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| Geography
- Located at position
07.56' South, 14.22' West, 4,200 miles (3,700 nautical)
from Britain and 3,800 (3,300 nautical) from the
Falklands, Ascension
was vital to the success of the Task Force. Close to the
equator, but not unbearably hot, the 38 square mile
island is a product of the mid-Atlantic ridge and
completely volcanic in origin. In effect a mountain peak
rising out of the sea, it is covered by sharp rock and
extinct cones of dust and clinker. The highest point of Green Mountain is covered by the only tropical
vegetation and trees in a largely barren landscape devoid
of water and shelter. Surrounded by the almost continual
swell of the South Atlantic, there are no natural
harbours and only a single jetty at Clarence Bay and a small landing cove at English Bay. Amongst the abundant wildlife
around the island is the sooty tern or wideawake.
History - Discovered in 1501, presumably on Ascension Day, the island remained uninhabited until the early 19th century, when with Napoleon exiled to nearby St Helena, a small Royal Navy garrison was established. Until 1922, the Admiralty was in control but then Ascension became a dependency of St. Helena with the Administrator appointed by Britain. Wideawake airfield was built in World War 2 as a staging post between Brazil and Africa and had since been developed by the Americans and the single runway extended to over 10,000 feet to take heavy transport aircraft. With only a few movements each week, it mainly served the US satellite and missile tracking facilities and British submarine cable and satellite relay stations. American-controlled and operated by Pan American Airways, British aircraft normally had to give 24 hours notice of use, but during the war this requirement was waived. The population consisted solely of contracted employees and their families from St. Helena, Britain, South Africa and the United States, and at the last census totalled 1,051. The capital is Georgetown. By 1982 the associated islands of St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha were one of the few Colonies remaining to Britain. With the use of Simonstown in South Africa ruled out for obvious political reasons, Ascension Island with its airfield was the only possible forward base. But one nearly 4,000 miles from the scene of action. |
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| Role - Even then
Ascension was invaluable. The Task Force
could not be completely self-contained and a lot of men
and supplies had to be ferried out to the South Atlantic
by a constant stream of RAF Hercules and VC.10's,
chartered freighters and mainly undisclosed American
aircraft bringing in such stores as the latest Sidewinder
AAM's. These were either delivered to the ships as they
called in or passed by, or in urgent cases, air-dropped
to them on the way to the Falklands or South Georgia. Few
ships spent much time there although most of the Amphibious
Task Group with 3 Cdo Bde did stay to prepare
for the coming landings. In the case of the troops, only
limited preparation was possible as there was no room for
large scale manouevres other than marching, although they
were able to train on the rapidly constructed firing
ranges and practice disembarking from the troopships by
helicopter and landing craft. More importantly, the
opportunity was taken for the hastily loaded ships to
re-distribute some of their stores to other ships, to
receive much needed supplies from the UK, and where
possible to "combat load" for an amphibious
landing. Much of the necessary "cross decking"
was carried out by the helicopters with their vertical
replenishment capabilities, but also taking part were the
Navy landing craft, Royal Corps of Transport Mexeflotes
(pictured below), and locally hired lighters. In all
this movement there were major logistical problems.
Wideawake had one runway and limited dispersal areas and
helicopters could only land there because of the volcanic
dust, there was no port, and the one jetty was three
miles away and not always useable because of the Atlantic
waves. Ascension was also the main base for RAF operations in support of the Task Force. Usually refuelled in the air by a great number of Victor tanker sorties, air attacks on Stanley, reconnaissance, airdrops, and SAR were carried out by the resident Vulcans, Nimrods and Hercules. Added to all the helicopter and transport movements, these made Wideawake one of the busiest airfields in the world with up to 400 movements of all types each day. Responsible for this array of activities was the British Forces Support Unit Ascension Island commanded by Capt R. McQueen (awarded CBE) RN. Involving all three services, some 1000 men, occasionally rising to 1500 did everything needed to support the Task Force, work the airfield in cooperation with the resident Americans and defend the island against possible attack by Argentine forces. In general the RAF was responsible for airfield operations and both air and ground defence, the Army built and manned the necessary additional facilities, and the Navy [NP 1222, Cmdr G A C Woods (OBE) RN] operated a forward logistical base for the Task Force ships. So important to the morale of the men taking part as well as the operation of the Task Force was the efficient handling of the vast amounts of private and official mail passing through the island. Although involving all services, the Royal Engineers Postal and Courier Service [WO1 R G Randall (MBE) RE] handled up to 2 tons of airmail daily and 1000 bags of parcels each week .
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on
to 20. 3 Cdo Bde approaches Ascension
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