The Falklands Conflict, Forty Years Later

[Slim]

19th May, 1982

News of the Argentine response to the final British proposals for a peaceful settlement is received by the British Government. The Junta has rejected them. The War Cabinet now orders Admiral Woodward aboard Hermes to proceed with Operation Sutton, the landing of ground forces on the islands, at his own discretion.

All British concessions are now withdrawn; the Government will not allow any more diplomatic initiatives to impede the progress of the ground operation.

In surprisingly calm weather, a cross-decking operation is organised, to disperse ground troops between the ships of the amphibious group, and spread the risk of loss: Woodward cannot risk sending the whole of 3 Commando brigade to San Carlos in Canberra. Troops from the 40th, 42nd and 45th Royal Marine Commando and the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the Parachute Regiment are redeployed among the assault ships, by landing craft and helicopter.

At 21:44, a Sea King helicopter loaded with SAS and SBS men en route to Intrepid strikes an albatross, cutting all power to the engine and causing it to crash into the sea. Eight men are rescued, but twenty-two drown, including twenty SAS soldiers. It is the worst single disaster that the regiment has suffered since 1945.

[Slim]

20th May, 1982

UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar makes a last minute attempt, in messages to General Galtieri and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to intervene with a plan for a peaceful solution to the crisis. But his proposals are sketchy and unclear, and Mrs Thatcher is unwilling to hold up the military timetable for an intervention that may come to nothing.

De Cuellar receives no reply from the Argentine Junta about his proposals, and admits the failure of his efforts to the Security Council.

The British Government publishes its own final proposals, already rejected by the Argentines. To his great credit, opposition leader Michael Foot offers his support for the Government's diplomatic approach:

The right hon. Lady and the Government have presented the terms of their document to us. Since I received it earlier today, I have read it, and I believe that it presents a clear and formidable case. Anyone who claims differently would not be reading it intelligently. The Government have stated clearly the principles on which they have acted - the principles of democracy and self-determination - and they have indicated some matters on which they have been prepared, I shall not say to compromise, but at any rate to make proposals which they believed would help towards a settlement.

It is important that that should be underlined, too, particularly in view of the accusation made in some quarters that the Government have been solely intransigent on the matter, as is said in Buenos Aires. The reputation of the case in this document is a matter of value for the present and for the future. If the Government could secure a settlement on the basis that they have proposed, we in the Opposition would be gratified as, I am sure, would the country and the world. In my view, they are fair proposals, and it is right that they should have been presented in these terms.

Escorted by the warships Antrim, Ardent, Argonaut, Brilliant, Broadsword, Plymouth and Yarmouth, the initial British troop convoy approaches the Falklands, helpfully masked by poor weather. Woodward's tactic is for the ships to head in the direction of the main Argentine garrison at Port Stanley in order to disguise the intended destination in the event that they are detected, then just short of the coast of East Falkland, to break sharply westward toward San Carlos.

The approach to San Carlos goes undetected, in the thick grey mist. Each of the amphibious group commanders now receives orders:

TOP SECRET OPERATION SUTTON
CTG 317.0 19N 190230Z MAY
SHIPS PASS TO EMBARKED FORCES
1. D-DAY IS 21 MAY 82.
2. H-HOUR IS 210639Z.
3. BREAK DOWN AND ISSUE FIRST LINE AMMUNITION FORTHWITH.
4. ACT IMMEDIATELY.

Forty men from D Squadron SAS are landed by helicopter to mount a diversionary attack against the Argentine garrison at Darwin. They have brought machine guns, Milan missiles and mortars with them. They convince the Argentine commander that his men are being attacked by a force of battalion strength.

Glamorgan also performs a diversionary action, bombarding the area north of Berkeley Sound.

A Wessex III helicopter from Antrim sweeps Fanning Head, with a thermal imager. A small Argentine garrison is known to be present there, at the approach to San Carlos Water. The Wessex locates the enemy positions and returns to Antrim.

