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Auction: 14002 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 216

The Outstanding 'Tumbledown Rescue' M.I.D. Pair to Scout Helicopter Air Gunner, Lance-Corporal J. Rigg, Army Air Corps
General Service 1962-2007, one clasp, Northern Ireland (24442062 AIRTPR J J Rigg AAC); South Atlantic 1982, with rosette, M.I.D. Oak Leaf (24442062 LCPL J J Rigg AAC), good very fine or better, mounted as originally worn

with the following associated items:

- (2) related miniature awards, mounted court-style as worn, riband bar and cloth insignia
- Royal Air Force Aircrew Flying Log Book (28.4.1981-10.12.1984), slight water damage, this occured when his helicopter forced landed in MacPhee Pond whilst trying to avoid enemy aircraft, 8.6.1982
- M.I.D. Certificate, dated 11.10.1982, glazed and framed
- Martin Patent Ejector Seat Plate, from forced landed Scout; Operations Map used by recipient during the Falklands Campaign, with then current positional annotations; Scout AH Mk 1 Flight Reference Cards used by recipient during the Falklands Campaign
- (2) scrap books compiled by the recipient replete with photographs from various stages of his career, and a number of letters of congratulation including from: Major General M.B. Farndale, C.B., Colonel Commandant, Army Air Corps, dated 11.10.1982; Colonel D.E. Canterbury, Regimental Colonel, Army Air Corps, dated 8.10.1982; Major General J.J. Moore, O.B.E., M.C., Headquarters Commando Forces, Royal Marines, dated 18.10.1982; Lieutenant General Sir Richard Trent, K.C.B., Land Forces Deputy to the Commander in Chief Fleet, dated 8.10.1982
- a copy of Above All, Courage, by Max Arthur, with a dedication to the recipient by the author, several signatures including that of Captain Sam Drennan, D.F.C., additionally annotated from him to the recipient 'IOU one life', also signed by Lieutenant R.A.D. Lawrence, Scots Guards
- a copy of The Helicopter Story of the Falklands Campaign, by John Hamilton, signed by the author, and includes a colour plate of the original painting by the author entitled 'Casualty evacuation by Scout helicopter from Mount Tumbledown'; a copy of Falklands The Air War
- a number of contemporary newspapers, in which the recipient is featured; BBC Video Falklands Task Force South, photograph of recipient is used on reverse of case (lot)

M.I.D. London Gazette 8.10.1982 2442062 Lance Corporal Julian Jon Rigg, Army Air Corps, the Recommendation states, 'On the night of 13/14 June, on the Island of East Falklands, the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards attacked well entrenched enemy positions on the craggy ridge feature of Tumbledown Mountain, seven kilometres to the west of Port Stanley. Helicopters of 656 Squadron Army Air Corps flew in direct support of operations throughout the battle.

Lance Corporal Rigg, Army Air Corps was a helicopter crewman involved in the evacuation of the seriously wounded. Unmindful of his own safety, he unhesitatingly volunteered to fly with his pilot on a succession of extremely hazardous missions. Despite heavy enemy artillery fire, he flew repeatedly to recover casualties from exposed forward positions.

For his bravery under fire, his exemplary devotion to duty and his unselfish concern for his colleagues, Lance Corporal Rigg is strongly recommended.'

24442062 Lance-Corporal Julian Rigg; educated at Emmbrook School, Wokingham; left school at 18 and joined the Junior Leaders, before joining the Army Air Corps as an Aircrewman; after carrying out training in Gazelle, Scout and Lynx helicopters he was awarded his Observer Badge in June 1981 and his Air Gunner Badge in October of the same year; posted as Air Gunner to 657 Squadron (Scouts), October 1981; having carried out a tour in Northern Ireland he was posted to 656 Squadron for service during Operation Corporate.

