Type Military reserve force | ||
 | ||
Active 1892–1982
1983 – present Country Falkland Islands, United Kingdom Allegiance Elizabeth II (United Kingdom) Role Light Role with additional roles Size One Company
2 Permanent Staff Personnel
~100 Primary Reserve Personnel
~100 Secondary Reserve Personnel | ||
The Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF) is the locally maintained volunteer defence unit in the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory. The FIDF works alongside the military units supplied by the United Kingdom to ensure the security of the islands.
Contents
Early
The first volunteer unit in the Islands was formed in 1854 during the Crimean War to guard against possible aggression by the Russian Empire. Not given an official title, this unit was sometimes known as the Stanley Volunteers. In 1891, a steamer owned by one of the groups involved in the Chilean Civil War docked at Stanley. Although ostensibly there to carry out repairs to its engines, the presence onboard of 200 armed soldiers was considered a security threat. The Governor, Sir Roger Goldsworthy, therefore ordered that an armed volunteer force be formed. The first draft of men of the Falkland Islands Volunteers were sworn in at a ceremony at Government House in June 1892.
World War I
During the First World War, members of the Volunteers were mobilised to man military outposts around the Islands, while 36 Falklanders enlisted in the armed forces. At the end of the war, the Falkland Islands Volunteers was renamed as the Falkland Islands Defence Force. The FIDF was mobilised again during the Second World War, manning defensive outposts around the Islands. At this time, a mounted rifles unit was raised.
World War II
On 27 September 1939, thirty-three men arrived from Argentina in a group called the "Tabaris Highlanders." Gathered from the Anglo-Argentine community, they were supposed to defend the islands from a German attack. Six of these volunteers were rejected on medical and other grounds and returned to Buenos Aires almost immediately. The "commanding officer," a Major Morrough, was one of those rejected. The remainder were enrolled in the Falkland Islands Defence Force, with Ronald Campbell made sergeant as commander and Thomas Dawson Sanderson made corporal. Many were rugby players, including Sanderson, who was president of a rugby club.
The men left the Islands on 8 December 1939, once the immediate danger of attack from German raiders was judged to have receded. During this time the Highlanders dug out gun pits, embankments, and other protection from a possible German naval attack. Twenty-two of them applied from Stanley to join the British Forces.
After the end of the war, the presence of Royal Marines as part of the Islands' defence led to the FIDF adopting RM dress and drill styles. On 28 September 1966, 19 members of an Argentine extremist group staged a symbolic invasion of the Islands by landing a DC-4 on Stanley Racecourse, in one of the first significant hijacking incidents; the extremist group called this action Operation Condor. There, they took four islanders hostage. The FIDF, alongside the Royal Marines, contained the situation and the group surrendered without casualties. Following this, the FIDF was on heightened alert until February 1967.
Falklands War
On 1 April 1982, alongside the Royal Marines party, the FIDF was mobilised to defend the Islands from the Argentine invasion. Of its approx 120 men only 23 turned out. The following day, Sir Rex Hunt ordered them to surrender. The Argentines confiscated all of the FIDF's equipment and declared them to be an illegal organisation. For the duration of the war, some members of the FIDF were kept under house arrest at Fox Bay until the Argentine surrender. The FIDF was reformed in 1983.
Terry Peck, a former member of the Defence Force, spied on Argentine forces in Stanley, then escaped to become a scout for the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, with which he fought at the Battle of Mount Longdon.
Personnel
Today the Falkland Islands Defence Force meet once a week for training, with various extended training weekends throughout the year. Soldiers of the Falkland Islands Defence Force conduct training patrols with soldiers from the British Garrison on the islands as well as acting as "enemy" forces against British soldiers in training exercises.
FIDF soldiers also provide search and rescue and mountain rescue services across the islands. They have been trained by the Royal Navy to operate Oerlikon 20 mm cannon and conduct boarding operations of vessels to fulfill a fisheries protection role for the Falkland Islands Government.
Equipment
Funding
The Falkland Islands Defence Force today is funded entirely by the Falkland Islands government and has an annual budget of £400,000.
Organisation
The FIDF is organised as a light infantry company with additional roles. It is manned entirely by the local population, following British Army doctrine, training and operations. In an agreement with the British Ministry of Defence, a Royal Marines Warrant Officer Class 2 is seconded to the Force as a Permanent Staff Instructor. Two permanent soldiers from the islands are employed as the Force's Commanding Officer, ranked as a Major, and as the senior non-commissioned officer, ranked as a Sergeant Major.