At 23:00, an SBS assault team is helicoptered to within striking distance of Fanning Head. The British want to establish a large force of men and supplies ashore at San Carlos before the Argentines find out about the landing, so don't particularly want to be overlooked by Argentine troops.

Three RAF Harrier GR3s attack an Argentine fuel supply area at Fox Bay. It is the first operational mission to be carried out by the newly-arrived RAF aircraft and pilots, and the first offensive mission flown by the RAF from an aircraft carrier since October 1918. The Argentines have arranged their 40 gallon drums and fuel containers to avoid being destroyed by a single bomb - but this means that they are laid out in a pattern ideal for engagement with cluster bombs, which is what the Harriers are armed with. All three aircraft return to Hermes safely, having successfully destroyed their target.

Labour backbench MP and conspiracy theorist Tam Dalyell, a prominent critic of the war not only during it but for many years following its conclusion, writes a piece for the London Review of Books. He writes:

Certainly [the islanders'] customs, interests and welfare should be taken into account, though most of the propaganda, such as the supposed hardship of driving on the left-hand side of the road, is humbug. Most of the Falklands roads are narrow dirt-tracks. To say that their views are paramount conjures up the spectre of the Falkland Islands tail wagging the dog of British defence policy and contravening the sensitivities of 230 million South Americans.

He goes on to say:

If charges of cowardice are to be levelled at anyone – and I would rather they were not – then they would have to be directed towards those politicians who for a myriad of reasons have been unwilling to confront Falkland Islanders and the British public with the truth. The truth is that, as Julius Goebel, an American academic, argued in his The Falklands, published in 1927, the Malvinas belong, on the doctrine of uti possidetis, to Argentina.

[Slim]

21st May, 1982

Antrim steams into Falkland Sound and at 01:30, takes up her position six miles from Fanning Head, ready to provide gunfire support to the SBS team tasked with neutralising the Argentine presence there, overlooking the approach to the planned beach-head.

At 01:45, the assault ships Fearless and Intrepid, bearing the landing craft for the initial landings, steam into Falkland Sound. The whole of 40 Commando and 3 Para are now aboard the two vessels. At 02:30 the gates of their flooded docks open and their landing craft emerge into the sea. Behind them Canberra, Stromness and Norland enter Falkland Sound, protected by the naval guns of Plymouth. They take up position at the gateway to the inlet.

Brilliant clears the narrows just before 03:00 and takes up position close to the shore of West Falkland, preparing her Sea Wolf missile systems to defend the amphibious group against enemy aircraft in the event of an air attack.

At 03:50, Antrim opens fire on the Argentine positions at Fanning Head, as the SBS men open fire with machine guns. With the assistance of a Royal Marine officer, Rod Bell, who speaks fluent Spanish, the assault team invite the Argentines to surrender. The response is a volley of machine gun fire. The SBS team counter with sustained fire of their own, using machine guns, grenade launchers and rocket launchers.

As the enemy's response subdues, the British soldiers move forward, to within hand grenade range of the Argentine positions before the surviving defenders elect to surrender. Eleven of the sixty Argentines have been killed. Six surrender; the rest have fled. The SBS have suffered only light injuries.

At approximately 07:30, landing craft carrying 2 Para surge into the shallows of San Carlos Water. The paratroopers wade ashore unopposed and head five miles inland, to take the strategic high ground overlooking the landing area in the Sussex Mountains. They find their objective undefended. 40 Commando hit the beaches slightly to the north, and dig in with four armoured vehicles below the west ridge of the Verde Mountains. Two platoons make their way to the settlement of San Carlos, awakening the local inhabitants who confirm that there are no enemy troops in the area, and apprising them of the situation.

Rapier surface-to-air missile launchers are carried ashore, slung under Sea King helicopters.

