#flaklands

ArThe Battle for Goose Green was the first major land conflict of the Falklands War.

On the evening of May 26th, 2 Para started their march from their base at Sussex Mountain, to the south of the San Carlos bridgehead.

  David Morgan DSC visited the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection on Sunday 7th July with his wife Carol, after flying in for the day, from Compton Abbas in their yellow Tiger Moth N-6466.  He freely gave some of his time to chat to staff, and recounted some of his exploits during the Falklands Conflict, and happily posed with our Sea Harrier XZ457, reminiscent of his famous ‘tail holed by a 20mm cannon shell’ photograph from the opening days of the conflict.

Whilst on exchange to the Fleet Air Arm from the RAF in 1982, the then Flight Lieutenant Morgan; only half way through his Sea Harrier conversion, was sent South with 800 NAS aboard HMS Hermes.  Taking part, amongst others, in the very first Task Force Sea Harrier raid against Port Stanley airfield at dawn on the 1st of May, sustaining in the process the infamous 20mm cannon round through his tail fin whilst at extremely low level to deliver 1000Ib retarded and HE bombs across the runway, and other choice enemy targets through a hail of enemy anti-aircraft fire. The BBC’s Brian Hanrahan reported on this raid with the famous line “I counted them all out and counted them all back”. Upon return to Hermes David was filmed giving the ‘thumbs up’ to the waiting TV cameras, and had his aircraft patched up with ‘speed tape’ within a couple of hours, no lasting damage having been done to it.

David went on to become the highest scoring pilot of the Falklands conflict, with four confirmed kills, incidentally the same as our Sea Harrier itself, though whilst crewed by differing pilots.  Lt. Clive Morrell is pictured climbing from XZ457 aboard Hermes during the conflict, and David mentioned him along with other pilots: Andy Auld, John Leeming, and Dave Smith, et al, who all took part in action alongside him.  David recounted contacts and kills over Falkland Sound, Choiseul Sound, attacking the enemy controlled trawler Narwal, Sidewinder missile engagements, and gun kills amongst other contacts. One Argentine Puma helicopter succumbed to his downwash on an overshoot crashing to the ground whilst carrying 120mm Mortar rounds, an Augusta A109 helicopter also destroyed in the same instance, and his final two missile kills on A4 Skyhawks which had been attacking British landing crafts, and in which David pushed his Sea Harrier to the very limits of its capable speed, making David the last RAF pilot to date to destroy an enemy aircraft in air to air combat.  David is the author of  ‘Hostile Skies, The Battle For The Falklands’, which recounts his time during the conflict, and if what he told us on his visit is anything to go by, is well worth a read!

David has recently retired from flying with Virgin Atlantic, however has been at the controls of aerobatic Yak 50s, and the aforementioned Tiger Moth on this particular day.