RFA Operations since 1905

1977 Operation Journeyman

In the late 1970’s a very secret operation took place that was kept under wraps until the Falklands war of 1982.  In November 1977 a group of fifty Argentinean “Scientists” landed on the island of South Thule, part of the Falkland Islands Dependency and proceeded to set up a military base on the island.

The British Government of the time under Prime Minister Mr James Callaghan feared that this was part of a plan for an imminent invasion of the Falkland Islands themselves and a naval task force was despatched to dislodge the invaders and set up a 50 mile exclusion zone around the islands.

The ships taking part were the nuclear powered submarine HMS Dreadnought, with the frigates HMS Alacrity and Phoebe.

The official papers for this operation were released into the public domain in 1995.

The following RFA ships were dispatched to support the Royal Naval vessels in this operation: -

RFA Resource

RFA Olwen.