Bumped.
Just read The Falklands Play by Ian Curteis, a 1987 teleplay that was not, due to some political controversies (senior BBC management seems to have considered it to be too pro-Thatcher), produced until 2002. It provides a good overview of the diplomatic and political to-ing and fro-ing between the Argentine invasion and the beginning of hostilities, but has relatively little on the fighting itself. Worth a read, though.
No, not Gavshon and Rice on the Belgrano. Certainly not in isolation.
I wound up very successfully arguing the case for sinking the Belgrano in a school debating society debate at the time. With one of the crucial twists being that my younger brother had a weird obsession with the British navy - he was literally a navel equivalent of a trainspotter, down to the Ian Allen books. So there was oddly his copy of Gavshon and Rice kicking about the house. Which was exactly the material I needed to draw upon in order argue against.
I literally had the son of the captain of the Conqueror come up to me very publically afterwards to congratulate me on defending his father’s decision.
Gavshon and Rice is really pretty dodgy.
A year or so ago, I added Carlos Antonio Tomba on FB and he accepted. Since then, I have seen a number of interesting posts, memorials, and retrospectives of the Falklands War - or, from his perspective, the Malvinas.
Carlos Antonio Tomba was the pilot of a turboprop ground-attack aircraft called the Pucara, somewhat similar to a prop-driven A-10. He was shot down during the battle of Goose Green by Nigel “Sharky” Ward (flying a Harrier) and ejected. He was able to walk back to the Argentine line and rejoin the forces; numerous other Argentine pilots were taken prisoner, however. Some of them were shot at by small arms fire as they parachuted down, which was a war crime.
The Argentine and British forces both showed extreme courage in that conflict, despite the relatively stupid motivations that started it in the first place.
Very cool. IIRC he was noted for his bravery in a number of books.
IIRC at least one Argentine jet was brought down by small arms fire, so don’t confuse firing at aircraft with firing at the ejected pilot.
My uncle was out there in 82 and would - while accepting rare execptions like Tomba - ream you a new arsehole. The opinion of the Argentine soldiers was very low, both by the British military and the local population. There were many conscripts and the Argentine troops were generally badly trained and badly led.
This is a good book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Through-Fire-Water-forgotten-Falklands-ebook/dp/B00CNQGF3K
I know two people who were on HMS Ardent when it sank.
Bumped.
Just read The Falklands War: The Full Story by the Sunday Times Insight Team, written and edited by Paul Eddy, Magnus Linklater and Peter Gillman. It’s pretty well-written and has some interesting details but suffers from having coming out in 1982, within just months of the end of the war, and thus lacks both a decent sense of perspective and a lot of information that emerged later. A far better book, I’d say, is still Hastings and Jenkins.
I finally started getting my books up on new shelving after the move and discovered Battle For the Falklands: The Winter Warby Patrick Bishop and John Witherow, who were novice reporters imbedded in British forces during the conflict. Quite a good read, if unabashedly pro-British.