The Falklands, An Eventful Start - "In The Drink"

Rigg arrived in the Falklands at the start of June. On 8.6.1982 he was flying a troop lift with Sergeant Kalinski in Scout AH.1 XR628/DO when they were forced to take emergency evasive action from a formation of Argentine Skyhawks, '8 June was also remembered by 656 Sqdn as the day on which "Dick Klink's Donkey" stopped over MacPhee Pond. At 1850Z news reached the Squadron HQ that Dick Kalinski and Julian Rigg had earlier been forced to take avoiding action from a formation of five Grupo 5 A-4B Skyhawks to the south-west of Fitzroy. Kalinski had simply (and quickly) gone to ground and remained stationary in the hover several feet above MacPhee Pond (VC 018551). When all seemed clear, Kalinski climbed away to resume tasking, but as he did so XR628 appeared to suffer a tail rotor drive-shaft failure. With control lost, he made an immediate forced-landing - into the pond. Luckily it was a fresh water pond and only four feet deep, but nevertheless XR628 sat with the cockpit floor under a foot of water. Although relatively easy to extract, the continued lack of heavy-lift helicopters prevented its rescue, so the Scout remained in MacPhee Pond for three days (during which period REME technicians removed the AF120 sight and engine). It was eventually airlifted back to Fitzroy by Sea King at 1930Z on 11 June, then to San Carlos in similar fashion two days later.' (Falklands The Air War refers)

The Skyhawks were in fact headed for the Sir Galahad as the following extract from the Wokingham Times, dated 12.8.1982, relates, Rigg 'if ever he should forget that horrific moment when the Argentinians attacked the warship Sir Galahad and his helicopter crashed into the icy waters, his photograph album will certainly jog his memory. For the Wokingham man, who is in the 656 Squadron with the Army Air Corps, was transporting men in his Scout helicopter when the first of the Argentinian jets began to home in on Sir Galahad.

"One of the men sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder," said Julian, "and pointed to the Argentinian jets flying either side of us. To try to avoid being spotted we dropped height and flew very low. Suddenly, however, we plunged into the water."

"As we climbed out of the helicopter we could see the Sir Galahad being bombed. It all happened so quickly - it was in flames but we did not really have time to think about it."

Tumbledown

Rigg was to form a more successful partnership with Captain Sam Drennan as his pilot, whose account of their service together during the Falklands in Above All Courage gives the following:

''Corporal Jay Rigg, my air gunner and co-pilot, and I arrived in the Falklands on 1 June, just after the battle for Goose Green… Being aviators, we went to all the places of interest where things were happening, so we got acclimatized very quickly. We had to start off doing recces in Lafonia to check for enemy there and the Army Air Corps on its own captured seven Agentinians there. That was our first aggressive contact with the enemy. We'd seen prisoners before, at Goose Green, where there were hundreds of prisoners everywhere, bodies being buried, and all sorts of things happening….this was the first all-out shooting war that either of us had been involved in…. Up until the night of Tumbledown we were flying every day. We flew sixty hours in fourteen days, which is about two months' flying normally, in a squadron. But we got used to it, got used to each other, and into a routine. Some days we never stopped the engine from about half an hour before dawn until half an hour after dark. We would go on board a ship for fuel, or have a 'hot refuel' when we refuel the aircraft without stopping the engines; then we could get out and have a pee or sometimes a cup of coffee….

By the time of the Tumbledown battle Jay and I had developed an extraordinary rapport - a tremendous trust. When we were flying towards Goat Ridge, out of the half-darkness came this voice: 'Do you know where you're going?' I replied, 'Trust me, for God's sake, trust me.' And he did. I believe that was a most important moment for both of us, because if I'd mucked it up then, he would never have trusted me again - there would always have been a tension.

From the day we arrived we were really preparing for the big push on Stanley. We were to assist the Scots Guards on Tumbledown which I was glad about because they are my old regiment… On the night that Tumbledown started we'd been lying there in our sleeping bags, trying to keep warm all night, hoping that our lads wouldn't get a pasting. We were in an old wooden garage with the wind whistling through, waiting for the call. We got more and more tense as the night progressed…..Then we were called to go and pick up an injured Gurkha and a Scots Guardsman from the side of Tumbledown.