Unfortunately a party of forty-two Argentines retreating eastwards from San Carlos manage to engage a Sea King escorted by two armed Gazelle helicopters. The Sea King breaks away and is unscathed, but both Gazelles are shot down into the sea. The Argentine officer in command attempts to stop his men from shooting at the helicopter crews as they struggle in the water, but fails. Three of the four men are killed. The fourth is badly wounded.

Men of C Company, 40 Commando raise the Union Jack on a flagpole at San Carlos, at first light.

As day breaks, two Sea Harriers engage and destroy three Argentine helicopters parked near Mount Kent, while the sixteen landing craft return with a second British assault wave - 45 Commando come ashore at Ajax Bay, followed by 3 Para and 42 Commando, a mile west of San Carlos.

At 08:22, Lieutenant Carlos Daniel Esteban, having fled from the SBS assault at Fanning Head, informs the Argentine garrison at Goose Green about the landings. The Argentine high command at Port Stanley does not believe that a landing operation is feasible at San Carlos, and dismisses the British operation as a diversion.

A Harrier GR3 on an armed reconnaissance mission piloted by Flight Lieutenant Jeffrey Glover is shot down by a British-made Blowpipe missile by Argentine troops over Port Howard on West Falkland. Glover ejects and is taken prisoner. He is well treated by his captors.

But at 10:00, an Argentine Aeromacchi aircraft is dispatched to San Carlos to take a look. As the pilot crosses the last hilltop, he sees laid out before him what looks to him to be "the entire English fleet". He comes in low above the waves and engages the British frigate Argonaut with cannon and rocket fire. Three sailors are wounded, and the ship's radar array is damaged. For his courage in engaging the amphibious force alone in what is normally considered a trainer / light attack aircraft, the Argentine pilot will receive his country's highest award for bravery.

Three Argentine Pucará ground attack aircraft are scrambled from Goose Green. One is shot down by a Stinger missile fired by an SAS trooper. Another is intercepted by the Sea Harrier of 810 Naval Air Squadron Leader 'Sharkey' Ward, and shot down at low level by 30mm cannon fire. Its pilot, Major Carlos Tomba, ejects at the last possible moment and manages to return to his base at Goose Green on foot. The third Pucará retreats to Goose Green, unscathed.

By chance, a shell from Ardent destroys a Pucará as it attempts to take off from Goose Green.

The Argentine Air Force now attacks in earnest from the mainland. Two Mirages and a Dagger are shot down by two Sea Harriers on combat air patrol from Invincible. Sea Harriers from Hermes destroy two of three incoming Skyhawks.

Antrim is hit by a bomb that fails to explode, but passes through her Sea Slug magazine. Several fires break out on the British ship. Another wave of three Daggers strafes her with cannon shells. One of the Daggers attempts to attack the supply vessel Fort Austin, but is blown up by a Sea Dart from Broadsword.

Several crewmen on Brilliant are injured by shrapnel from cannon shells from incoming Mirages. Plymouth engages and blows up an Argentine Dagger with a Sea Cat missile.

A wave of four Skyhawks coming in low across the land attempt to bomb Ardent, but miss. One is so low that he hits Ardent's radar aerial with his underwing fuel tank. Two of the Skyhawks are engaged and destroyed by Sea Harriers from Hermes.

The most lethal and sustained Argentine air raid of the day comes late in the afternoon. Six Skyhawks come through the narrows flying low, at high speed. One is shot down - but five make it through. Two bombs hit Argonaut without exploding, but cause crippling damage. Two men are killed.

Another formation of three Skyhawks, navy aircraft this time, head for Ardent. They drop nine bombs. Three of them find their target. Two explode. Later she is hit by another seven bombs in a Skyhawk attack. One kills or wounds the entire fire-fighting team. All three Argentine aircraft are engaged by Harriers and destroyed, but not before their grim work has been done. Ardent has twenty-two men dead and thirty-seven wounded. She is critically damaged. As her situation becomes hopeless, her captain gives the order to abandon ship. Yarmouth places her stern on her bow, and transfers the remaining ship's company, beginning with the wounded. The captain is last to step across.

