The Falklands War diary, 25 years later.

[na grohmiti]

Interesting series of Podcasts about the Falklands war, with some amazing interviews, for example the leader of the SBS team who were observing Argentine movements on Falklands, who came south aboard HMS Conqueror, and had to take over crew roles while on the journey south.

Battleground: The Falklands War - Hosted by Goalhanger Podcasts (acast.com)

[na grohmiti]

It was quite revealing. The Bluff cove shambles was quite interesting. For many years after The 5 Brigade Commander was being blamed for what happened, however those in 5 Brigade knew who's fault it really was. Interestingly, Wilson was the only one of the Falkland Generals not knighted for his role in the Falklands. Goes without saying though, an Army Brig Gen does not have the power to decide to send 2 civilian crewed LSLs, loaded with troops & vital stores, to unload in daylight, within sight of enemy positions, without either Air Cover or Naval support. The Plan had been to do it with either or both RN LPDs, and transfer everyone ashore in LCU and LCVP, but someone decided against it, as on an earlier transfer, the Guards had not done well, and were rendered combat ineffective.
Unit rivalry almost cost them that war, as units raced to cross objectives and reach Stanley first.

[Archimedes]

Tonight on Channel 4Falklands War: The Untold Story
”On the 40th anniversary of the conflict, senior commanders and ground troops reveal how a series of mistakes nearly cost Britain its hard-won victory over Argentina in the South Atlantic”

[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.