Although we were about fifteen miles from Tumbledown, as we moved to our briefing we could see it all going on - it really looked and sounded like a big Guy Fawkes night. We were briefed by the Squadron Commander, and told that things were not terribly healthy up there, but would we like to give it a go? He knew exactly what the score was, and he knew it was a bit risky. He was wearing his worried face! There was no order to go. He said, 'Look, this is the score. The baddies are here, they're resisting fiercely, but we've got a casualty here and one there, who are both badly hurt and need to come out,' The aircraft were sitting outside ready to go. It was pitch black, no moon, and we didn't have nightsights. It was going to be an interesting night!

So off we went to Tumbledown. We went up to the RAP and went past that to Goat Ridge. From there we had a look, and on one side was the Gurkhas' mortar platoon, dug in in holes in the ground. Previously a Navy helicopter had got that far and the Gurkhas had put a motar straight through his rotor blades without touching a blade. On that, the Navy gave up…. We didn't go forward of the Gurkhas' mortar platoon because they'd probably have scared us too. So we went round the other side and we looked over the ridge and Jay pointed out where the first casualty was. I realized that no helicopter had been that far forward on Tumbledown. The Argentinians then opened fire on us….

My big fear wasn't getting hit by a shell, because if you get hit by a shell, you die and that's the end of the story. But if you see a missile heading towards you, and you can tell by the smoke, that it is rather worrying but you can avoid it if you're fast. So I said to Jay, 'If you see a missile, give me a shout,' which was greeted with raised eyebrows and a wry smile - apparently something had just passed our tail and I hadn't seen it!

The first one we stuck our neck out for was a Gurkha. I went quite slowly down the side of this hill, at about fifty knots, because I'd decided that if we saw the smoke track of a missile coming towards us I'd put the aircraft on the ground bloody quickly because I'd rather break the aircraft by dumping it than have the missile impact blow us to a thousand bits.

Jay was keeping his eyes open; in fact, I think he had his visor down to stop his eyes from popping out! I was concentrating on missing the rocks on the way down and all the time there were puffs of smoke where shells were landing, which was quite spectacular - some were quite close to us…..

We found the Gurkha and they lifted him into the pod. We were using pods, like coffins, on the side of the helicopter, so we could get more casualties in. The back was open, because Jay was in and out all the time loading and unloading casualties…. I was just sitting there. I had nothing to do. I was watching all this activity conducted by Jay around the aircraft, helping the Gurkhas to get their injured mate into the aircraft. I was just looking round, and there was a little puff of a shell landing here and a little puff there, and I thought, 'Christ, I hope there's not a little puff here soon.' I was worried about the Scots Guardsman that we had to pick up as well, because I couldn't see him anywhere. We didn't know it at the time, but he was in a minefield; we'd been told this chap would be brought to the same position as the Gurkha. Suddenly we saw this soldier on the horizon with his rifle signalling to us, so we went across and landed. We didn't know it was a minefield… I'd got plastic armour underneath my seat, so if I'd hit a mine, it would have to go through the aircraft and the armour on the floor and on my seat before it blasted a hole in me and I might have survived. Not so Jay: he was on the skid! If we'd hit a mine he'd have got killed…. It was our job to pick up this soldier and we did.

We then lifted off, turned round and went like a bat out of hell for the safety of the ridge behind Tumbledown. We didn't waste any time worrying about missiles and things, we were just going as fast as the Scout would go… We went whizzing back to the MDS (Main Dressing Station) where the two casualties went to the surgeons straight away…. We'd managed to get in and get out again without getting killed. Then the floodgates opened.

We were authorized to return to the same area to start taking out Scots Guards casualties. We weren't nervous - we were totally eager…. I thought about Jay at this point, because I could have been taking him to his death. But he knew we had a job to do. He said to me, 'Think of your own self bleeding to death on the mountainside, and people saying, "I'm not going to come and get you." That wouldn't do.'