In the evening, a solemn General Galtieri addresses the Argentine people on television. He tells them that the British have established a foothold on the islands, but promises that they have suffered heavy losses. In one sense, this is true. Ardent is burning and abandoned. Argonaut and Antrim are badly damaged, Brilliant and Broadsword less so. One Harrier has been shot down by anti-aircraft fire. In return Argentine forces have lost fourteen of their aircraft, plus three helicopters on Mount Kent.

But the British have overcome the greatest single hurdle of the Falklands campaign: four thousand professional soldiers and over a thousand tons of equipment, ammunition and supplies have been established onshore without a single loss to ground forces.

The settlement of San Carlos is already in British hands. Photographs of the Union Jack flying there have been flashed around the world's news services over the last few hours.

[Slim]

22nd May, 1982

By first light, five battalions of Marines and Paras are dug in on the eastern shores of Carlos Water. The landing force expands two of its beach-heads uncontested. 3 Para pushes west and north out of Port San Carlos to seize the surrounding high ground. 42 Commando moves a few miles east and digs in.

An Argentine Boeing 707 reconnaissance aircraft comes within eight miles of Coventry. The British ship locks on her Sea Dart missile, but it fails to fire - the flash doors have become encrusted with salt from the heavy seas.

The smoking and abandoned HMS Ardent finally sinks.

Reinforcements arrive - Exeter, a Type 42 destroyer intended to replace Sheffield, two Type 21 frigates, Ambuscade and Antelope - and a despatch vessel, Leeds Castle.

Canberra is escorted out of San Carlos Bay by Brilliant. She has performed her task unscathed. It is possible that some of the Argentine pilots refrained from attacking her in the belief that she was a hospital ship.

Admiral Woodward sends Broadsword and Coventry to the north-west, to act as a "missile trap" for incoming Argentine air raids.

Four Harriers attack Goose Green airfield at low level. They don't find the Pucarás they're looking for, so attack a camouflaged vehicle and a line of fox holes instead, before returning to Hermes unscathed.

[Slim]

23rd May, 1982

Four Harriers are sent to bomb an airstrip on West Falkland. They find three Argentine Puma helicopters and one Augusta, and destroy them.

An Argentine patrol ship is also attacked by a Harrier, starting fires on board and causing it to run aground in Choiseul Bay. A total of sixty combat air patrols are launched from Hermes and Invincible on this day.

Antelope's Lynx helicopter attacks and cripples an enemy freighter with a Sea Skua missile.

At lunchtime a formation of Skyhawks arrives low and fast off the coast of West Falkland. The newly-arrived Antelope is hit by a thousand pound bomb that fails to explode. The attacking Skyhawk is destroyed by a Sea Wolf missile from Broadsword. A second Skyhawk also attacks Antelope with a direct hit with a thousand pound bomb. It too fails to explode but kills one sailor and wounds another. The successful Skyhawk is hit by the ship's 20mm cannon on its approach. It hits the ship's main mast, and the pilot is killed.

Eight more Skyhawks appear in the next ninety minutes. None of them successfully attacks a ship. Half an hour later, three Daggers attack. One is intercepted by a Harrier on combat air patrol and splashed, using a Sidewinder.

Two Royal Engineer bomb disposal experts attempt to deal with one of Antelope's two unexploded bombs. It explodes, killing one of them and badly injuring the other, who loses an arm. The explosion has opened a hole in the ship's side, 30 feet wide. With another unexploded bomb still in her hull and fire now raging through her decks, Antelope's captain gives the order to abandon ship.

At 22:00 four Sea Harriers are launched from Hermes to bomb Port Stanley. Lieutenant Commander Gordon "Gordy" Batt's Sea Harrier crashes into the sea shortly after take off. No trace is ever found of him or his aircraft.

Repairs are carried out to Glasgow and Argonaut.

