The interview that finally brought down Prince Andrew was recorded for BBC Newsnight in 2019, and one segment made the world stop and stare. It was the part where Virginia Giuffre claimed he sweated heavily, and he flatly denied that he even sweated at all. Fumbling for an excuse, he made a remark that he hadn’t sweated since suffering an overdose of adrenaline during the 1982 Falklands War, when he said he was shot at. I decided to examine that claim by looking at Andrew’s service in the Falklands.
Was he really shot at? Did he really suffer an overdose of adrenaline? After all, he returned from that conflict at the age of 22, hailed as a hero. It was, in many ways, the high point of his life before his long descent into scandal.
Service in the Royal Navy had long been a tradition for British princes. Andrew’s father, Prince Philip, had served throughout World War II as a naval officer. He had seen action during the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941 aboard HMS Valiant, receiving a mention in dispatches. Later, he was first lieutenant aboard the destroyer HMS Wallace during the invasion of Sicily, under intense attack by German aircraft.
In 1945, Philip was present in Tokyo Bay aboard the destroyer HMS Whelp, witnessing the Japanese surrender. Andrew’s older brother, Prince Charles, served in the Royal Navy for five years. He served on the destroyer HMS Norfolk in 1971-72, then the frigates HMS Minerva and HMS Jupiter. In 1974, he qualified as a naval helicopter pilot, serving with 845 Naval Air Squadron aboard the carrier HMS Hermes.
He then spent ten months commanding the coastal minehunter HMS Bronington. Andrew himself joined the Royal Navy in 1979, training as a naval helicopter pilot and signing on for twelve years of service. He also completed the Royal Marines All Arms Commando course, earning the Green Beret. Commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in September 1981, he had just completed his helicopter training when the Falklands War broke out.
He joined Number 82 Naval Air Squadron as a Sea King co-pilot aboard the carrier HMS Invincible. On the 2nd of April 1982, Argentina invaded the British overseas territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Britain only had two operational aircraft carriers, Invincible and Hermes, and both would be required to join the huge task force assembled on the orders of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to steam 8,000 miles south and recapture those islands. Andrew, however, presented a problem for the Navy and the government.
Today, Andrew is eighth in line to the throne, but in 1982, he was second after his brother, the Prince of Wales. The authorities were very nervous about placing Andrew in harm’s way in what could become a major shooting war due to his position and status. Attempts were made to give him a desk job for the duration of the conflict. Andrew, however, was determined to go with his squadron and made representations to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The Queen insisted that her son remain with his ship. So it was that Andrew was just one of many air crew steaming south on the carriers, a point made by multiple Falklands War veterans regarding the task force, who all say there were no passengers in the Falklands. As far as can be ascertained via official reports and the memories of those who served alongside him, Andrew performed well. One of the Falklands War’s top British Sea Harrier aces, Commander Nigel “Sharkey” Ward, described Andrew as an excellent pilot and a very promising officer.
Andrew’s role as a Sea King pilot was often to act as a missile decoy against Argentine Exocets, which were much feared by the task force. The Sea King would hover close to the ship it was protecting, and the radar on the French-made Exocet missile could not resolve targets between the ship and the helicopter. They appeared to the missile as a single target. If the helicopter was not too high, the missile guidance system would aim for the center of its apparent target, and the British hoped the missile would pass between the ship and the helicopter.
These missions were flown in relays 24 hours a day in an attempt to protect ships of the task force, and Andrew and other crews would fly four-hour sorties in this manner. The destruction of the destroyer HMS Sheffield by one such air-launched Exocet on the 4th of May 1982 was witnessed by Prince Andrew, who was airborne in his Sea King at the time. He commented later, “For the first 10 minutes after the Sheffield, I think one really didn’t know which way to turn or what to do. I know where I was and I was very frightened then.
” Sheffield was the first Royal Navy vessel sunk in action since World War II, with 20 dead and up to 63 injured among her crew. The Sea King H5s of Number 82 Naval Air Squadron performed many tasks during the Falklands War, including the aforementioned Exocet missile decoy, casualty evacuation, transport, anti-submarine warfare duties, and search and rescue. In 166 days at sea, the squadron chalked up 4,700 hours airborne, setting a world record for continuous carrier operations. Prince Andrew had a close shave during operations to rescue men from the cargo ship Atlantic Conveyor.
The ship was carrying RAF and Royal Navy helicopters south to reinforce the task force when it was hit and destroyed by two Argentine Exocet missiles on the 25th of May 1982, the same day that the destroyer HMS Coventry was sunk by bombs dropped by Argentine aircraft. Prince Andrew and his crew were airborne and witnessed the missile strikes and the huge explosions that flung debris up to a quarter of a mile from the wreck. A British 4. 5-inch shell narrowly avoided striking Andrew’s Sea King helicopter in the chaos and confusion of the Argentine air attacks.
He remembered the moment vividly. He looked out over his right side and saw something coming toward him, but he didn’t want to worry his crew, so he said nothing. He remembered turning the aircraft to the left and seeing a glow of orange light coming toward him. He assumed it was the heat of a shell.
It was the one moment he got his lifetime’s worth of adrenaline rush. It gave him a nasty little white fleck on the side of his head, visible only when he cut his hair. He described the feeling as similar to a risky overtake in a car that gives you a hot flush, but doubled, add ten, and then do it again. That’s how hot and sweaty it became inside his immersion suit at that particular moment.
Andrew’s helicopter is listed in some sources as the second to arrive at the scene. The first was a Wessex, originally on board the ship, which had flown away on another mission and returned immediately to help. Andrew and his crew began winching survivors aboard from the water. All of this activity was going on as active Argentine air attacks continued and other vessels in the task force had already been hit or damaged.
Andrew rescued many of the 139 survivors of the Atlantic Conveyor, with ten of the crew perishing in the inferno. More action followed for Andrew and his crew during another horrific air attack on British ships, the disaster at Bluff Cove. Argentine jets caught two British landing ships that were packed with members of the First Battalion, the Welsh Guards. On the 8th of June 1982, Argentine A-4 Skyhawks hit the ships RFA Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram.
Sir Galahad was struck by three 500-pound bombs. The explosions and fires killed 48 men, including 32 members of the Welsh Guards, with dozens seriously burned or injured. Two bombs also hit the Sir Tristram, killing two sailors. Andrew’s helicopter was one of those helping to rescue survivors from the Sir Galahad, as every available helicopter was immediately rushed to the site to winch men to safety or use the rotor’s downwash to help push life rafts away from the burning and exploding ship.
Andrew returned from the Falklands War as a very high-profile serviceman, lauded by the press for having done his duty and done it well under very difficult circumstances. He was awarded, along with 35,000 others who served in the Falklands War, the South Atlantic Medal in 1982. He remained in the Royal Navy until 2001, when he retired as a senior naval pilot with the rank of commander. He was later given the honorary service rank of Vice Admiral in 2015.
This honorary rank was formally rescinded in 2025 in the wake of the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein scandal. However, he has retained his Falklands War campaign medal despite having all of his other titles and orders of chivalry removed. His Falklands War service has never been criticized, and he is seen by veterans groups to have done his duty. I would argue it was the high point of his life.
He returned a 22-year-old hero, then spent the next four decades on an ignominious path to eventual complete disgrace and perhaps even prison time, bringing dishonor on the royal family and also the country that he served honorably and some would say bravely during the Falklands War.
