In April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a cluster of small, windswept isles over 8,000 miles from the UK. A self-governing, overseas territory of the United Kingdom, much of Britain’s general public had never heard of these islands. This last fact was exploited to some degree for entertainment purposes by journalists who would ask random people in the street if they knew where the Falkland Islands were. Most who answered put the isles somewhere near Shetland or Orkney in the far north of Scotland. And while that may have been the public perception, the government was adamant that, remote or not, the islands were British territory and had just been invaded by a hostile force intent on occupation. A military task force was quickly assembled and the might of the British Armed Forces was sent 8,000 miles across the globe to reclaim the islands from the foreign invaders.
As well as the might of the UK’s conventional military, other, less obvious assets were deployed to assist in the intervention. GCHQ, the national spy agency responsible for hoovering up Signals Intelligence, SIGINT, went into overdrive as it sought to break Argentine communications in order to identify the enemy’s intentions and capabilities. But there was another element assisting the British that, for obvious reasons, was not revealed until decades later.
Spies.
Individuals recruited and tasked to gather information on the enemy and report their observations back to London. A very dangerous game considering these acts would take place in enemy territory. Behind the lines, so to speak. Even as I write this, most people are probably forming an image of a man, possibly bearded, secreted in a bush and observing Argentinian troop movements through a pair of binoculars. And that would be right. There are several examples of this that have made their way into the public domain in the years following the end of the Falklands War.
But here, I want to discuss something a little bit different.
Ruth Morton was 53 years old when her sister Minna, an accountant with the British Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay, asked if she could discuss something of the utmost importance with Ruth. Intrigued, Ruth agreed and listened intently as her sister told her that she was secretly working with British Intelligence to gain information on Argentine military capabilities. And while Minna was doing as much as she could, there was a lot of work to do, far more than one person could acheive. Knowing that she needed someone she could trust implicitly, Minna instantly thought of Ruth. Now her sister knew everything, would she be interested in helping? There was no hesitation. Ruth was on board immediately.
Both sisters were quickly relocated to Argentina with a solid cover story to explain why two Uruguayan citizens with British ancestry had moved to Argentina. In truth, the area of north east Argentina they had relocated to had a long history of cross border movements of people and trade but still, there was a war on and all incomers would have been viewed with more interest than usual. Ruth’s task was to conduct surveillance and report her observations on Argentinia’s Mar del Plata Naval base.
Ruth found that getting anywhere close to the base was difficult, the security status obviously raised due to the war with Britain. Undeterred, she rented a small house some distance away but which allowed her to travel to the main bus terminal which was close to the naval base. Ruth spent days discreetly searching the area for a location that would enable her to observe the comings and goings of the base. Finally, she found an abandoned property in a state of neglect but which was sited on high ground and with a clear view of the submarine section of the base.
Day and night, Ruth observed the activities of the submarine section and carefully noted the details. To remain undetected, she crawled under the floorboards of the abandoned house to a position which afforded her a clear view of her target. But the challenges of observing the Argentine Navy’s activities were only half the battle; Ruth also needed to report what she was seeing back to British Intelligence. This involved conducting defensive surveillance to ensure she wasn’t being followed when travelling to or leaving the property. She did this by taking several buses to get her well outside the city where she would then call an Anglo-Argentine contact. For whatever reason, Ruth did not fully trust this contact but had to work with what she had. This contact would then provide her with another telephone number which Ruth would call and speak to an individual with a British accent.
Ruth carried out this activity for months. Months of crawling into a cold, uncomfortable observation post in the Southern Hemisphere winter. Months of taking numerous buses in and out of the city to ensure she wasn’t followed. Months of risking, with every phone call, Argentinian Intelligence laying in wait for her. Months of operating alone, other than the voices at the other end of her phone calls.
Oh, and the capybara.
Ruth stated that one of the more surreal aspects of her work was when, at the beginning of her surveillance operation, a capybara showed up beside the abandoned house. While it couldn’t or wouldn’t follow her into the structure of the house, it remained close and Ruth found herself grateful for the companionship the animal offered in lieu of any human contact. Particularly when, after some weeks, her Anglo-Argentine contact disappeared without a word. Ruth had never fully trusted the individual but was now concerned that he could be working for the Argentinians and expose her and her operation. Unsure of what to do, Ruth nonetheless continued with her mission, reporting her observations direct to the British voice at the end of the telephone. Each day and night, she greeted her capybara companion and crawled into her cramped, freezing position, watching the activities of the naval base.
One evening, Ruth watched 3 submarines move out of the base. This was unusual activity and she knew she had to report it as soon as possible. Risking everything, she made haste to get to a telephone and alert British Intelligence of what she had observed. When the submarines did not return to the base, she knew they had been deployed to attack the British Task Force. Ruth hoped that her report had been in time to mitigate the strike.
Without her Anglo-Argentine contact, Ruth received no money or supplies to sustain her mission. Being a creative and resilient character, she knitted hats during her down time and embroidered Mar del Plata on the front and sold these via a porter at a local hotel. These meagre means at least allowed her to afford some food to keep her going. But while resilient and determined, she could not shake the feeling that the disappearance of her Anglo-Argentine contact might still bring problems to her door.
And she was right.
One midwinter night, without warning, a massive bang struck her position, very close to where she lay hidden beneath the floorboards. Unsure of what had happened, she remained still, waiting for the best part of an hour before moving. Adrenalin pumping, Ruth crawled back out of the old house and saw in the ambient light, the remains of her capybara companion. She determined that the animal had been shot from one of the boats patrolling the sea around the naval base. Ruth doubted that they had randomly spotted a capybara moving on the high ground and decided to kill it. More likely, she reasoned, there was some report of her operating in the area and when the observers on the patrol boat spotted movement, they may have believed it was her and fired. As they’d only fired once, Ruth assessed they believed they’d killed the observer.
It was time to leave.
Ruth conducted a more careful extraction than previously, suspicious of every single glance or look from strangers she encountered on the buses or in the street. On contacting British Intelligence and appraising them of what had happened, Ruth was directed to abandon the post and return to Montevideo. Her mission was over. British Intelligence could not say with any confidence whether or not the Argentinians believed she had been killed but it was better to be safe than sorry. This was also during the first week of June when the conflict was coming to an end, so her work was practically done.
Ruth returned to Montevideo and picked up her life without fanfare or recognition. The Task Force was successful and defeated the Argentine military, freeing the islands and returning them to the locals. Soldiers, sailors, and Air Force personnel returned to the UK and were lauded as heroes. A 53 year old woman who spent months of a freezing winter laying under floorboards of a derelict house spying on Argentinian submarines carried on with her life as though she’d merely taken a day trip to the beach.
It was decades later that Ruth’s story slowly began to emerge. The story of a 53 year old woman carrying out a high risk spying mission for British Intelligence while behind enemy lines. And all alone except for the company of a capybara. A Labrador-sized rodent with charm and personality. That was killed in the belief that it was a British spy carrying out surveillance on an Argentine Naval base.
Sometimes, I will sit and struggle to find something new and interesting to write about. Not often, but sometimes. Then I’ll pick up a thread of something like this, a story that sounds like a work of fiction but, after some solid research, turns out to be as the cliché goes, a lot stranger than fiction. But absolutely true.
I can easily see this story being turned into a movie as it has all the elements already in place for a successful blockbuster. A secret mission. Operating behind enemy lines. A strong female lead. A betrayal by a contact. An attempt to kill the spy. A final extraction to safety.
Oh, and not forgetting the capybara.
James