page_title: British logistics in the Falklands War
section_title: Logistical
hierarchical_section_title: British logistics in the Falklands War / Shipping / Logistical
caption_attribution_description: A starboard bow view of the British stores support ship RFA Stromness (A344) underway in the North Atlantic.
context_page_description: The 1982 British military campaign to recapture the Falkland Islands depended on complex logistical arrangements. The logistical difficulties of operating 7,000 nautical miles from home were formidable. The Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands came at a time when the Royal Navy's amphibious capability was being run down; but it still possessed two aircraft carriers, HMS Hermes and Invincible, two landing platform dock ships, HMS Fearless and Intrepid, and six landing ship logistics ships. To provide the necessary logistic support, the Royal Navy's ships were augmented by ships taken up from trade.
  The British Army and Royal Navy developed a base at Ascension Island, a British territory in the mid-Atlantic 3,700 nautical miles from the UK and 3,300 nautical miles from the Falkland Islands. Although it had an airfield with an excellent runway, there was only a small hardstand area for parking aircraft and no parallel taxiways. There was an anchorage, but no port facilities—just a lone jetty.
context_section_description: Fuel was a critical requirement of the task force, and for political reasons could not be obtained from South America or South Africa. Countries in South America, even if sympathetic, felt unable to offer overt support in a conflict involving a neighbouring state, while South Africa was an international pariah at the time due to its system of apartheid, and collaboration with its regime risked alienating other countries at a time when Britain needed all the support it could muster for its international diplomatic efforts. The nearest source of supply was Freetown in Sierra Leone, 4,100 miles (6,600 km) from the Falkland Islands. To carry the diesel fuel required by the gas turbines of the warships and the fuel oil required by Hermes and some of the older RFA and STUFT, the fourteen RFA tankers were supplemented by fifteen requisitioned tankers.
  RFA Tidespring and Appleleaf accompanied Woodward's force of ships that sailed from Gibraltar, while RFA Pearleaf and Olmeda were detailed to accompany the force departing from the UK. RFA Blue Rover was returning from Gibraltar to the UK; she was ordered to take on aviation fuel and petrol at Portsmouth. RFA Brambleleaf was in the Indian Ocean, and was ordered to proceed to the South Atlantic via the Cape of Good Hope. RFA Tidepool had been sold to Chile and was off the coast of Peru on its way there, but its government allowed it to be temporarily repossessed on 3 April. The first two tankers to be chartered were British Petroleum's 25,905-gross-register-ton (73,350 m³) British Esk at Hamburg and 25,000-gross-register-ton (71,000 m³) British Tay  at Swansea on 5 April, followed by the 25,498-gross-register-ton (72,200 m³) British Tamar on 7 April, and  25,651-gross-register-ton (72,640 m³) British Dart on 9 April.
  Although the Royal Navy ships in the task force were fitted with reverse osmosis systems for producing potable water, many civilian ships were not, and some ships needed more water than usual owing to their carrying additional passengers. The 31,400-gross-register-ton (89,000 m³) SS Fort Toronto was chartered from Canadian Pacific for service as a water tanker. The supply of water while under way was simpler than fuel, as the hoses are lighter and the quantities involved are not as great. The 6,061-gross-register-ton (17,160 m³) North Sea oil rig support ship SS Stena Seaspread was taken up to act as a repair ship. The Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service had one ocean-going tugboat, RMAS Typhoon, but it was evident that more would be required, and three were requisitioned from the United Towing company: SS Salvageman, Irishman and Yorkshireman.
  The Royal Navy had no hospital ships. HMY Britannia had been built to allow its conversion into a hospital ship, but she required special fuel oil, and had only a 200-bed capacity. Instead, the 16,907-gross-register-ton (47,880 m³) P&O liner SS Uganda, which was in the Mediterranean on an educational cruise with a thousand schoolchildren on board, was requisitioned, and modified to become a hospital ship. A team of 135 medical personnel was assigned, which included members of Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS). This was the first time that QARNNS personnel had been deployed afloat since the Korean War. They brought a packaged 250-bed portable hospital and 90 tons of medical supplies with them. Beds were provided for 20 intensive care patients and 94 medium dependency patients. Up to 940 low dependency patients could be accommodated in dormitories. Three Hecla-class survey vessels, HMS Hecla, Herald and Hydra, became ambulance ships.
  Hospital ships were exempt from attack under the Geneva Conventions, but they also require that patients not be returned directly to the battlefield after treatment. Due to the distances involved, this meant that treatment on Uganda would involve a prolonged absence, even those with relatively minor injuries that were anticipated such as trench foot. Additional medical facilities were therefore established elsewhere in the task force. Surgical teams were also embarked on Hermes, Fear
caption: RFA Stromness in 1982
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