PROBLEM SOLVER, COMMANDER ANDY JOHNSON RN…RIP

HMS ONYX

Commander Andy Johnson, who has died aged 76 back in October of this year , commanded the submarine Onyx on covert missions during the Falklands War of 1982.

So saddened to hear of his passing, as a mate informed me this morning having read it in his obit online.

My thoughts are with his family, old ship mates, “O” Boat mates and close friends.

Google his name under the Falklands’ War and all will be revealed of one of the war’s finest commanders in my humble opinion.

Not only did his submarine break almost every record in the book for it’s class, but he was having to keep ahead of everything thrown at him, either before the time or at the time.

Much has been written about the boat’s exploits, and much hasn’t either, given the many secret missions of Onyx during the campaign way back when.

I’ve blogged before about our mission to Argentina’s Patagonia Region to take out the aircraft sinking our ships, it was the last throw of the dice after the disastrous SAS helicopter mission that ended in failure in Chile.

Both the SAS and SBS were handed some crazy missions during that time. I don’t know if the Generals were permanently drunk back in the Falklands War HQ back in UK, or if they really thought that these operations could seriously be successful?

However, “ours is not to reason why…”

When 8 of us from 6Tp B Sqn 22 SAS along with 2 great SBS coxswains were given the task, we rolled up our sleeves and got on with it, and so did the submarine commander to the very best of his ability with little intelligence to work from:

JUNE 14th 1982, Argentina surrenders on the Falkland Islands.

When we boarded HMS Onyx there was hardly a square foot of space. The whole of the submarine was filled for a long war. It had just been replenished, we had stepped off of a resupply ship and onto the submarine’s casing with all of our kit and inflatable boats and their engines.

However the crew couldn’t have made us more welcome, soon to be greeted aboard by the boat’s commander. Straight away you knew that this man was a leader and a problem solver. He was as cool as a cucumber, given that we were still alongside the supply ship and an easy target for the Argentinian jets.

Within hours of being aboard and sharing brews with the submariners, we got to learn about all of their exploits. At this stage there was a torpedo stuck in it’s tube…armed! The submarine had hit something a wee while back on one of it’s operations with some SBS lads. I was told by one of the navy lads that at the time they didn’t know if the boat had hit a whale or some rocks on the bottom, as it was navigating it’s way through shallows subsurface off of terrible charts.

I ended up sleeping on top of a torpedo housed just outside of a tube ready to be inserted when required. The forward torpedo hold was the coolest place on the boat…and for some reason I had the place to myself.

So, for a commander who must have impressed everyone that he ever met, I’m shocked today to hear of his passing…here’s to you Commander.