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The RAF had ordered that all aircrew who would be involved in Operation Corporate (the codename used for the Falklands War) were to be given refresher training in what was known as Conduct After Capture and Resistance to Enemy Interrogation. So it was that on the morning of 15 April 1982 I drove from my base at the Joint Service Interrogation Wing (JSIW) in Templar Barracks, Ashford, Kent to RAF Wittering to give my standard presentation to the Harrier aircrew and then on to RAF Marham to give the same briefing to the Victor Tanker aircrew. My Royal Navy and Army colleagues went off to their own Service establishments.
I knew, but my two audiences did not, that the following day I would be flying to Montevideo on a highly classified mission to join up with and debrief the Royal Marines who had been captured on South Georgia and who were about to be deported by the Argentines. The Marines were thought likely to have vital intelligence about enemy activities on South Georgia and in the Falkland Islands. The Ministry of Defence thought it important enough to send a three-
It was unfortunate that the only operational Harrier pilot at Wittering who did not attend my briefing, because he was engaged on an important air test on his Harrier, was the one who was captured by the Argentines after they had shot him down. After a quick lunch, I drove on to RAF Marham in Norfolk to repeat my lecture for the Victor tanker aircrew based there. The Harrier pilots had listened politely to my talk; they had heard it all before. It was quite different when I got to Marham. Between 1970 and 1976 I had been based at Marham as a tanker captain on 214 and 55 Squadrons, a flight commander on 55 Squadron and, latterly, Officer Commanding the Victor Standardisation Unit. An old colleague from 214 Squadron, Jerry Price, was now Station Commander. He knew, but did not mention to me because operational aircraft movements were classified Top Secret, that he would be flying out to Ascension the following day leading a fleet of Victor tankers and then assuming the role of Air Commander.
During my briefing at Marham I got a hard time from some of the Victor aircrew, many of whom had been at Marham since the early 1970s and knew me well. The conduct after capture and resistance to interrogation instruction I had to impart was not really realistic in the face of what was believed by the MoD likely to be a cruel enemy. I knew that; the Victor crews knew that; they knew that I knew they knew that! Most listened politely. A few challenged my teaching but I had heard all the very reasonable objections before from special forces on exercises and all I could do was reiterate official policy which was, even in 1982, still based largely on lessons supposedly learned in the 2nd World War and in Vietnam. When interrogated by an enemy, British prisoners of war were to give only their service number, rank, name and date of birth – the so-
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