Achilles at Breaking Point: The Belize Crisis 1977 – Part 1

It is June 1977, a year the United Kingdom will mainly remember for celebrations, street parties and widespread community events as the Queen’s Silver Jubilee gets into full swing.  At the same time the Royal Navy is completing final preparations for the Queen’s review of the Fleet at Spithead — a ceremonial parade of power, pageantry, and pride; 150 warships lining the Solent for a Royal inspection. 

While the spotlight was on Portsmouth, another drama was unfolding far from British shores.   In Central America, Guatemala was once again rattling sabres, as it had in 1972 and 1975, over its claim to Belize (British Honduras), as independence drew near.  On the 13^th June 1977 the Guatemalan government declared the Army’s preparedness to “reclaim” Belize by force of arms.  The rhetoric was getting stronger, more belligerent, and intelligence suggested that an armed move was imminent, that the new nation might not survive without a prior settlement of the territorial dispute.

Britain at the time had a small but capable military contingent in Belize: Army personnel and special forces, including the Royal Navy’s Special Boat Squadron.  In view of the upsurge in anti-British feeling in Guatemala, steps were being taken to reinforce the local garrison, including a greater naval presence.  In early June ’77 orders were given for HMS Achilles to sail for the Gulf of Mexico and take up station off the Belizean coast.

For the crew, the order came with mixed emotions. Only just returning from service in the North Atlantic, personnel were looking to spend time ashore with family and friends. The idea of rest had barely been entertained when the order came: sail again, and quickly.

Over the coming weeks the pressure would fall heavy on the engineering branch. All plant, boilers and generators, had been shut down and the ship was kept alive through her umbilical connections to shore supplies.  It was now time to bring the ship’s systems back to life in readiness for a long deployment at sea.  As stores and munitions started to flow onto the ship, the engineers commenced the process of breathing life into cold plant.

Coming next, the morning the ship is due to sail, the Achilles is struck by disaster, the ship falls into darkness as her systems fail and shut down…..