We went whizzing back out… we stopped off at RAP, where the doctor and the medical assistants were. I came across an old friend of mine, Colour Sergeant Archie Baird… I said, 'Hello Archie. How's it going?' He said, 'Not so good,' and turned back to the doctor and spoke about one of the men who was lying injured in the middle of the battlefield. 'He's gone into a deep coma, and it looks like he's had it.' Both Jay and I sparked at the same time and thought, 'No, he bloody hasn't.' I said to Archie, 'Where is he?' and he said, 'Well, he's with Right Flank.' The significance of that escaped me at the time. I said to Jay, 'Right, wait for the grid reference and I'll run down and start the aeroplane.'

Where we had to get to was right at the front end of Tumbledown. Jay pointed out where it was on the map and I looked down and all hell was going on down there. We looked at each other and resolved we were going to go; it was one of those unsaid things…. We sneaked along the northern side of Tumbledown until we got to the friendly side of the ridge which was shielded from enemy machine-gun fire. We couldn't actually land because it was too steep so I dropped off Jay, who went half-way up the mountain to see what was happening rather than risk us being blown out of the air. He came across some Gurkhas lurking there, who apparently said to him something to the effect, 'Don't go around there. The enemy are there.' I saw Jay running back so I hovered and Jay came up underneath the aircraft and grabbed hold of the skid. I didn't have time to wait for him to climb in - he pulled himself up to the chest and then reached over and grabbed the inside of the door stanchion and pulled himself in….

We didn't take the advice of the Gurkhas because we assumed we were going to survive! We had a look over this hill where shells were landing and making rather large bangs - it was quite pretty! We looked at each other as if to say, 'Well, shall we give it a whirl?' But there was no point in saying it because we both knew we would. We went along the side of the mountain and were speaking to the company concerned on the radio, and I could tell they were slightly disbelieving; the chap wasn't convinced that we were actually going there. I think he thought we got the call-sign wrong....

We flew along the side of the mountain and identified where these people were. One stood up - a brave boy - so we could actually see where they were and then we just went straight for them. We got in behind a rock and noticed there weren't too many Scots Guards about. It was obviously not too healthy a spot. We were looking right down on Port Stanley and it was the first time I'd seen it, and it was quite spectacular really. There we were, sitting on top of this mountain... and... just to our right were the Argentinians who I later learned were having a real go at us with their machine guns. It was very much like a Second World War movie! Apparently the rounds were coming cracking over the top and some were bouncing off rock, but they never got us, thank God.

As we landed Jay jumped off, doing his Audie Murphy bit; we were both high on Adrenalin by then. We landed on this steep slope and before I knew what happened, Jay had gone. He was out and he was loading these injured soldiers, one into the pod and one inside. They were being carried to us by the Scots Guards... All the time the bullets were cracking over the top. I got a false sense of security because I was just sitting there while Jay was doing all the work. The longer we stayed there the closer the bullets got....

We had two casualties, both badly hurt. We managed to get Lieutenant Bob Lawrence into the back to be looked after by Jay, and the other one, with severe chest and gut injuries, we put in the pod. Unfortunately Bob Lawrence was badly placed in the aircraft and had his head, which had a bullet lodged in it, very exposed to the bitter cold air. Jay had this young lad's injured head on his knee. Unbelievably he was still conscious and looking up at Jay and muttering. Jay put his furry hat on Bob Lawrence's head to proctect him, but it flew away. Bob Lawrence then tried to get up, but fell down, so Jay pulled him round a bit and put his body in front of him. We were very determined that this brave lad wasn't going to die because even with injuries of such severity he was still fighting to live.

We didn't bother with stealth. We dived over the side, gave a great cheer, and sunk down the side of this mountain as fast as the Scout would go, and as soon as we got past Goat Ridge, we were safe again! We'd got the casualties out - thankfully they both lived.

