Live ChatAfter serving in all three Commandos and completing a total of 10 years with the Special Boat Squadron, Rupert van der Horst served as 2IC 45 Commando in Northern Ireland and the Falklands. After landing at San Carlos Water, Rupert led three oversnow vehicles under machine gun and anti-aircraft fire through the rocks up the Two Sisters to resupply ammunition and evacuate casualties after the battle.
Now a caseworker for SSAFA Wiltshire branch, Rupert recounts his experiences in the Falklands 40 years on.
“I always wanted to go into the Navy ever since I can remember, and when I was about 16/17, my parents sent me to a certain Captain Le Fanu, who later became an admiral. He interviewed me, if you like, and by the end he said “I don’t think you will be happy in the Navy, I am going to send you to my friend General Tollemache, of the Royal Marines. General Tollemache asked me to lunch, and by the end of it I was convinced I wanted to join the Royal Marines. So did the exams and off I went.
“I liked the uniform…it was just the general ethos and the idea of soldiers at sea and soldiers landing from the sea and reading up their history, that convinced me even more.”
“After about 15 months… I was sent off with two others to 42 Commando in Singapore and I was pretty happy there, really. I spent 10 months there, came home and then finished my young officer training and went back to 42 Commando… very shortly afterwards we were deployed to the jungle, to the Thai/Malay, it was called border. From that moment onwards I was really utterly delighted to be with the Commandos.
“I’d volunteered for the Special Boat Service and I did their selection. I found it very hard, I have to say. I had to get used to diving and swimming under water, freezing cold conditions, and getting very wet canoeing, being dragged over Scottish mountains and all that. But in the end, surprisingly, I passed and got sent off to Bahrain to join six other Royal Marines.
“I served altogether about 10 years with the Special Boat Squadron, ending up commanding it. In between while, I went to 40 Commando where I was a company commander in Northern Ireland, in Andersonstown. And later in 1981 back with 45 Commando in Springfield Road, Belfast.”
Heading south
“… we had just finished mountain training, we were going on leave and someone muttered something about Argentinians invading the Falklands…”
As the news of the Argentinian invasion came in, Rupert was amongst the British forces to be mobilised in response. Rupert and most of his fellow Commandos of 45 found themselves on RFA Stromness, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel.
“It took forever to get down to the Falklands because they were negotiating and all that so we had two weeks at Ascension Island on the way down and the fleet got bigger and bigger.
“When we landed, we got into our landing craft outside San Carlos Water. And we'd had to make, out of ropes, the actual landing nets that we'd put down the side of the ship for us all to climb down into the landing craft.
“It was dark, we were carrying; some people 100 pounds, 120 pounds or more...
“We suddenly saw firing on Fanning Head that was, I think, the SAS raiding Fanning Head. And we turned into San Carlos Water and, eventually, 45 Commando landed on the right-hand side... which is the Western side in Ajax Bay. We got out and deployed from there.
“I stayed pretty close to the water near the old refrigeration plant there and, you know, we dug in, got ready, expected to be immediately fired on, bombed and all that. Nothing happened. But later on, the bombing began.
“I remember Argentine A-4 Skyhawk planes coming over my right shoulder, diving down towards our anchored ships and everyone on the ships firing at them.
“I did watch ships being sunk. Actually, hit and burning and eventually exploding. The crew of HMS Antelope being picked up by this brilliant Royal Marines Colour Sergeant in one of the four LCMs, the boats we'd landed in.
“When you go to war and you're an officer, you're very, very busy so you don't actually have all that much time to think... 'Oh I'm frightened,' or, 'Oh, I'm not frightened,' or anything like that. So we dug in and shared a few jokes because Royal Marines do that.
“I'd say it was a feeling of relief if we felt anything at all when we first landed, and then I suppose a certain amount of shock when it all did happen because no one had been bombed like that since 1945. No one really had experience of it.
"The Battle of Two Sisters took place on the 11th and 12th of June 1982. British Forces including Rupert and his fellow Commandos took part in the advance towards the capital Port Stanley. It was one of three land-based battles on the same night, the others being the Battle of Mount Longdon and the Battle of Mount Harriet.
“We were warned that we were about to move, it was 45 Commando who were called The Yompers and walked the whole way... we had to carry everything for battle on us because there weren't any helicopters at that time. We were told to take three days' rations so you unpack them, split them up and make them as lightweight as possible.
"The Marines with machine guns and that sort of thing had appalling loads and even as Second-in-Command I had to carry mortar bombs and a lot of the men having put their packs on them when they were sitting down couldn't actually get up.
“We then set off towards Port Stanley knowing that it would take a very long time. It started raining. It was very tussocky... They had these things called rock runs which were like rivers but they're rocks. We did have to cross one or two rivers so we got wet feet pretty quickly...
“Eventually we stopped for the night and it was dark, it was wet, it was raining, it was utterly miserable and we all laid down in our tracks and warmed ourselves up in our waterproofs but after maybe three or four hours everyone was so cold that we started walking and on we went westwards towards a place called Newhouse and then on to Douglas Settlement where we did stop for the night and got some sort of cover and that was a great relief.
“The next day we went on to Teal Inlet and Teal Inlet was run by the brother of a Royal Marines General and what I remember most of all was his wife coming out with a bucket of tea in her wellies and walking around giving everyone tea; was utterly brilliant.
“About that time the Atlantic Conveyor got sunk so we knew there were no helicopters. It was a complete and utter shock, this great big ship which we'd seen the last seven weeks and it had been sunk so we knew it was pretty serious. And you even think, 'Gosh, how am I going to get home in the end?
“After Teal Inlet we went to a place called Bluff Cove Peak and that was really where we prepared for battle for assault, getting what kit we had sorted out and by then I think we'd started to get a bit hardened really.
