The Old Elizabethan Association

OE Mike Tidd was partly responsible for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher losing a night's sleep during the Falklands conflict. He was piloting a helicopter that crashed during one of the first operations., when attempting to recover SAS soldiers from South Georgia's Fortuna Glacier in zero visibility and storm-force winds.

"We inserted an SAS patrol 2,500 to 3,000ft up the glacier in the most horrendous conditions. It was heavily crevassed and we were sat on the ground with 60-knot airspeed still on the clock. We were being blown sideways as we put the SAS troopers out. Overnight we had 80-knot winds and spent most of the time trying to stop the aircraft being damaged."

Up on the glacier, winds reached 110 knots and blew all the SAS team's protective gear away.

"By morning we had to lift them out or we were going to take serious casualties from hypothermia. We eventually managed to find a break in the weather to load the guys in," he said. "I was the first to finish loading and started back down the glacier, but the wind changed direction. There was a snowstorm and we were into whiteout. We could not climb because we would have iced up. We tried to land but met rising ground. I realised we were going to hit and went in tail first so it took most of the impact."

After smashing into the glacier, the Wessex V slid down a slope on its side.

"The cockpit was filling up with broken glass and snow but the only injury was one of the SAS guys who had been hit by a cabin-mounted machine gun," he said. "They rescued everybody but my aircraft was a total write-off."

A second helicopter was lost five minutes later. This was the first operation of the campaign and the loss of the aircraft caused a lot of anxiety in Downing Street.

"I had the dubious distinction of having lost Margaret Thatcher a night's sleep," he said.

After the British regained South Georgia, Lt Tidd's ship, RFA Tidespring, took 185 prisoners of war to Ascension. As the ship's senior officer, he was in charge of them.

"We were hugely outnumbered. At the same time we were trying to look after their welfare for two-and-a-half weeks before we handed them to the Red Cross on Ascension."

After the main landings on 21 May, his work involved casualty evacuation and troop lifts. When the surrender was announced, he was airborne. Joined by two other helicopters of the task group ships, the trio flew across San Carlos Water in victory-V formation. He was transferred to HMS Hermes, returning to a rapturous welcome in Portsmouth on 21 July.

"What does make a huge difference to soldiers and the forces is the huge support from the country." He has many memories. "The contrast with my last active service in the Gulf War was amazing. We were in the middle of the desert watching the first missiles going into Baghdad on satellite TV rather than listening to BBC World Service. There was a tremendous can-do ethos among all of our guys, even when we were taking casualties. Some very good friends died, including a Harrier pilot shot down over Goose Green, a flight deck officer on HMS Glamorgan that was hit by an Exocet missile, a Sea King helicopter pilot who crashed while moving troops and a Royal Marine flying a Scout helicopter shot down by a Pucara. We had tremendous respect for the Argentinian Air Force and we ended up on terms of mutual respect with our prisoners on Tidespring."

Lt Tidd had been running a four-aircraft squadron in Northern Ireland when the call for Falklands duty came. After he returned from a long day's flying, he found his second-in-command waiting with his kit packed. In early April 1982 he flew to Ascension Island to join the RFA tanker, Tidespring. It sailed on 12 April to South Georgia where SAS troops were deployed, arriving nine days later. The Falklands was his third frontline tour.

Story reproduced by kind permission of the Guernsey Evening Press