The Battle of Goose Green and the BBC committing Treason.

I ran across this tidbit and did a bit of digging and got the  Article, Go to page 3 of the Article  and read it.  I had blogged before about the Falkland War several times,  I was in high school and I thought the British had a better claim to the island than the Argentinians did.  I still have that opinion now.  I had made the statement that if Argentina had waited 7 or 8 more months, Britain could have not mounted a force to retake the island, the new austerity measures that were being considered would have grounded her VSTOL aircraft Carriers HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible.  Another charge against the BBC was his autobiographical account of the Falklands War, Admiral Woodward blamed the BBC World Service for disclosing information that led the Argentines to change the retarding devices on the bombs. The World Service reported the lack of detonations after receiving a briefing on the matter from a Ministry of Defence official. He describes the BBC as being  In more concerned with being "fearless seekers after truth" than with the lives of British servicemen.

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The Battle of Goose Green in 1982 was part of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina. It was especially notable for two things – the high casualty rate and how the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) committed treason.

The Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands are British territory lying much closer to Antarctica than they are to Britain.

They are also closer to Argentina – which is why the Argentines claim them despite everyone else saying otherwise.

On April 2, 1982, they decided to do something about it by invading the Falkland Islands. The following day, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands were next – which made everyone go, “Huh!?”

The combined territory comes to barely 1,507 square miles. Being so close to Antarctica they barely habitable.

About the only people not scratching their heads were the British and the Argentines.

To understand this, here is a quick history lesson. Various European nations claimed them until Britain came along in 1690 and said, “Mine!” Spain did the same in 1713, but to make a long story short, their empire collapsed.

Among the territories they lost was Argentina. Though no longer Spanish, Argentines believe they are the successors of Spain’s claim. They were content to let things be till 1982. So why then?

It was because their military government needed a distraction. The country’s economy sucked. Ditto with its human rights record.

Solution? Distract the people with patriotism and do so before the upcoming so-called elections. But how? Hola, Falklands War!

While Britain was no push-over, the Argentine government gambled on three things: the islands have no strategic value; they have virtually no resources, and they are home to only a tiny population of mostly Brits.

Goose Green

The government also considered the British economy. It was not doing too well in the early 1980s, so the hope was that the Brits would be too distracted and too tight-fisted to do anything about an invasion.

Sure, they would scream and stamp their feet, but that would be it.

The Argentines were not at all worried about the UN. The country was constantly being targeted for its human rights violations, so what was another ding from the international community? People would simply get used to it – just like they did with Tibet.

It did not turn out that way, of course. Britain responded quickly with amphibious landings in San Carlos Water on East Falkland on May 21.

Most of the Argentine forces were around Port Stanley, some 50 miles to the east, with others ensconced at Goose Green and Darwin – armed with machine guns, 35 mm cannons, mortars, and artillery.

Goose Green could be ignored. It is a tiny community in Lafonia in East Falkland along the Choiseul Sound. It was also too far away to threaten the ongoing landings at San Carlos – which were not going well.

                                                      Colonel Piaggi of the Argentinians. 

The British had lost a number of ships from aerial attacks, so they needed to fortify the positions they already held. What was meant to be a counter-invasion to take back the Falklands, had instead become a defensive maneuver.

While the Argentine government became popular with its people, things were different in Britain. Some of its population felt the Falklands were not worth fighting and dying for. Therefore to rally the nay-sayers, a bit of PR was needed.

British politicians were particularly worried because the UN Security Council was already talking about a cease-fire. If passed, British troops would be stuck as time and geography were not on their side. All Argentina had to do, on the other hand, was wait.

Britain could not. If it was to take the Falklands back quickly, it had to go on the offensive.

Suddenly, Goose Green looked attractive

                                                                       

                                                                Colonel H. Jones
              

If Britain could take that, it would have access to a large swathe of East Falkland. A ceasefire then would still be annoying, but at least Britain would have a bigger slice of the island with which to annoy Argentina.

Enter Brigadier Julian Howard Atherden Thompson, commander of 3 Commander Brigade. His job was to take on the Argentines around Goose Green and Darwin.

The area was protected by Task Force Mercedes under Lieutenant-Colonel Ítalo Ángel Piaggi, made up of the 12^th Infantry Regiment (IR12) and 3^rd Company. Defended by 20 mm Rheinmetalls, two radar-guided Oerlikon 35 mm anti-aircraft guns, and a battery of three OTO Melara Mod 56 105 mm pack Howitzers, Thompson’s job would not be easy.

