Royal Marine who guarded Falklands POWs remembers how ‘they wept’ when war was lost

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On this day 40 years ago, Mario Menéndez, the commander of the Argentine garrison in Stanley, the capital of the Falklands Islands (Islas Malvinas in Spanish), surrendered to the British. It took the British Army just 74 days to overcome the Argentines, despite there being just 80 Royal Marines stationed on the island when President Leopoldo Galtieri ordered his troops to take back what Argentina claims as its own. For the British, it was a decisive victory; for the Argentines, an embarrassment, going against the Argentine Army code which at the time stated that a surrender should not happen unless more than 50 percent of military personnel had died — 649 were killed out of more than 10,000 soldiers — and at least 75 percent of ammunition used.

One of the ships that played a crucial role in the war for the British was the commandeered P&O cruise ship, the SS Canberra.

Brian Short, a drummer in the Royal Marines, was on easter leave when he was recalled and instructed to fill in numbers and travel to the Falklands in order to help with the war effort, telling Express.co.uk: “We believed that we would set sail from Southampton, be gone a few weeks, that the diplomatic efforts would be successful and we’d be back in a few weeks with a tan, a medal, and a story. But as it happens it didn’t work out that way.”

A few stops along the equator and the Canberra reached San Carlos Bay in the Falklands to disembark battlefield troops — which did not include Short — and later moved on to South Georgia where it would stay and hold Argentine prisoners of war (POWs), some 4,000 of them.

Short and his colleagues were tasked with guarding over them, and, on the anniversary of Argentina’s surrender, he relayed how the Argentine soldiers, living in a military dictatorship, reacted to the news that they had lost the war.

Falklands War: Brian Short (pictured left) guarded over Argentine POWs during the short war

Falklands War: Brian Short (pictured left) guarded over Argentine POWs during the short war (Image: Brian Short/GETTY)

British military history: British troops pictured arriving at the Falklands, 1982

British military history: British troops pictured arriving at the Falklands (Image: GETTY)

He said: “A couple of them didn’t believe it to start with. Several of them wept. Once we were going home, their feelings changed in that they were worried about the reception they were going to get.”

At the time, Argentina was ruled over by a military Junta, headed by General Leopoldo Galtieri, whose government was notorious for its so-called ‘Dirty War’ — a campaign in which between 9,000 and 30,000 people deemed to be subversives and communists were ‘disappeared’ from society, often through torture and mass executions.

Argentina’s economy was failing, and Galtieri’s rule was on the receiving end of criticism, both for its oppression and lack of economic management.

Spearheaded by Jorge Anaya, Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine Navy, the military Junta planned the Falklands invasion as a means of diverting attention from domestic misgivings, riding a wave of aggressive nationalism in order to prop up the regime.

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Brian Short: A Royal Marine bandsman, Short (left) was required to guard the Argentine POWs

Brian Short: A Royal Marine bandsman, Short (left) was required to guard the Argentine POWs (Image: Brian Short)

Short said that as more and more Argentine soldiers were sent to the Canberra, he began to realise that they were in no way trained as well as the British army, which to him went some way in explaining why the war was over so quickly.

He said the POWs’ ages varied, with some as young as 18 and others well into their 40s.

After the surrender, the Argentine government requested that the British army return its POWs, an event which Short described as unnerving: a British vessel sailing into the waters of a country which just days ago was firing rockets and bombs at his colleagues.

The British agreed, and the Canberra sailed into Puerto Madryn, a port city in Patagonia, to a “muted” reception.

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Canberra: The P&O cruise ship was commandeered for the war effort, here pictured off South Georgia

Canberra: The P&O cruise ship was commandeered for the war effort, here pictured off South Georgia (Image: GETTY)

San Carlos Bay: The ship entered the bay in order to disembark the British troops who would fight

San Carlos Bay: The ship entered the bay in order to disembark the British troops who would fight (Image: GETTY)

Short explained: “There were only military there to meet them, and a line of ambulances and lorries and buses. They were met by a general who shook their hands for a while before he faded away, and he didn’t actually say this, but what he was trying to say with those handshakes was, ‘We’ve lost the Malvinas’.

“We could tell that the POWs were worried about what sort of reception they were going to get at home, and they didn’t get a great one. They were spread from their own units from the docks and not given much information.

“I think they were pleased to be alive, pleased to be well treated, but there was this sense of ‘We’re the ones who have lost the Malvinas’.

“They were living in a country where people were disappeared, and the Junta was still in power. I can’t put words into their mouth and say they were fearful, but they definitely felt down that they were the ones going home having to face all that.