In the House of Commons, responding to pressure for the ground forces to move out from their beach-head as soon as possible, Defence Secretary John Nott states "there can be no question of pressing the force commander to move forward prematurely".

[Slim]

24th May, 1982

Coventry and Broadsword are sent to operate off the north coast of the islands, to provide advance radar warning and attempt missile interception of incoming air attacks.

The abandoned and burning Antelope sinks when fire reaches the second unexploded bomb.

Supply ships continue to unload stores in San Carlos Bay.

At 12:45 a formation of five Skyhawks attacks the supply vessels Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot and Sir Bedivere. All three are hit, but none of the bombs explodes.

Fifteen minutes later, four Daggers arrive from the same direction. They strafe Fearless and Sir Galahad, and bomb Sir Lancelot, where damage control teams are attempting to fight fires. Fort Austin, Norland and Stromness are also attacked, but are not hit. All four Daggers are hit by ground fire. Three are badly damaged and will play no further part in the conflict, but all make it home.

Another formation of Daggers attacks, this time from the north-west. But Coventry's radar detects them early and vectors two Harriers onto them. Lieutenant Commander Andy Auld downs two of them with Sidewinders. Lieutenant Smith splashes a third. The fourth turns for home. The Harriers are running low on fuel, and the last Argentine aircraft escapes to fight another day.

Three Skyhawks attack, but score no hits. All are hit by ground fire. One suffers a serious fuel leak and crashes into the sea on the way home, killing the pilot. The other two are seriously damaged, but make it back to base.

A total of nine (or seven by some accounts) Argentine aircraft are shot down, with several others suffering crippling damage. By now, the Argentinians know San Carlos Bay as 'Death Valley', while British sailors call it 'Bomb Alley'.

Flight Lieutenant Glover, the Harrier pilot taken prisoner on the 22nd, is flown to Commodoro Rividavia air base on the Argentine mainland, on a departing Argentine C-130 transport plane. He is treated correctly by his captors, and his biggest concern is that the C-130 will be shot down by a Harrier on the way. Fortunately, it isn't.

Brigadier Julian Thompson, in charge of land forces at the beach-head, calls a meeting with his commanders. They are eager to move out and engage the enemy, but he urges them to be patient. Headquarters at Northwood are frustrated that he has not yet moved his forces forward from San Carlos. But he does not have the necessary supplies onshore yet, and available helicopters are still being used to offload the ships.

HMS Glasgow, damaged by an air attack on 12th May and still unfit for operations despite repairs, is sent home by Woodward.

In his diary, Admiral Woodward writes:

Argentinian Air Force has to be in a bad way. They put up 46-odd aircraft on Saturday. Virtually nothing on Sunday, and some 23 or so (only 17 came into the AOA [Amphibious Operating Area]) today. They lost 15 or so on Saturday and nine today. I find it hard to believe they have many aircraft or pilots left. COMAW [Commodore Amphibious Warfare] reported today's aircraft as real kamikazes - so they are probably young braves who don't know any better. Truly, a terrible business and I can only hope the Args stop soon.

[David L]

Reading your excellent account, it appears to me that the Argentine Air Force were somewhat plagued by using ordnance that failed to operate as it should. Is the rate they suffered of bombs failing to detonate about par for the course? Or were we extremely lucky?

[Slim]

If I remember correctly the problem was mostly that the bombs were set to fuse only after travelling a set distance from the aircraft, and the Argentine pilots were forced to come in low to avoid radar detection and SAM interception.

Just found an excellent post on this here:

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-so-many-bombs-fail-to-explode-when-dropped-by-the-Argentinian-Air-Force-on-British-ships-during-the-Falklands-War

Also this one, a comment on the same page which is a bit more succinct:

As others have written the Argentinian pilots flew at very low level, both to avoid anti-aircraft fire and to ensure accuracy. Despite their skill and courage, this meant the bombs did not fall long enough for the fuses to arm before impact.