To make it even more challenging, his men could not be flown in. Most of their helicopters had been aboard the Atlantic Conveyor – which was destroyed by Argentine missiles on May 25.

The plan, therefore, was to land troops at San Carlos Bay and have them walk for two days until they reached Goose Green.

Cemetery north of Darwin where most Argentinian casualties of Goose Green are buried

On May 26, the 2^nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (2 Para) under Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Jones started to do just that. The Argentines were in for a surprise!

Or so Jones thought until he turned on his radio.

He had tuned into the BBC World Service, which was happily telling the world that the 2^nd Para was poised to launch a surprise attack on Goose Green. So much for surprises!

Memorial to 2 Para Group, west of Darwin Photo Credit

Now what!? The 2 Para knew they were greatly outnumbered. Their only advantage lay in surprise, but that clearly went the way of the dinosaurs.

After a healthy round of cussing, Jones vowed to sue the BBC for treason. Ditto with the War Cabinet. Oh, and the entire Thatcher government.

Piaggi was listening to the same broadcast and shook his head in disbelief. Did the British really think he was that stupid!? Hah!

They were obviously going to attack somewhere else and were using the announcement as a diversion. So he told his men to relax.

The spot where Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Jones died, now a memorial 

They were still doing just that when 2 Para attacked. Jones had gambled that Piaggi would think as he did and it paid off.

Piaggi surrendered on May 29 – which, by an interesting coincidence, happens to be Argentine National Army Day.

Thus ended the Battle of Goose Green but it came at a hefty price.

Jones and 17 other Britons died at the cost of 45 to 55 Argentines.

Back in Britain, there was fury over the incident as politicians were rightly accused of wasting British lives for a propaganda stunt. 

I have Blogged several times in the past about the Falkland War, it was the first war to me that I really paid attention to.  I was a sophomore in High school and also in JROTC and we used the lessons of the Falklands as lessons, especially with logistics and what is called "The Intangibles" in this case morale and fighting spirit.  By all rights the British should have lost the war, they were operating on shoestring logistics string, their military was worn out by years of neglect because the British government had other priorities rather than their NATO commitment.  It was a malaise that had affected all of the west.  The United States had started to rearm under President Reagan after years of neglect and Britain had just elected Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady", and she was trying to bring back the British after years of failed socialist policies. 

The Falklands War is looked back on by many as a foregone conclusion. Lasting only ten weeks, and it resulted in a clear British victory. But this war between Argentina and Britain could have gone either way. As Major-General John Jeremy Moore, commander of the British land forces in the war, put it, “It was a very close-run thing.”

Before the war, Britain was reducing its commitment to the Falklands and nearby South Atlantic territories. Many Falkland Islanders had lost their British citizenship in the 1981 British Nationality Act. More important militarily, British naval power was being withdrawn from the region. Ice-breaking ship HMS Endurance, the only Royal Navy ship permanently stationed in the South Atlantic, was about to be scrapped. Wider cuts, including the impending loss of two aircraft carriers, indicated a retreat by Britain’s navy.

Argentina had a huge advantage in manpower. During the initial invasion, the Argentines committed 600 ground troops against a British garrison of 85 Royal Marines, 25 members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF), and around a dozen retired members of the FIDF.

With their homeland so much closer, the Argentines were more easily able to get troops into the combat zone.

HMS Sheffield, which was sunk during the conflict. Nathalmad – CC BY 3.0

Faced with overwhelming odds, the British put up little defense. Sir Rex Hunt, the British Governor, negotiated a surrender within 12 hours of the invasion. Though a group of Royal Marines initially remained uncaptured, they destroyed their weapons and surrendered rather than risk civilian lives in a fruitless fight.
In less than a day, the Argentines had gained control of the islands, and so the advantage of holding defensive positions.

Given the distance from Britain to the Falklands, the Chiefs of Staff of both the British Army and the Royal Air Force believed that retaking the islands was unrealistic. Lack of political confidence could have led to an instant Argentine victory, if not for the strong views of others, in particular, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

French-built Super Étendard of the Argentine Naval Aviation. Martin Otero – CC BY 2.5

The Falklands War was enough of a conventional conflict for bombing raids to be important, against both enemy ships and land-based targets. Again, geography gave the advantage to the Argentine forces. Bombers could reach the Falklands from Argentina and hit their targets in a single run. Reaching the Falklands from the UK involved a complex refueling operation, in which around a dozen aircraft set out for every one that got as far as the target.

