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Captain Robin Green World Naval Ships Forums Archive

Captain Robin Green

Posts 1 to 3

[B]Captain Robin Green[/B] Not Royal Navy but very close and, in my opinion, deserves to be here Captain Robin Green, who has died aged 74, commanded the landing ship Sir Tristram during the Falklands War, braving extreme danger by entering shallow waters where naval escorts could not offer protection until disaster struck his ship and Sir Galahad at Fitzroy in the single bloodiest incident of the conflict. After three weeks of unceasing operations under constant threat of air attack in his lightly armed ship, Green was ordered in early June to take Sir Tristram, loaded with ammunition and fuel and with only the bad weather for protection, to Fitzroy harbour. There unloading proceeded slowly because the smaller landing craft which were supposed to meet him had been diverted to other tasks. Next day, June 8 1982, she was joined by Sir Galahad, carrying elements of the Welsh Guards which, in defiance of the doctrine of amphibious warfare that troops should disembark promptly, waited on board. By midday the wintry South Atlantic weather had cleared and it had become an unusually bright day. Shortly after 4pm, five Argentine Skyhawks raced along the coast under brilliant blue skies and spotted the masts of the ships plainly visible over the hills in the late afternoon sun. The ships were critically exposed and the Argentines were able to climb to the best height for their bombs to be effective. Three aircraft attacked Sir Galahad, strafing her and hitting her with two or three bombs, one exploding deep inside the ship and causing dreadful carnage among her passengers. A quarter of a mile further up the harbour two other aircraft attacked Sir Tristram: two bombs hit her stern but did not explode, and a near miss blew off her ramp. Fires were quickly out of control: Sir Tristram's aluminium superstructure burned fiercely, and ammunition kept exploding. With unexploded ordnance buried inside his ship, Green acted promptly to prevent panic among his crew, successfully evacuating Sir Tristram as the fires got out of control and saving the lives of all his men except two who had been killed in the initial attack. He also managed to send a lifeboat to help Sir Galahad. Helicopters were quickly available, and within half an hour everyone who could walk had been evacuated. But the toll was severe. In the two ships, 49 men had been killed and 115 wounded, 40 of them with severe burns. Green was awarded the DSC. The citation commended his courage, leadership and energy which enabled him to carry his ship and her Hong Kong Chinese crew through a period of danger far beyond that which could normally be expected. George Robert Green (always known as Robin) was born on October 18 1934 at Wandsworth, and educated at St Boniface's and the Merchant Navy training school, HMS Conway. He first went to sea in 1952, joining the Royal Fleet Auxiliary freighting tanker Eaglesdale at Swansea, and his first command was the coastal tanker RFA Eddyfirth in 1979. In April 1982 Green and Sir Tristram were off Belize, in the western Caribbean, and due to return home and be paid off under the defence minister John Nott's highly unpopular defence review (which proposed to cut Britain's forces and mass the remainder on the central front in Germany against the Soviet bloc). Within two weeks, however, Green found himself part of the largest British amphibious force since the Second World War, training at Ascension Island to remove the Argentine invaders from the Falklands in a war which Nott and his advisers had not foreseen. After the Falklands War Sir Tristram was used as an accommodation ship at Stanley, until she was brought home and rebuilt, when Green had the satisfaction of conducting the new ship's trials in September and October 1985. In 1991 Green took semi-retirement, joining P&O as a second officer on cross-Channel ferries. But he had to retire two years later due to ill-health. Green was known for his seamanship and generous shipboard hospitality, not least during the Falklands War. In full retirement he indulged his interest in model railways, and always drove a classic Bentley. Robin Green, who died on October 5, married Elizabeth Traynor in 1967. She survives him with their three children. Taken from The Daily Telegraph 11th November 2009
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Dave, I agree that he is deserves to be in this Forum of Naval Obituaries. In fact the RFA and (STUFT - for hostilities or disaster relief) personnel might be considered as equally legitimate. Little h

I agree, Harry

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