The bombs should have been fitted with retardation kits to slow their descent, using either folding, metal petals or a ballute (a type of parachute). Unfortunately, for the Argentinians, the Junta had failed to procure such kits, and the Argentinian Navy and Airforce had to do their best with inferior equipment.

It was not the first or last time that brave men's lives have been wasted because of poor procurement decisions.

So it wasn't the distance as I remembered above, but the duration of travel from the aircraft. Makes sense, gives the aircraft time to clear the blast from whatever altitude as long as the bomb takes long enough to reach the target.

[David L]

Question duly answered - thanks!

[Slim]

25th May, 1982

Argentina's national day.

Harrier strikes are again carried out on the runway at Port Stanley.

Coventry and Broadsword, in a forward position on 'picket duty' detect a formation of Skyhawks circling out over the Atlantic in preparation for an assault on the amphibious operations area. Coventry locks a Sea Dart onto one of them, and blows it up.

Three hours later, four more Skyhawks come in at high speed, north over San Carlos Water. Yarmouth destroys one of them with a Seacat missile. The other three drop bombs, but fail to find targets. Coventry acquires a lock on one of them as they cross the narrows, launches Sea Dart once more and destroys its second Skyhawk of the day.

Coventry's Spanish-speaking officer intercepts an Argentine signal and hears the command: "get that Type 42 out there". And at 17:00, six Skyhawks take off from Rio Gallegos and rendezvous with a tanker to refuel. Only four go forward with full tanks, and are picked up by Royal Navy radar one hundred miles west of San Carlos Water.

Coventry and Broadsword's missile systems fail to lock on as two of the enemy aircraft approach the two warships - the Skyhawks have come in over land, wing to wing, confusing the ship's radar systems. Four bombs are lobbed at Broadsword. One hits, ricocheting off the sea to smash up through the hull and flight deck, wrecking the ship's Lynx helicopter before plunging over the side.

Minutes later the second pair of Skyhawks hurtle toward Coventry from behind Pebble Island, low over the water. This time Broadsword's Sea Wolf missile system locks on, but Coventry's Sea Dart cannot see the attacking aircraft against the land behind.

Coventry's captain manouevres her to reduce her profile as a target. He unwittingly slews her into the path of the destroyer's Sea Wolf launcher. A missile cannot be fired.

The Argentine pilots release three bombs into Coventry. All explode, killing nineteen men instantly and blowing a hole in the bottom of her hull. Her captain comes round from the impact of the blast in an ops room full of choking smoke lit only by clothing on fire. He orders the ship to the north-east, but she is already finished. Water is rushing in. She will capsize in less than a minute, and be lost beneath the waves in less than twenty. The crew have already begun to abandon ship.

Helicopters from San Carlos recover the survivors. Two hundred and sixty leave for England the same night in the supply ship Fort Austin. Twenty are treated in the hospital ship Uganda and the field hospital at Ajax Bay.

The Argentinians now attempt an Exocet attack on the carrier battle group. Two Super Étendards take off from Rio Gallegos and fly north, refuelling in mid air. They carry two of only three remaining air-launched Exocet missiles. One hundred and ten miles north of the Falklands, the two strike fighters turn south. They locate the battle group on radar, seventy miles north east of the islands.

The Type 21 frigate HMS Ambuscade detects the two enemy aircraft at twenty-four miles out. Within minutes both aircraft have released their Exocets. But Ambuscade has released chaff, which successfully diverts the missiles. Unfortunately, as they fly through the chaff, the two French-built missiles find another target. They adjust course to skim the water for another four miles directly toward the container ship Atlantic Conveyor.

Both missiles (or possibly just one, the other falling short) smash through the supply vessel's port quarter, nine feet above the waterline, causing a massive explosion. She had been directed to the relative safety of the carrier group in advance of a night-time run to San Carlos to offload her much-needed cargo of vehicles and stores for the ground forces.

