2014/02 Falklands trip - Battle for Goose Green |
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Thursday February 13th
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We took a drive in the afternoon to look at some of the 1982 battlefields. We went to an area between San Carlos and Darwin. The main target of the troops was Stanley, but the British were losing ships to air attacks and there was a political need for some immediate success; hence the order to capture Goose Green, just 10 miles from San Carlos. M reminded us that there were no roads or ground transport, so everything was carried on soldiers’ backs in foul winter weather across some very difficult country.
The Argentinians at Goose Green were convinced that any assault would come from the south coast, so their defences were pointed in the wrong direction and their minefields were in the wrong places. Even when the BBC World Service made the colossal error of publically announcing that “2 Para” was advancing cross-country towards Goose Green, the Argentinians thought it was deliberate misinformation and ignored it.
This is a recent war with the battlefield much as it was; the trenches and shell holes and some of the minefields are still there.
Colonel H Jones died a hero in the middle of the battle, and was awarded a Victoria Cross, but it’s since been apparent that his bullying style of leadership and inflexible micromanagement cost lives and threatened the whole operation. Eventually his company commanders won the battle around Darwin but there remained the problem of Goose Green itself. Over 100 civilians were locked up in the community hall and there were hundreds of Argentinians there to support the airfield. The British troops were exhausted, out of ammunition, and having to guard hundreds of prisoners.
Jones’ second-in-command sent a demand for surrender to the Argentinian commanders, pointing out that they were surrounded by a superior force, and responsible for the safety of their civilian prisoners. He carefully didn’t let them know that he was only a major. Next morning a few hundred British watched as a tthousand Argentinians marched out and laid down their weapons and sang their national anthem. Goose Green had surrendered but it was another two weeks before Stanley was taken and the war ended.
The many books on the subject talk about the heroism, the incompetence, the miscommunications, and the importance of training. And that applied to both sides in the conflict. Hopefully I got the important stuff right.
We also visited the large Argentinian military cemetery, just across the harbour from Darwin. There is a large white cross and hundreds of graves. Argentinians, mainly families of the dead, come to visit.