Incoming, 30 seconds to impact

Stuart Needham in the Falklands War 1982

STUART Needham remembers with fear a voice announcing the words “Incoming, 30 seconds to impact”.

This was the petrifying moment a missile was hurtling towards the RFA Tidespring and death was looking on the cards for the crew and the Chadderton man.

He said: “I simply thought this can’t be happening and this is not real.

“The amount of things that flash through your mind in that short amount of time is unbelievable.”

Anti-flash gear and gas mask was on and the naval officer lay curled up waiting for the fateful countdown.

Luckily, the missile passed by the vessel and Mr Needham lived to tell the tale 30 years after being in the midst of the Falklands conflict.

Britain officially went to battle with the Argentina over a long-standing dispute over the sovereignty of the islands in the South Atlantic, 30 years ago today.

However, Mr Needham, a then Royal Fleet Auxiliary catering officer, was sailing home from a tour of the Caribbean when his ship was diverted.

He recollects: “We didn’t know what was going on and we got told we had the chance to send some information home to tell our families that we were not coming home.

“We got a 30-word ‘familygram’, so I told my mum and dad I wouldn’t be home for a while and to have a rag pudding ready for me when did!

“We initially went to Ascension Island and then we were one of the first flotilla ships to set off.”

Mr Needham (54), of Boundary Park Road, who now works for charity Community Transport, said: “The whole time there was very much a blur.

People back home knew a lot more than what we did.”

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