Eleven men are killed, including the ship's master, Ian North. Thankfully the Harriers she has brought south have already been flown off, as have one Chinook helicopter and one Wessex helicopter. But six Wessex, three Chinooks and a Lynx - all needed to transport ground troops forward - are lost, as are tents, numerous ground vehicles and materials intended to construct a Harrier runway on the islands.

Five thousand tons of stores and five thousand, five hundred ground troops are now ashore.

In Chile, the aircrew who destroyed their Sea King helicopter there following a one-way flight to insert an SAS recon team into Argentina have remained undetected for eight days. Chilean authorities have now found the burnt-out helicopter and are looking for the men. As the men stroll casually into Punta Arenas to make contact with the British embassy there, a car pulls alongside them. A police captain steps out, and asks "are you the three British airmen?"

The men claim to be from "the British ship in the port", but the Chilean explains that there isn't one. He drives them to the air base. They are flown to Santiago, and invited to spend the night at General Pinochet's palace.

[Slim]

26th May, 1982

Brigadier Julian Thompson, in charge of land forces at the beach-head until the arrival of Major General Jeremy Moore, is summoned to the satellite terminal at Ajax Bay and ordered by military headquarters at Northwood in England to assault the Argentine garrison at Goose Green, approximately fifteen miles to the south.

Thompson considers Goose Green to be strategically irrelevant. He prefers to ignore the Argentine presence there while he pushes north-east toward the main Argentine presence at Stanley. But the British Government, wary of possible pressure for a diplomatic solution against a background of British losses over the preceding days, is impatient for good news and progress. And the Navy in particular cannot afford to keep losing ships while the ground forces are dug in at San Carlos Bay. In his diary, Admiral Woodward writes: "the battle is high risk at sea and in the air. It must now go high risk on land". On a separate piece of paper he records the same sentiment in somewhat less diplomatic terms: "THEY'VE BEEN HERE FOR FIVE DAYS AND DONE FUCK ALL!"

Thompson summons his commanders to an urgent meeting, and reluctantly orders the second battalion of the Parachute Regiment - usually known as 2 Para - to undertake the assault at Goose Green. They will have to reach their objective on foot. The Paras begin to move from their position at Sussex Mountain toward their objective at 20:00.

Harrier GR3s attack an Argentine position at Port Howard using cluster bombs. Later an Argentine Army Puma helicopter is caught by a Harrier on the northern slopes of Mount Kent. It too is subjected to a cluster bomb attack and destroyed.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 505 is passed, calling for Britain and Argentina to work with the Secretary General to achieve a ceasefire. The resolution also asks the Secretary General to renew his efforts for peace "bearing in mind the approach outlined in his statement of May 21st". The original text had begun "in accordance with the approach", but Britain rejected this - as it implied a concession which had now been withdrawn.

Secretary of State for Defence John Nott makes a statement to the House of Commons. He says:

Our forces on the ground are now poised to begin their thrust upon Port Stanley; behind them are another 3,000 men of 5 Brigade, whilst reinforcements and resupply are virtually denied to the Argentine garrison on the island. Generally the military objective to repossess the Falkland Islands has gone forward exactly as we planned it. We have had losses and there may be more on land and sea, but the people of the Falkland Islands can be assured that our resolve is undiminished.

True to form, the veteran Labour back-bencher Tony Benn asks:

.. is he aware that no one believes that a military solution for either side could be sustained? As everyone believes that negotiations will have to take place in the end, how many more lives do the Government believe it sensible to lose before they go to the United Nations for a ceasefire to permit negotiation, or do they intend, in pursuing an ultimate military victory, that the awful tragedy that is unfolding should be continued to its bitter end?

History will prove no friend of Mr Benn's assessment.

[Slim]

27th May, 1982

Two pairs of Skyhawks attack British positions at San Carlos and Ajax Bay. One of the enemy aircraft is shot down by an anti-aircraft gunner on HMS Intrepid. Its pilot ejects.

