Middlebrook - The Falklands War

THE

FALKLANDS

WAR

Other books by Martin Middlebrook

The First Day on the Somme

The Nuremberg Raid*

The Sinking of the Prince of Wales & Repulse*

(with Patrick Mahoney)

The Kaisers Battle*

The Battle of Hamburg

The Peenemnde Raid*

The Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission**

The Bomber Command War Diares

(with the late Chris Everitt)

Convoy SC122 & HX229*

The Berlin Raids*

The Argentine Fight for the Falklands*

The Middlebrook Guide to the Somme Battlefields*

(with Mary Middlebrook)

The Bruckshaw Diares (ed.)

Everlasting Arms (ed.)

Arnhem 1944*

Your Country Needs You*

Captain Stanilands Journey

The War Dead of Twyning Parish

denotes titles in print with Pen & Sword Books Ltd

to be republished by Pen & Sword in 2012

First published as

Operation Corporate: The Story of the Falklands War, 1982 in 1985 by Viking

Revised edition published as

Task Force: The Falklands War, 1982 in 1987 by Penguin Books

Published as a Classic Penguin as

The Falklands War, 1982 in 2001

Reprinted in this format in 2012 by

P EN & S WORD M ILITARY

An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Martin Middlebrook 1985, 1987, 2001, 2012

ISBN 978 1 84884 636 4
Digital Edition ISBN: 978 1 84468 411 3

The right of Martin Middlebrook to be identified as Author of this work has beeny asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Maps and diagrams drawn by Reginald Piggott from the preliminary drawings by Mary Middlebrook

Printed and bound in England

By CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY

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Only the dead have seen the end of war

P LATO

PLATES

P HOTOS C REDITS : All photographs are from the Ministry of Defence or have been supplied direct by the units which served in the Falklands, except images 2 (F/Lt D. S. Davenall), 26 and 27 (Soldier magazine), 30 (London Express News Service) and 31 (P & O Group).

MAPS AND DIAGRAMS

M APS

D IAGRAM

Maps by Reginald Piggott from preliminary drawings by Mary Middlebrook

Introduction

This book was born on Tuesday, 4 May 1982, the day that H.M.S. Sheffield was hit by an Argentinian Exocet. The news of that incident, coming hard on the heels of the sinking of the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano two days earlier, marked the end of the diplomatic war over the Falklands and the start of the shooting war. It seemed unlikely that this would end until the battle was fought to its conclusion. I do not care to write about politics and diplomacy, but war where decent young men of both sides die for patriotism, principle and the failure of politics fascinates me. The fighting ended forty-one days later. It was not immediately possible for me to start my book; I still had to write one and a half books already under contract. That did not worry me. I much prefer the dust to settle and some degree of historical perspective to arrive. I did not fancy interviewing war-shocked servicemen just back from the fighting.

I arrived at the Ministry of Defence and asked permission to visit units and talk to the returned servicemen.

My request was granted, under certain conditions which I did not find unreasonable. I was able to carry out more than 200 interviews and met with much willingness to cooperate. I found that the greater the lapse of time, the more objective and more helpful the witnesses were. One naval officer said, I find that I say more each time I talk about it.And the documents! This was the first British war of the photocopy age; I was showered with documents by officers anxious to see the efforts of their units properly covered. I thank the Ministry of Defence again for allowing me to fly down to the Falklands to visit some of the battlefields and to record the experiences of the islanders, who were in the war longer than anyone, from the first day to the last, and who had everything to lose if the Task Force had not sailed or if the war had been lost.

One ambition was not fulfilled. It is my custom to cover battles from both sides, to talk to the survivors of both sides. But my application for a visa to visit Argentina made when the military Junta was still in power was ignored; my book was half written by the time the new civilian government came to power. I wrote to several potential helpers and tried to obtain material by post. But my protests of an impartial approach were not accepted. Yours has been an unfair cause,wrote one. The physical and emotional scars have not had time to heal,said another. Useful new material is coming out of Argentina all the time but I would have liked to talk to Brigadier-General Menndez and his soldiers.

The Revised Edition

The Falklands War, 1982 is a revised version of the book which was published in 1985 as Operation Corporate. That edition has stood the test of time well and only a few minor corrections are needed for events or names, some because I was misinformed when carrying out my original research, some because of my own carelessness. If I say that one of the most serious of these factual corrections is that 45 Commando did not receive the benefit of a short helicopter lift to Sapper Hill in the closing stages of the war, as quoted in the original version, that will give some idea of how minor the corrections are.

The main purposes of the revision are three-fold:

1. To include a description of the three incidents where British troops were killed by the accidental action of other British forces the blue-on-blues. I knew of all of these when the original book was written but was asked by the Ministry of Defence not to include them for the sake of the families. All of these incidents have since become public knowledge and are now included on pages 282, 3223 and 299300.

2. To include new material on two events the possible work of Special Forces on the Argentinian mainland (on pages 1923) and on the last Vulcan bombing raid to Stanley airfield (on pages 3523).

3. To include my views on several aspects of the war, particularly the handling of the southern thrust of the advance across East Falkland just before the final series of battles. This and other matters have become much clearer in my mind with the passage of time and, I acknowledge, the considerable benefit of hindsight not enjoyed by the commanders in the field. These new views are to be found following page 395.