Cdr Andy Johnson, commander of the submarine Onyx for varied Falklands War missions – obituary
Commander Andy Johnson, who has died aged 76, commanded the submarine Onyx on covert missions during the Falklands War.
When the Argentines invaded the Islands at the beginning of April 1982, Johnson little thought that his slow, diesel-engine boat, which would take a month to reach the islands, would be needed. On April 18, however, he was ordered to sail from Plymouth to Portsmouth to collect stores for war and to be fitted with a five-man chamber for deploying the marines of the Special Boat Service.
On May 16 Onyx reached Ascension Island, where Johnson conducted the first replenishment at sea from a tanker for more than 40 years, and on May 31 he entered San Carlos Water in East Falkland. “We found the passage a trial, particularly after we left the tropics and entered the South Atlantic winter. Surfaced at night to travel faster: was cold, wet and uncomfortable. Dived in the day: was quieter, but slower, and it seemed we would be travelling forever.”
Onyx was needed for Operation Kettledrum, a planned assault on Puerto Deseado on the South American mainland, a suspected base for Argentine aircraft carrying Exocet missiles. The operation was fraught with difficulties which Johnson called “unanswered questions”, not least poorly charted, shallow waters and the need to launch inflatable dinghies perhaps 20 miles offshore.
Before sailing from Portsmouth, Onyx had laid a false deck of canned food and stores throughout the boat, in some places reducing the deckhead from 6 to 4 feet; even the shower was filled with stores and the 68-man crew were unable to wash except by dipping in a bucket. Yet when the crew was augmented by 16 Royal Marines, Johnson’s leadership ensured that there was no friction, and his visitors were soon integrated.
Preparations for Operation Kettledrum included “wet drills” – surfacing, inflating dinghies on the casing, diving and surfacing again quickly to recover the marines. Kettledrum was cancelled, however, when it was realised that the Argentines had expended the last of their missiles and that, thanks to the efforts of the British secret service, there was little prospect of them acquiring more.
Instead Onyx was dispatched to a more important target: the Argentines were suspected of having a reconnaissance team on Weddell Island in the West Falklands. There, on June 5, the marines were landed successfully at night and no enemy was found. However Onyx struck an uncharted pinnacle which damaged the bow shutters on two of her torpedo tubes.
Thereafter the submarine spent two weeks as an early-warning radar picket off West Falkland. There was one last, sad duty: to torpedo and sink the burned-out hulk of RFA Sir Galahad, which had been bombed off Bluff Cove earlier in June, before Onyx began her homeward voyage on July 17.
She reached Portsmouth on August 18, having completed a patrol of 117 days and covered some 20,000 miles.
There was one minor miracle: one of her torpedoes had been “cracked like an egg” inside its tube during the collision off Weddell Island. When Onyx was docked in Portsmouth, it was found that the weapon was primed and could have exploded at any time during the 8,000 mile passage home. At dead of night, while the dockyard was asleep and cross-Channel ferries were stopped, Johnson and two volunteers used drills and crowbars to remove the warhead.
He was appointed MBE.
In 1995 Johnson contributed a chapter to John Winton’s anthology, Signals from the Falklands, in which he was reticent about the detail of Onyx’s operations. The public had to wait until the official history, The Silent Deep (2015), and Iain Ballantyne’s insider account, The Deadly Trade (2018), were published to appreciate the extent of Johnson’s achievements.
Andrew Philip Johnson was born on September 20 1947 in Sudbury, Suffolk, where his father was a bank manager. From Culford School, Suffolk, where he had won a scholarship, he went on to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
He began his naval career as a logistician and served as a junior officer in the submarine Artemis (1970-71), as careers liaison officer in the East Midlands (1971-72), as captain’s secretary in the frigate Charybdis (1972-74) and at the new entry training establishment, HMS Ganges, at Shotley in Suffolk (1974-76).
From 1977 to 1979 Johnson was supply officer of the nuclear-powered submarine Superb, where a strong team conducting special operations in the Arctic was led by the future Vice-Admiral Geoff Biggs as captain and the future Commodore Doug Littlejohns as second-in-command. Johnson proved to be a natural leader whose quiet demeanour, mischievous grin, and complete unflappability marked him out as a potential commanding officer.
Littlejohns persuaded Johnson to apply to become an executive officer; Biggs persuaded the submarine hierarchy to accept Johnson, and by 1980 he was on the “perisher”, the make-or-break course for submarine command.
The future Rear-Admiral John Lang, teacher on the course, made no allowance for Johnson’s relative inexperience and was pleased to find that he found the course no more difficult than others more practised.
He showed great calmness under pressure, and one exercise, planning and executing the launch and recovery of a Special Boat Service team in pitch blackness off the Isle of Arran, was particularly well done and augured well for the Falklands War.
After the conflict, Johnson proved himself to be a highly professional and much liked second-in-command of the nuclear-powered submarine Swiftsure (1982-84). Promoted to commander, he spent three years on exchange in the US Navy, but having commanded a submarine in the most trying circumstances, there were no more challenges for Johnson, and he retired in 1989.
He began a new career in British Rail, rising to senior management on the Great Western Railway from 1994 to 1997. He also supported the Groundwork Trust in Plymouth.
Moving to South Africa, Johnson founded Change Partners in Johannesburg, a successful executive coaching firm. He was also chairman of Bona Lesedi, providing daycare for disabled babies and children in Diepsloot, a sprawling settlement outside Johannesburg.
Sailing, rugby, cricket, squash and, in old age, lawn bowls were his sports and he enjoyed woodwork, hiking, birdwatching, opera and singing. Otherwise, he was an unassuming and committed family man.
He married Di Gilbert of Kenilworth, Cape Town, in 1973. She survives him with their son and daughter.
Commander Andy Johnson, born September 20 1947, died October 17 2023