The British forces suffered several setbacks. An attempt to retake South Georgia, another of the islands seized by Argentina, led to failure on 21 April. Elite troops were landed, but had to be picked up again due to extreme weather, and two helicopters were lost in the operation.
Plans to attack the air base at Tierra del Fuego, on the Argentine mainland, were abandoned before they even began, and a similar mission led to a British helicopter crew surrendering themselves to Chilean authorities.

HMS Antelope smoking after being hit, 23 May 1982.

In the Falklands, the British Royal Navy suffered its first losses of ships since the Second World War, nearly four decades earlier. The HMS Sheffield was lost on 10 May, HMS Ardent on 21 May, HMS Antelope on 24 May, HMS Coventry and MV Atlantic Conveyor, a cargo vessel carrying helicopters and other important supplies, on 25 May. The loss of the Atlantic Conveyor was particularly significant, as it forced the army to advance on Port Stanley by foot.

Superior morale helped bring the British victory, but even in this, the sides were closer than expected. When the British attacked Mount Longdon on the night of 11 June, they expected little resistance due to poor morale.
The spirit of the Argentine defenders was strong, and instead of an easy victory the attackers faced a grueling twelve-hour battle, from which Brigadier Julian Thompson almost called the retreat.
The war was fierce and brutal, often fought at close quarters with bayonets and grenades. During the fighting at Two Sisters, Private Oscar Ismael Poltronieri held up a whole British company with gunfire, for which he won the Heroic Valour in Combat Cross, Argentina’s top medal for courage.

The Battle of Goose Green was the first major British victory of the war, but it was almost blown by a news report. The BBC World Service, hearing of plans for the attack, reported them to its global news audience. This almost led to the assault being called off. It could easily have led to stronger resistance at Goose Green, if not for the fact that the Argentinians believed the report was a British bluff.

British Royal Marines arriving at Goose Green.

If the British were expecting an easy win at Goose Green, then they were mistaken. Argentine troops put up a strong defense, stalling the initial assault. The first attempt to give the attack fresh energy failed, and its leader, Lieutenant-Colonel “H” Jones, was killed in the fighting.

Conducting a war so far from home, the British could not easily be resupplied. By the end of the war, they were low on food and ammunition, many down to a handful of bullets. If the Argentine forces had held out a little longer, the British troops would have run out of resources with which to fight.

If not for a failure of discipline, the Argentine forces would have held out long enough to wear down the British. Their Army Code forbade surrender while they retained 50% of their men and 25% of their ammunition, and on 14 June they were specifically ordered not to surrender.
They surrendered that very day, rather than face the poorly supplied but fierce looking British.

The Falkland Island...from Argentina's point of view

I had posted several months ago about the Falkland war and the sinking of the HMS Sheffield after she was hit by an exocet missile from the Argentinian Air force.  The post is Here.   I saw this post and it was talking about the Argentinian point of view of the conflict and I learned a few things I didn't know about before.

The Falklands War is often perceived, from the British perspective, as a victory that confirmed the British imperial status in the post-WWII world. Even though the war was criticized by the British public as unnecessary, it won the Conservative Party government a second term in Government for it was indeed a clear and decisive British victory.
On the other side, the Argentinian public deemed the war unnecessary as well; it was forced upon them by the ruling military junta. The conflict which started on 2nd of April 1982, lasted for 74 days and claimed the lives of 649 Argentinians military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and 3 Falklands civilians. It proved to be a stand-off between the British recapturing lost territory and a dictatorship with expansionist tendencies.
Argentina had for long wanted to claim the Falklands (or the Las Malvinas, as the Argentinians called it), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which had all been under British rule since 1833 and populated by British settlers who were loyal to the crown.

The HMS Invincible, pictured here in 1990, which took part in the conflict.

