The Falklands War diary, 25 years later.

[GoneToTheCanner]

A lot of the mines had shifted from the action of the movement of sand and soil and were no longer confined to the boundaries of the declared minefields. They were also a nasty Italian mine which is designed to be difficult to defuse and resistant to explosive or vehicular demining.

[na grohmiti]

Quite an achievement, given the terrain, and conditions, and the haphazard manner in which they were laid by Argentina.

[spider]

Falkland Islands are now officially free of landmines -

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/f...uk-funded-team

[GoneToTheCanner]

A friend of a friend was one of the Harrier pilots down there who shot down a Skyhawk, one of three fleeing a raid. He was chasing the A-4, which was jinking wildly to evade and the Harrier couldn't get a lock with his missiles, so opened fire with his 30mm cannon. Between the A-4s manouvering and the turbulence from flying at low level, his shells were not hitting the A-4. He knew that he was running out of fuel and shells, as he could clearly see the rounds blasting the heather and he was about to give up firing the cannon and pull up for a missile shot when, at the very last second, the A-4 turned and ran right into a short burst of 30mm and immediately caught fire. The Harrier pilot instantly pulled up and broke away and the Skyhawk hit the ground and blew up, with no chance of the Argentinian ejecting. My friend said that the incident stuck with his friend right to this day and that the pilot was always mortified at having killed a man,even though it was a very intense war and he had fired at other aircraft and ground targets.

[ropebag]

Also had the Navy pilots and Air Force pilots talked with each other some things might have gone down differently.

Catastrophic, poisonous inter-service rivalry within the Argentine government was a significant (if by no means the only) driver for the invasion of the FI in the first place - if the various Argentine services had had good working relationships with each other the whole situation might never have arisen.

[EUFighter]

Also had the Navy pilots and Air Force pilots talked with each other some things might have gone down differently.

[na grohmiti]

I realised over the weekend that the Falklands war of 1982 is as long ago now to us, as D Day in 1944 was to us back in June 1982.
It's fair to say the tactics that brought a British victory on land in the Falklands had changed little from the same tactics that were used in 1944, with slight differences in weapons used.
Air and Sea may have been changed more with use of missiles both in attack and defence but the Land combat was still just men with rifles (the US were using self loading rifles in 1944). The Argies had decent night vision equipment, put to good use by their snipers, but otherwise it was stone by stone grenade and bullet.

[spider]

In yesterday's Telegraph(I think), An article showed the Falklands medals of a cook turned gunner who was credited with the destruction of a Skyhawk (with a GPMG) being sold at auction for a record amount. The man died in around 2004.

regards
GttC

I think he was a NAAFI employee on one of the warships. Ex Army and ex instructor on the GPMG.

Edited to add; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John...NAAFI_manager)

[na grohmiti]

https://falklandislanderwardiary.wordpress.com/blog-2/
This is a blog of one of the Island's firemen, detailing the daily disturbances caused by the invasion in 1982. An excellent insight into the real impact of conflict on the ordinary man on the street.

[hptmurphy]

He looks well, and quite healthy for a man who lost 42% of his brain

Most officers work with less!

[GoneToTheCanner]

In yesterday's Telegraph(I think), An article showed the Falklands medals of a cook turned gunner who was credited with the destruction of a Skyhawk (with a GPMG) being sold at auction for a record amount. The man died in around 2004.

regards
GttC

[RoyalGreenJacket]

Tumbledown - the original 1988 movie is on BBC4 tonight at 2200hrs.

[GoneToTheCanner]

Lawrence did say that he had said "isn't this fun" earlier but was not dumb enough to silhouette himself, as he pointed out to the director of the film, who decided to overrule his objections anyway. The Argentinian snipers were a particular menace, having night vision and good sniping scopes. One of them shot five British before being shot himself.

regards
GttC

[danno]

Do you have a list of all Falks MM recipients.

[Goldie fish]

Was pleased to see former Lt Robert Lawrence MC on BBC4 the other night, speaking about his experiences on tumbledown, and the film that was made about him(Starring Colin Firth), and keen to point out he did not silhouette himself on a hilside with both rifles pointed in the air shouting "isn't this fun" before being shot by an Argie sniper-as was depicted infamously in the movie.
He looks well, and quite healthy for a man who lost 42% of his brain.