mooncat
20-05-05, 22:58
The first and obvious reason for our victory in the South Antlantic in 1982 was that the best fighting troops in the world are the British Armed Services.
But while their undisputed valour and sacrifice remains foremost in our memories, a lot of victories were brought about by the incompetence of the Argentine forces and in particular their leadership.
If the Argentine Fleet hadn't retreated back to the Argentine mainland after the sinking of the Belgrano they could have made the Royal Navy's life there a little more hectic than they did, and we could have lost twice as many ships that we tragically did.
If they had started the counter attack straight away when we were pouring men and ordinance ashore, then again, we may have never secured a beach-head at San Carlos. but it was a good few hours before the counter attack came (too little too late). When the 2nd Para were taking Goose Green they were monumentally outnumbered which even shocked them at how many prisoners they took there, Under better leadership, the Argies may have put up a tougher fight.
The Mountain assaults at Harriet and Longdon and Tumbledown were once again answered with no counter-attack (bar a few tragically well aimed shells at longdon) and once we controlled all the high ground above Port Stanley, the War was all but lost to them.
It was a war that the Argentinians should have won, as they had every thing in their favour, yet they still mangaed to lose it through silly mistakes, bad leadership, and the biggest mistake was to squarie up to a force that although smaller was and always will be infinetly better and well trained than they ever could be.
But while their undisputed valour and sacrifice remains foremost in our memories, a lot of victories were brought about by the incompetence of the Argentine forces and in particular their leadership.
If the Argentine Fleet hadn't retreated back to the Argentine mainland after the sinking of the Belgrano they could have made the Royal Navy's life there a little more hectic than they did, and we could have lost twice as many ships that we tragically did.
If they had started the counter attack straight away when we were pouring men and ordinance ashore, then again, we may have never secured a beach-head at San Carlos. but it was a good few hours before the counter attack came (too little too late). When the 2nd Para were taking Goose Green they were monumentally outnumbered which even shocked them at how many prisoners they took there, Under better leadership, the Argies may have put up a tougher fight.
The Mountain assaults at Harriet and Longdon and Tumbledown were once again answered with no counter-attack (bar a few tragically well aimed shells at longdon) and once we controlled all the high ground above Port Stanley, the War was all but lost to them.
It was a war that the Argentinians should have won, as they had every thing in their favour, yet they still mangaed to lose it through silly mistakes, bad leadership, and the biggest mistake was to squarie up to a force that although smaller was and always will be infinetly better and well trained than they ever could be.