were in bin bags, literally, with sinkers on.”
A ceasefire was agreed on the 14th of June 1982, after 10 weeks of fierce and unrelenting fighting through land, air, and sea. The official end to hostilities was agreed on the 20th of June 1982. 255 British service men lost their lives, along with 755 being wounded over the course of the war.
“The families of those people that sadly died are still very much part of the Glamorgan family.”
“...we got hit on the 12th June. So round about May time [each year]...I go into a shutdown, more quiet because it just keeps coming back. I can't control that....as the clock ticks and I get closer to the 12th of June, I become a bit subdued and I'm in myself...But, that's my way of dealing with things.”
“...let's remember the people that paid the ultimate sacrifice. And that is Navy, Army, Air Force and the three civilians...The families, they don't want their loved ones...to be forgotten.”
“...that comradery, that, 'I will watch your back.' The bond, the togetherness, the family will always be there. And that will stay with me as it will with others, until we die. It's a bond that you cannot break... When you're all together you don't feel forgotten because the people that are there with you, they know...”
It was a forgotten war... The Falklands, you should never forget.
“I've been involved with charities and volunteering for 36 years 12/2021) . And of course, the only charity I volunteer with now is SSAFA. I relocated from Swansea back to my home town. I wanted to get involved with a charity, and I knew about SSAFA.
“I tell people SSAFA offers such a broad spectrum of help and support... everybody's got mental health... There's always hope...'Don't suffer in silence, let SSAFA help you.'
“I would say to anybody, reach out. There is help there, there's lots of help.”
It's very hard to believe it’s 40 years...
But it changed me and it changed the person I am today...
We must never forget.