Argentine soldiers: Brian said the Argentine military (pictured) were not trained to the same level

Argentine soldiers: Brian said the Argentine military (pictured) were not trained to the same level (Image: GETTY)

“We, on the other hand, came home to a heroes welcome at Southampton a few weeks later. The two receptions were worlds apart.”

By the time Short handed over the Argentine POWs, he had formed loose relationships and something that resembled a friendship with many of them.

Some of them spoke broken English, and one POW asked him for a pen and a paper — the only paper at hand being a menu from one of the Canberra’s restaurants.

He took it away and returned shortly after with the menu covered with the signatures of 24 POWs, “saying all manner of wondrous things, like ‘good bloke, nice chap, thanks for looking after me.'”

Prisoners of war: Wounded Argentine POWs aboard the Canberra

Prisoners of war: Wounded Argentine POWs aboard the Canberra (Image: Brian Short)

Luxury: The Canberra was considered a luxury cruise liner, and had many fancy restaurants and bars

Luxury: The Canberra was considered a luxury cruise liner, and had many fancy restaurants and bars (Image: GETTY)

Express.co.uk is investigating Short’s card for a piece that will line up with the 40th anniversary of the Canberra’s return, on July 11, but in the meantime spoke to German Stoessel, an Argentine amateur historian who stumbled across Short’s menu card online and made it his duty to track down the Argentine POWs who signed it, going on to find 21 out of the 24 signees.

From an Argentine perspective, Stoessel agreed with Short’s take that the mood of the POWs returning to Argentina was gloomy and uncertain, “incierto”, as he put it.

He said: “We are a country with very few wars. This was the first time that our soldiers were coming back with a defeat on their backs. I think that they paid an unfair price here.

“That price was laid on their backs. And it was some kind of humiliation for them. That was unfair: they were just soldiers doing their jobs. In my case, I admire them for doing their jobs for our country — winning or losing. But I think that those men who were in combat deserve respect and all the big hugs that we can share with them and give them.”

General Leopoldo Galtieri: The Argentine Junta leader pictured in the January before the war

General Leopoldo Galtieri: The Argentine Junta leader pictured in the January before the war (Image: GETTY)

Returning home: Argentine POWs pictured leaving the Canberra at Puerto Madryn

Returning home: Argentine POWs pictured leaving the Canberra at Puerto Madryn (Image: Brian Short)

Asked what he meant by paying an “unfair price,” Stoessel continued: “For the soldiers, it was PTSD and suicide. And for our country, we call it a time of Demalvinización (de-malvinisation).”

De-malvinisation was a period of complete white-washing of the Falklands war, what Stoessel describes as the veterans being “out of history for many years,” and a “covering-up of the facts”.

The process saw the media refrain from mentioning the war, and, as Stoessel hinted at, the returning soldiers and the stories and scars they now held being ultimately ignored.

It was a stark contrast to the months that led up to the war in which anti-British and nationalistic sentiment swept the country.

The Band That Went To War: Brian's book is available to buy online and in-store

The Band That Went To War: Brian’s book is available to buy online and in-store (Image: Pen and Sword Military)

Re-malvinización: In recent years, the idea that the Falklands belong to Argentina has re-emerged

Re-malvinización: In recent years, the idea that the Falklands belong to Argentina has re-emerged (Image: GETTY)

But things appear to be changing: in the years just before the 30th anniversary of the war in 2012, what has been described as a re-malvinización emerged, in which the Argentine government and society returned to the idea that the Falklands belong to and should be ruled by them.

Some political commentators have suggested that this re-malvinización — which Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina’s president, has subscribed to and pledged to make a central aspect of her presidency — is a way to ignore the societal injustices and economic failures that have recently plagued the country.

While Short suggested that the returning Argentine POWs were received by an empty city, Stoessel said many of the inhabitants of Puerto Madryn later came out to welcome them home.

He said: “The first thing that they did was to go for them, to hug them, to welcome all of them, 40 years ago, all the people in the city went to the docks, and saw the Canberra and were waiting for the soldiers. They were welcomed back by the people in that city. But after that specific moment was over, they were forgotten.”

Express.co.uk is working on a story about Short’s experiences guarding over the Argentine POWs. He has written a book documenting his unique encounters and job as a Royal Marine bandsman in ‘The Band That Went to War: The Royal Marine Band in the Falklands War’, published by Pen and Sword Military. You can buy a copy here.

source: express.co.uk