When we got back the Scots Guards control station called up on the radio and said, 'Will you go to a different location to pick up some casualties?' I said, 'No, because I've promised call-sign 1 that I'll go back there.'

All the casualties were delivered to the surgeons at Fitzroy which was a twelve minute round trip from Tumbledown, and we went as fast as the Scout would travel. We dropped the casualties off and came straight back and got another two, went back to the hospital... and refuelled....

After three trips to the nasty area we'd taken out six of Jack's [Pipe Sergeant Jack Oakes - at call sign 1] casualties but there were more along the really dangerous side of the ridge - the side of the ridge open to gunfire from Mount William, where there was no protection.... After we'd picked up the last of Jack's casualties we still had a spare space in the back and I was damned if we were going to go back without filling it. So we hopped over the ridge because that was the only way of getting the other casualties out. We had to go along the really nasty side of the mountain and pick them up.

We were nipping in among the rocks, more or less a 'bring out your dead' situation... We nipped back and forward a few times and on one of our trips we saw Major John Kiszely... We got some injured out near him and by now we were getting quite cocky, because we knew there had been a lot of activity trying to knock us down... Jay... was in and out of the helicopter loading the wounded and looking after them in a way like a man possessed. It was quite incredible. Neither of us had slept all night, but then neither had those lads who were fighting and we weren't going to stop until they did.

We went back again to pick up some more casualties. I decided, after consultation, that we would go round the front of Mount Harriet because we'd never been that way. So we went whizzing round the front, going very fast, when over the radio came this voice that sounded like an exasperated mother talking firmly to a naughty boy. He said 'Hello, Two Charlie. This is Zero. You're being shot at - again.' Just as if to say, 'If I get hold of you, I'm going to smack your arse!' So I realized that I'd made a mistake in coming that way. I started to do the old jigging-around bit so it would give us a fair chance of getting missed.... at that time I thought it was a stupid decision of mine - Jay also thought that, but he said something stronger than stupid! But it had saved about two minutes, and, to my mind, two minutes might mean the last gurgling breath of some poor soldier...

As we got closer to Tumbledown I heard over the radio that they'd found a soldier who had been severely injured, and asked me if I would go in again. We'd been knocking the hell out of our aircraft for two hours and they hadn't killed us, so we thought, 'Let's get him out, let's go.' When we got there this poor lad was really in a bad way. He'd obviously got separated from his platoon, got badly shot up, fallen behind some rocks, and had been lying there for some hours before he was found... We got him on board and he was just lying there, like a rag doll covered in gore, looking up at Jay with big, frightened, staring eyes. He was in a terrible state. Although it was freezing cold Jay took off his gloves and held his hand really tight.... All the time he never let go of Jay's hand. Those terrible, big, staring eyes had gone into a look of death. I thought, 'He's never going to make it,' but I'd underestimated just how fast a Scout can go, because that time she flew very fast indeed. When a man's blood is ebbing out of him, every second is vital until the doctors get a needle into him. The decision to take that short cut, hairy as it was, probably saved his life.

But saving him wasn't just speed, I'm sure of that. Indelibly printed in my mind is Jay holding this dying lad's hand. He looked as if he was willing his strength to go from him into the other guy - and this lad did survive. Jay, who was twenty-one at the time, told me later that he was determined that he wouldn't let him die. He said, 'To see a guy the same age as me, with so much life left in him, dying - I couldn't let that happen!'

When we got the lad back, we knew there were no more serious casualties... we trundled back to Tumbledown and landed there, where they told us they'd seen white flags. I remember I jumped down and hugged Jay and the medic. I thought we could relax, but some Argentinians thought otherwise and took a few shots at us. But we knew we'd won and that we could slowly wind down - we'd been on the go for two hours. It had been frantic, equal to sprinting for two hours.... We knew that there had been a lot of activity going on, but we didn't actually know fully how much. I was told a couple of days afterwards that they'd really had a good go at us from Mount William... The lads on the ground told me that they could tell when we arrived because there was a crescendo of gunfire from the front end of the mountain! We weren't totally oblivious to the fact that it was very unhealthy to be there!