“While we're there at this place, Bluff Cove Peak, the Commanding Officer asked me to recce the route that the Commando would take to its forming up position for the attack on Two Sisters so I went off in an over snow vehicle BV202 with a driver and 2 signalmen and sought out a route which wasn't bad at all.
“On the way back I saw these Argentinians digging in a defensive position, 26 of them altogether, so I called for artillery fire on them. In an extraordinary situation there I was sitting on my pack with a mug of coffee and a fag and a radio, well out of reach of anyone but with my binoculars watching the fall of shot and I got them on target pretty quickly. I repeated that once and then I was reminded by Commando Headquarters we were carrying all our artillery ammunition so we didn't have very much and I was starting to waste it.
“I then went back to Bluff Cove Peak and from then overnight we went to our assault positions and formed up for the assault on Two Sisters...One unit went off to take out the right hand peak... The other two companies take out the left hand peak...
“I just watched this attack start at night and you held your breath wondering when the Argentines were going to notice and fire back. In the end they did and I remember this criss-crossing 50-cal machine gun ammunition coming in and crossing between the assaulting troops and me.
“The Argentines turned their anti-aircraft machine guns on us and I can see all these shells going in well above the assaulting troops. Extraordinary to watch the tracer because it seems very slow as they went.
“What I had to do was lead some over snow vehicles full of ammunition so that on reorganisation the Commando could quickly rearm itself and also I had to deal with casualties. It was dark of course. I put some sort of light on my back... so that the driver of the leading over snow vehicle could follow me. It was either dark or lit up by shells and in we walked into the machine gun fire and these anti-aircraft shells and I was extremely busy finding the route between the rocks where I knew 3 over-snow vehicles could go.
“I was met by the RSM of the Commando, who in war is strictly responsible for ammunition. He showed me where it had to be taken to, and he and I started unloading it.
“I could see the Marines who'd taken part in the assault looking absolutely exhausted, as they would do immediately after that. The scene lit up by shellfire and machine gunfire. There's a French 155-gun, medium artillery, firing at us. I don't know if it was one or two. But every 30 seconds there were the most horrendous noises, a shell came towards us and then happily over us. As we were unloading ammunition it did scare the wits out of us really.
“I then had to think about casualties which were quite a lot. Over the whole operation, the Commando had fourteen killed but four here. So, I had to decide, what are we going to do with these guys? Well eventually a Scout pilot at night and with shells coming over took them to the hospital which had been set up in the old refrigeration plant where I'd been, and it was run by Surgeon Commander Rick Jolly.
“I led the BV202s back down the mountain. By that time, we had picked up a few Argentine ration packs, and we sat down and had breakfast... We each had a tin of steak and I think a tiny bottle of whisky, which was of course naturally very well-received, and... they had cigarettes... finding these cigarettes, was, you know, life was superb at that moment."
Stanley & the injured Argentinian
“We gradually went forward, taking a few prisoners, getting closer and closer to Stanley... we heard in the end that they were negotiating for peace... there was still a possibility of being attacked and we had to be very careful.
“I was summoned by the commanding officer, for my last weird little job. A very, very wounded Argentinian soldier had crawled into Commando Headquarters, and they wanted him helped, naturally. So we put him in the back in one of the BV202s and we set off to take him into Stanley, at night.
“Driving down the road in the BV, we were extremely nervous of being shot, but we hit the first Argentinian defensive position, and they didn't open fire! They were extremely nervous, pointing their weapons at us, shouting at us. I just said, 'look in the back of our wagon!'. They saw this wounded Argentine soldier, and they couldn't have been more helpful after that.
“One of them stayed with us, and on we drove. We had to drive through other Argentinian positions, and similar sorts of receptions were given. In the end we got down into Stanley... we headed off into Stanley to the hospital. The whole place was in chaos, stunk, and a lot of flies everywhere, dirty, demoralised Argentines... we dropped the guy there, and headed back, and we still had our original Argentinian, who led us back to our original defensive position.
“Eventually we were told... 450 men of 45 Commando would go back in Canberra too, and the rest to Ascension Island, from where they'd fly home. The commanding officer put me in charge of 450 men who went in Canberra... I was given the third best cabin on board. It was huge... Lots of drink, lots of wine, and we meandered home. It took forever to get home.
“When we left to go to the Falklands, there were sailors lined up on ships cheering us, there were members of the public waving to us as we went from Portsmouth, cars flashing their headlights on the Needles. A great farewell. The same thing happened coming back. They were waving, cars hooting, ships hooting, it was a brilliant feeling.
“As we came back to Southampton, Prince Charles came on board, and he talked to the 3 Commandos, and I took him round 45 Commando. He was brilliant. He was very paternal with them... after he had left us we went out on deck and we were just coming alongside in Southampton, people cheering, I saw my son had climbed up a crane and was waving to us from that. Under, just off the ground, was his sister in a sort of summer dress which was waving far too much in the breeze, and we met them and my parents.”
SSAFA & Volunteering
“I contacted the local division secretary, Sue Rollo, who was obviously very interested. I did a proper case worker's course and eventually got my own first case to look after... I love doing it. You meet people from such extraordinary different backgrounds and circumstances.”
Rupert encourages others considering volunteering for SSAFA to take the plunge.
“Do it, but you have to be utterly committed. And when you have a client, show patience. Take time to hear their story. Don't immediately think that you know what they're going to say. Sit there in the chaotic room maybe, and listen to them.”
“SSAFA will help. SSAFA, I think, is a brilliant organisation... providing you have got a sincere need... and some sort of Armed Forces link. Certainly, get hold of us, we will help you, and we're pretty good at doing it.”