10:51am Monday 2nd April 2012
By Paul Broome
THIRTY years after the Falklands conflict began, thoughts turn to a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Hereford soldiers.
On May 19, 1982, the lives of a number of Herefordshire families changed forever when 18 soldiers from the Hereford-based SAS regiment were killed in a tragic air crash.
The group was being transferred to a task-force ship when their Sea King helicopter crashed into the ocean in bad weather, killing troops along with three others. Nine men were rescued.
It was the revered regiment’s largest loss of life in one go.
The tragedy is still remembered in the city with a row of tablets installed in the grounds of St Martin’s Church off Ross Road, Hereford, and a stained glass window which remembers all the conflicts the SAS has fought in.
Also lost during the Falkland conflict was 19-year-old Tim Jenkins from Ross-on- Wye who died on the final day of fighting. Tim now lies in Ross’s Tudorville cemetery.
Despite lasting just 74-days the 1982 war saw the death of 255 British troops.
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