Flying The Harrier: Germany To The Falklands War. Mr. Ian Mortimer.  

I loved this. What a superstar. Also, a model of how to use slides well. No text, no real plan. Memory prompts for a great storyteller. Thank you.

Fascinating and very interesting, thanks. You've certainly had a great career! I was at Andover Grammar with Gordon Batt, and we both joined the ATC (1213 Squadron!). He was always known as Gord then, rather than Gordie. Both in the band, he a bugler, me a drummer, we went to a band competition at Netley, where Douglas Bader was one of the judges. Gord had a black split-screen Morris Minor "convertible", the top consisting more of holes than any actual fabric and, following a fairly well-lubricated party at RAF Andover one snowy January Saturday, after visiting the local "ton-up" cafe at Weyhill for restoratives, we ended up in a ditch with the top down. I got in the back and Gord remained at the wheel and we spent a very cold night getting increasingly snowed in. He was always a great smiler, even in adversity. I lost contact with him when he joined Fisguard as an Artificer and only sporadically heard about him from others, until the day he went off Hermes. Interesting what you said about the HUD, thanks.

Lookin’ good 😊 Great talk Morts! Hum

I saw when a Rapier fired by argentine troops hit the Sea Harrier and his ejection in June 1st 1982.

Great lecture, i enjoyed it very much. Regards

Interseting Talk, RIP to all those pilots who never made it...Do the Navy have Bacon and Eggs for Breakfast like the RAF..

Great talk & the Harrier is such a fascinating plane. As a kid Hunter jets from Brawdy used to buzz our house at a very low level, maybe that was Ian :-)

Outstanding talk Sir...enjoyed it very much.Thank you

"I wasn't exactly *happy*, but I was happier than I was a short while previously." The most understated account of ejecting from an aircraft that has just been blown up!

Nice talk!... I know a guy and he was Tactical Radar Operator on HMS Invincible during the Falklands War.. he thought the Sea Harrier was awesome ... he also didn't know if he was going to live or die... we have Strikemaster warbirds (like Jet Provost) ee flew them with our RNZAF ... and a Harrier GR3 in a museum.. thanks from NZ 👍🇳🇿

Anyone else only hearing this in the left ear?

I’m reading sharkeys book amazing how Hermes and invincible conducted tasks so different .801

Marvellous talk, very enjoyable (from an ex RAF Harrier liney)

That was very interesting Ian .thankyou for taking the time.

Really enjoyed this ,some great stories and photographs.

Great stories and real insight, brilliantly told. Thanks for posting this.

"It was nearly as good as the navy, it was that good." But of course! 😊

Great stuff! Heard a bit of him from various books, great to hear from the man himself.

Remember Ian (Morts) from 3 Sqn in Gutersloh - nice bloke

Thst's bloody wonderful. Chipmunks fully aero for a first aircraft experience ought to be mandatory. :)

Ah, Morts! Read a lot about him in Sharkey Ward's book.

Thanks Ian (Sir!) I thought Ward was the only expert from the Sea Harrier world, he seems to think so! Me? 800 Premier Naval Air Squadron Chief and Indian Navy Training Unit.I don't think Ted Ball was ever really SO, he was a bit too good for that! Regards!

i was just a kid at the air show when the ejector seat fired but only just learned the pilot dead don't now the exact year 1974 ish

During the war, the Roland missiles of the Anti Aircraft Group 601 were guided by eye because the ECM of the Harriers were blocking the radar guide systems. Nice talk

The only person ever to hate serving in Germany 🇩🇪

good job are we ready for the next one? bloody cats 😊

40:00 The Sheffield crew would, presumably, have felt even better if the air patrol had been there *earlier*.

I was shocked to hear news reports that Sharkey Wards son Kris "tragically died" a few years ago. Was it a crash or what?

SHARKEY IN THE MIDDLE?

Re-spect...that's proper.

Why were they originally painted white underneath?