In Argentina, a military junta under the name National Reorganization Process was the government in the period of 1976-1983 and ruled with an iron hand, dealing with political with imprisonment and execution. The man behind the junta, who was the main advocate of the attack, was Admiral Jorge Anaya. He estimated that the British would not pursue a military conflict, but would rather choose a diplomatic solution, in which the Argentinians could further promote the idea of sovereignty over the archipelago.
The campaign was designed and executed in the midst of devastating economic stagnation in Argentina, which provoked civil unrest. To divert the civilian attention from the fall of living standard and the inflation climb of 600%, a military government did what it does best – mobilize the population towards a general nationalistic sentiment for the islands, several hundred kilometres from the Argentinian coast, that were under British colonial rule.
They called it the illegal usurpation of Las Malvinas. The preparations for war included a power shift in the military junta, from its initial leader, General Roberto Viola, to General Leopoldo Galtieri, on whose behalf Admiral Anaya organised the Argentinian Navy to participate in the attack.

The Argentinian Submarine ARA Santa Fe, which was crippled during the conflict and scuttled by the British.

Before the invasion took place, the Argentinan junta helped CIA suppress the communist elements in Nicaragua by funding the Nicaraguan counter rebels, or the Contras. This is why the Argentinians had reasons to believe that the US would keep a neutral stance if an invasion were to take place.
Also, Admiral Anaya relied on the fact that the US objected the use of force by the British during the Suez crisis in 1956. On top of that, in 1981, Britain accepted the independence of it former colony, Rhodesia, which was an example of how Britain was slowly renouncing its colonial past.

Argentinians were mainly influenced by the events of Indian annexation of the island of Goa, in 1961. The annexation was condemned by the international community but was later accepted as an irreversible act.

Argentine POWs at Port Stanley

On March 19th, 1982, the Argentinians launched an invasion of the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, 165 kilometres from the coast of Patagonia. Following the initial invasion, they started to disembark on the shores of the Falklands Islands on April 2nd.
Concerning the occupation of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the British deployed two submarines, but it wasn’t until the invasion of the Falklands that they had taken the matter seriously.
The war was never officially declared although both sides did declare the Islands areas a war zone and officially recognized that a state of war existed between them. Hostilities were limited almost exclusively to the territories under dispute and the area in the South Atlantic where they lay.
Argentina’s original intention was to mount a quick, symbolic occupation, followed rapidly by withdrawal, leaving only a small garrison to support the new military governor. This strategy was based on the Argentinean assumption that the British would not respond militarily.

Royal Navy Sea Harrier.

Argentinian assault units were indeed withdrawn to the mainland in the days following the invasion, but strong popular support and the rapid British reaction forced the Junta to change their plans and reinforce the islands since they could not afford to lose the islands once the British came out to fight.
When the conflict broke out, the UN called for peace talks, the immediate end to the hostilities and urged both parties to resolve the conflict diplomatically. The US feared that Argentina would ask the Soviet Union for help, and so they stood firmly on the side of the British.
On the South American mainland, Chile actively helped Great Britain with intelligence support. The support was evident, and Argentina was forced to keep some of its best trained and best-equipped mountain troops on the Chilean border to counter the possible military intervention by the neighboring British ally. The intervention never took place, but the Argentinians were on high alert throughout the war.
British forces landed on the islands, after which a war for aerial domination commenced. Several intense dogfights occurred during the war. The British were using Harriers as their main combat airplane while Argentina used Mirage III fighter jets, which were purchased from France several years before the war.
The Mirage was not good enough for the Argentinian air force to successfully engage the far more nimble RAF fighters. Other than the Mirage, Argentine Air Force used American A-4 Skyhawks, Israeli Daggers, the Israeli version of the Mirage fighter, and English Electric Canberras.
The most significant naval incident of the war was the sinking of the ARA Belgrano, an Argentinean WWII-era light cruiser, by the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror on May 2nd, 1982. 323 men aboard the ARA Belgrano lost their lives.
The retaliation for this loss occurred two days after, when a British Type 42 Destroyer, HMS Sheffield, was bombed by a naval air strike. The British lost 20 men with another 24 others severely injured.

ARA Belgrano sinking on May 2nd, 1982.

After the British victory on land, their terms for the Argentinian surrender proved to be much harsher than originally expected by the Junta, but Argentina accepted them on 14th of June 1982. Argentinean troops withdrew from the islands, leaving them in British hands.
The relations between the two countries were strained for a while, until their official normalization in 1989. Argentina continues to debate the sovereignty of the Falklands to this day. In 2013, a referendum was held on the Falkland Islands, after which the majority stated that they wish to stay under the British crown.
The Falklands conflict remains the largest air-naval combat operation between modern forces since the end of the Second World War.