About an hour after the war had ended and we had finished taking out all the casualties, I felt drained, and I'm sure Jay did as well, because he'd been far more energetic than I had.... [we] brought up an Argentinian casualty who was obviously in great pain as he'd been badly shot up. He was just an eighteen old lad, of peasant stock. He looked bewildered and terribly afraid afraid.... He was well strapped up, so Jay put him on the litter, but the noise of the helicopter rotors and all the rest of it must have really scared him. He was in a hell of a state, so Jay just leaned over and pinched his cheek and gave it a gentle shake and a pat. This lad's whole face lit up with relief and all the anger and resentment which I felt against him evaporated in an instant.....

The day they surrendered we continued doing our various flying tasks until night came: a pitch-black, horrible moonless night with horizontal snow.... I hoped I wouldn't have to fly, but about 10.30 the Welsh Guards called up on the radio and said they'd got a Guardsman on Sapper Hill who had a perforated ulcer... the doctor had said that if he wasn't brought out, the chances were that he would die. We were on top of the pile so it was our turn to go....

We flew along the coastline and the only way we could tell it was the coast was the luminescence of the waves hitting the shore. We were not only having difficulty seeing but were being buffeted by very strong winds. Then, to make matters worse, our radar altimeter went unserviceable, so we couldn't tell how high we were or where we were above the ground! Somehow, everything seemed against us. The war was over, they'd signed the surrender, yet here we were on this vile night, travelling almost blind.

We flew along and found the area of Sapper Hill, but we couldn't identify it specifically. There were fires all over the place, but we couldn't see the landing lights... We tried to get in for about an hour and eventually we lost radio contact with them.... By now we were experiencing intermittent snowstorms and we were getting a bit weary... I had kept a good mental plot of where we were. But shortly after we'd taken off Jay said to me, 'There's a mountain ahead!' And I said, 'No, there isn't. We're going to miss it.' I thought we were about 200 metres further north than we actually were, but because he couldn't see anything he'd been keeping a damn good mental plot. He turned out to be dead right. Suddenly, he was screaming at me, 'There's a moutain ahead, you cunt!' I slammed on the landing light and coming towards us at an alarming rate was sheer wall-to-wall rock. I took frantic evasive action and somehow - and I'll never know how - I managed to swerve to the side of it.... We headed out to sea for a bit of a breather, because we were both trembling. Jay started to apologize for the terms he'd used to attract my attention to the fact that we were about to get killed. I recall vividly saying, 'Please don't apologize. You were absolutely right. I am exactly as you described me.'

After the war had finished, after going through all that we'd been through together, imagine my stupidity killing us both. In fact, we got back, having not picked up the casualty, and I decided that Jay had had quite enough. He'd just saved our bacon, and I couldn't waste such a partner. Jay had worked himself to the bone; he was absolutely tremendous. In fact, if I'd been the guy who was dishing out the gongs after this little escapade, I'd have given him one the size of a dinner plate, because he really was quite something. He went into that war as a young man of twenty-one and he came out of it a very mature man. I saw him change from a youth to a man in a matter of minutes. He was terribly brave and I shall never forget him standing on the skid at 140 miles an hour in a horrid gale of freezing cold, sub-zero temperatures, looking after those poor wounded who were almost dead. He did it and he did a fantastic job.'

Sam Drennan was awarded the D.F.C., and Rigg Mentioned in Despatches for their gallantry at Tumbledown. Rigg was jointly awarded the Ferranti Trophy for 1982 and went on to serve another two years in the Army Air Corps. In 1988 the film Tumbledown was released, in which the plot centred around Bob Lawrence (played by Colin Firth), the Guards Officer whom Drennan and Rigg saved.

Rigg's M.I.D. is unique to the Army Air Corps for the campaign.

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