When calculating the value of a lecture you have to look at the types of errors made in it. Now I have great respect for all fellow veterans who got on with a nasty job, but Sqdn Ldr Mortimer takes a few liberties here with other veterans stories and that's not quite the done thing. At 40:40 Mortimer suggests HMS Sheffield was lost through criminal negligence by her captain and crew. He mentions her people evacuating in sleeping rig as they hadn't gone to action stations, which he calls “absolutely criminal”. To ram home the point he says every warship captain that went to the Falklands got the Distinguished Service Order, except Sam Salt, Sheffield's captain. He then mentions David Hart-Dyke of Coventry also being denied a DSO. His implication is clear, the powers knew Sheffield's captain was at fault, hence the lack of medal. Thing is Mortimer is very much wrong in this award hand out. And it begs the question why he felt the need to make this error, when it should have been easy for him to check beforehand. Sheffield was an air defence destroyer (DDG), of the other air defence destroyers in the war: HMS Glasgow - Paul Hoddinott, didn't get the DSO HMS Coventry - David Hart-Dyke, didn't HMS Cardiff - Mike Harris, didn't HMS Exeter - Hugo Balfour, didn't HMS Bristol - Alan Grose, didn't HMS Glamorgan - Mike Barrow, did get the DSO, he also returned to the gun line in support of the ground forces again and again over a period of weeks until his ship was struck by Exocet. HMS Antrim - Brian Young, did get the DSO, but then again he also commanded the successful re-capture of South Georgia and led the invasion fleet into San Carlos waters. Of the fifteen frigates deployed during the conflict only four captain's got the DSO: HMS Brilliant - John Coward DSO HMS Broadsword - Bill Cannng DSO HMS Argonaut - Kit Layman DSO HMS Plymouth - David Pentreath DSO Why did they get them? Well these four captain's (along with Brian Young) were the commanders that protected the amphibious landing at San Carlos, the single most important and risky naval venture of the war. They fought the surface and air action in bomb alley, against a determined foe, at great cost to themselves (all four ships would be damaged by bombs) over a couple of weeks of continuous action. 
 Others medals awarded to warship Captains include: HMS Alacrity - Chris Craig DSC HMS Ardent - Alan West DSC HMS Antelope - Nick Tobin DSC HMS Arrow - Paul Boothestone DSC HMS Yarmouth - Tony Morton DSC These were the junior skippers, heavily involved in the set up and defence of San Carlos / Bomb Alley. So twenty one destroyers and frigates in the war and eleven Captains got distinguished service medals - six DSOs and five DSCs all for prolonged action in bomb alley, support of ground troops or recapturing South Georgia. 

 It’s also worth pointing out that after the war Sam Salt was given command of the destroyer HMS Southampton, made Rear Admiral and was awarded the Companion of the Order of Bath for his service as Assistant Chief of Operations and Director Naval Intelligence. So why do we think Mr Mortimer is on here condemning Sam Salt's command of his ship? Gilding it with the accusation it cost him due award? 

 Well it was HMS Invincible (Mortimer's ship) that was responsible for controlling air defence of the fleet on the day Sheffield was hit. Most sources on the war record a string of false alarms from Invincible over the preceding two days which caused some ‘cry wolf’ reactions among the destroyer screen. 

 On the day of the actual attack, Invincible received early warning of the Neptune search aircraft radar, picked up the Argentine attack aircraft on her own radar systems and received HMS Glasgow’s detection of Exocet attack signals. Invincible sent the CAP (from 801 Sqdn, Mortimer’s unit) to investigate, but they found nothing. The Anti-Air Warfare Controller (AAWC) aboard Invincible then declared the attack another false alarm and stood down the air warning threat from red to yellow. 

To their credit HMS Glasgow ignored Invincible and continued to act on their own information, which said an Exocet attack was coming in. They went to action stations, got their chaff up and weapons online. They may even have briefly tracked the attackers on their 909 radars. 

Glasgow was right, Invincible was wrong, Sheffield stood down, as did Coventry and every other warship on the air-warfare loop. 

 Now there was error in Sheffield, but I've never known a conflict without it. After being stood down to yellow their Air-Warfare Officer went to the wardroom for coffee, his assistant went to the heads. One at least should have remained in the ops room. Someone blanked out their own radar detection kit with an unauthorised SCOT satellite transmission. Active threat messages from Glasgow were ignored or not received, but Invincible was primary Anti-Air Warfare Controller and in the military you follow the chain of command. Invincible had said stand down. So the reason some of Sheffield’s people were evacuating half dressed, after tumbling out of bed, is because warship’s cannot be kept at permanent action stations. Wars can take months and people need to sleep. Ships work on a defence watches, a rota that has the guys you need alert at night, to be sleeping during the day. 

 What’s really bugged me about Mortimer’s finger pointing, is that he knows all this. He was on duty on Invincible when they were all stood down. He attests in this lecture to the confusion with his CAP orders, and the exact weapon used against Sheffield. Which all came from Invincible. The torpedo attack theory was born out their dismissal of the earlier Exocet warnings. Mortimer was working defence watches that day and many days after, and knew that members of his own Squadron were also asleep in their cots when the attack occurred, because wars take a long time. 

 There was complacency, in many ships and aircraft that day. But I would remind you this was the first time a sea skimming missile had been fired at any British warship and it was the first engagement of the war for Sheffield. First time I came under fire it was an absolute cluster, second time we got sharper. They were all FNGs in dangerous seas.

 Having read Sharkey Ward's book there seems to be a nasty habit of blame as a defence mechanism within 801 Squadron leadership. Mortimer seems to be following the party line. 

I notice the date of this lecture is after Sam Salt died in 2009. The dead can’t sue of course. After the Army I was a detective for many years, when a witness statement gets into the blame game, they are usually hiding something. www.naval-history.net/F65-Falklands-British_gallantry_awards.htm Edited: to include two further awards I missed in the first draft.

I will watch this out of loyalty but, what is the ratio of current Brits to the plethora of new ‘Brits’ and sub 30’s who cannot recognise this unique engineering achievement as a piece of Britsh culture? Actually the Conservative Party cannot either: they effectively scrapped the Harrier. OK the USMC bought the airframes for spare parts hahahahahahha. Jeeeeeez!

I hate him because I want to be him. Such is life, I guess. Their are no more Brit Harriers and I'm not a Brit nor a Harrier. Long live the F-35B.

"I hated Germany"... must have been a beer and coffee hater ;-)