The Worshipful Company of Engineers The Swordsman Newsletter ...

The Swordsman Issue 29
extend the runway by 2,000 ft over what proved to be
a very unpromising combination of peat and sand, with
a high water table demanding an extensive drainage
system. The challenge was made more interesting by a
generous concentration of Vulcan and other bomb
craters, and by more unexploded ordnance. Massive
amounts of aggregate were required to be produced
from the very hard Falkland rock, and the project
therefore depended crucially on the serviceability of
the two imported Rock Crushers. CBFFI’s Daily
Briefing concentrated less on military assets than on
the health of critical items such as the crushers and,
later, the RHAGs. But continually at the top of the list
were the sewage extraction trucks, which had been
retired by Manchester Council in 1951, at the end of a
long life, and placed in the Contingency Reserve. The
self-evidently important role of these WW2 veterans
was sustained only by enormous engineering effort and
ingenuity, with the frequently required spares all
manufactured in theatre.
AM2 Matting for the Runway
The key to rapidly achieving a runway of sufficient
strength and durability was to cover it entirely with
AM2 matting, a material developed from a form of
matting first used for improvised airstrips by the
American Forces during the Vietnam War. Fabricated
from extruded aluminium, the honeycomb panels are
1½ in thick and come in 2 ft widths of 6 or 12 ft
length. Requiring only a reasonably flat, firm surface,
they are laid manually with “claw up/claw down”
connectors allowing the long edges to be interlocked in
a rotating motion. With commendable foresight, the
need to station a fully capable Air Defence aircraft in
“post-conflict” Stanley was identified at the outbreak
of hostilities. The requirement, to be satisfied by the
Phantom supported by the Hercules converted to the
tanker role, called for a strengthened and extended
airfield and thus the urgent procurement of £10m
worth of AM2 from the States. The stock was diverted
from the Marine Corps, who generously moved it to
the Eastern Seaboard for shipment to Marchwood
where it was divided into in two loads and consigned
10
to the South Atlantic as part of 9,000 tons of airfield
construction equipment. In the meantime, personnel
flew to the States to be briefed on laying AM2 and a
quantity was flown to the UK for the Sappers to
undertake trials and pre-deployment training.
The trials at home had suggested that teams could
work 3 hours on and 6 off, but the extreme conditions
and the time expended in transit to and from the
accommodation ship, SS Rangatera, forced the
adoption of a 3 on 9 off shift pattern. With the
exception of 30 hours lost to appalling weather, the
gruelling work continued round the clock with teams
of Sappers reinforced by “volunteer” working parties
from HMS Illustrious and the Queen’s Own
Highlanders. On 28th August, less than 2 weeks after
its closure, the runway was reopened at sufficient
length to resume the Airbridge. With no lessening of
pace, work continued on the extension of the runway,
the RHAG installation and the other constructions
until, on 18 October, the first of 9 Phantoms landed,
again to rapturous applause. Just 2 months after the
temporary airfield closure, RAF Stanley had a
powerful Air Defence capability, a remarkable
achievement in the face of mud, snow, sleet, high
winds, freezing temperatures, bomb damage and
unexploded ordnance.
Radar Station on Top of Mount Alice
With the Phantoms operational, HMS Illustrious sailed
home, leaving 2 Air Defence frigates on station until
the Falkland Island Air Defence Ground Environment
(FIADGE) had been created. FIADGE provided a
“radar picture” and a fighter control capability,
integrating three mountain-top radar stations, the first
on Mount Kent, on East Falkland, and the other two, a
little later, on Mount Alice and Byron Heights on West
Falkland. As inhospitable as they were inaccessible,
the conditions were worse than those at sea level. The
construction was again carried out by the Sappers, with
each site requiring 700 ISO container loads of
equipment to be carried up by Chinook. Operating
round the clock, the teams on these sites generally
remained in place for their 4-month South Atlantic