Six men are killed at Ajax Bay and a quantity of ammunition is destroyed. Parachute bombs are used against 40 Commando's position at San Carlos, but only two men are killed. It is the first time that the Argentines have engaged targets on land.

Reinforcements rendezvous with the carrier group - the Leander-class frigates Penelope and Minerva, and the Type 42 guided-missile destroyer Cardiff.

Three hours before dawn, D Company, 2 Para arrives at Camilla Creek House, a small cluster of farm buildings several miles north-west of Darwin and Goose Green. They signal that the area is clear of Argentines, and the rest of the battalion moves up to join them, huddling in the cold to snatch a few hours' sleep.

First light reveals that the house lies in a hollow, invisible on all sides to any enemy more than five hundred yards away.

At 13:00, one of the Paras tunes to the BBC World Service news, and hears that paratroopers are poised to attack Darwin and Goose Green. This causes a high degree of consternation, not to mention outrage, as they had intended their attack to be a complete surprise. The Paras now dig into defensive positions across a widely dispersed area, to prepare for enemy air or artillery attack.

RAF Harrier GR3s from Hermes now attack the Argentine positions at Goose Green, using cluster bombs again. They then turn in to attack with 30mm cannon fire, but one of the Harriers is shot down by an anti-aircraft gun. Its pilot, Squadron Leader Bob Iveson, ejects and runs to cover to avoid capture, dropping his seat mounted survival kit. But just after dark he finds a small house unoccupied, containing beds, sleeping bags and food.

The Paras' C Company moves forward to reconnoitre, but is fired on. A four-man Argentine patrol sets off on a recon mission in a civilian landrover. They are ambushed by a 2 Para tactical team who shoot their commander and take the rest prisoner.

At 16:00, Colonel Jones gives orders for the battle to his officers. It is to be a "six-phase night-day, silent-noisy battalion attack to capture Darwin and Goose Green". He intends to dispose of the enemy's outer positions in darkness, leaving only the settlements themselves to be seized in daylight, to minimise the risks to the civilian population.

It will be the British Army's first set-piece battle since the Korean War.

Three 105mm guns are helicoptered in to support the attack, each with 320 rounds of ammunition. At 18:00, C Company begins its advance to the start line, led by engineers tasked with ensuring the three bridges on the route are clear of mines. The remainder of the battalion moves forward at 22:00.

The Task Force troop ship Canberra makes rendezvous with QE2 at South Georgia, to take on board more troops.

45 Commando and 3 Para also advance from the beach-head at San Carlos. They set out on foot toward Douglas settlement.

The rest of D Squadron SAS joins their initial recon element on Mount Kent to the east, only twelve miles west of Port Stanley.

In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister faces questions on the Falkland Islands situation. She is encouraged by some opposition members to be prepared to offer concessions which have been withdrawn, in the hope that a solution to avoid further conflict might still be found. She rejects this:

In the published proposals that we debated last Thursday there was a linked withdrawal of British forces and Argentine forces. Those proposals have been withdrawn and as our ambassador to the United Nations made clear when he voted for the resolution, there can now be no question of a British withdrawal.

The proposals in that document were for an interim arrangement so that we should not have further conflict. The proposals in that document were rejected. We have now gone into the islands to do what I believe the islanders wish - to repossess them, to restore British administration, to reconstruct the life of the islands and then to consult the islanders on what they want.

[Slim]

28th May, 1982

The CIA issues three intelligence reports on US satellite surveillance of Argentine forces. The first notes the location and quantity of Argentine troops at Goose Green and notes their "improved defensive positions". It also lists the Argentine aircraft stationed at the Stanley airstrip. The second document provides specifics on Argentine naval vessels stationed at Puerto Belgrano, on the Argentine mainland. The third is a detailed outline of aircraft stationed at an Argentine base.

At 06:30, 2 Para begins its offensive on Goose Green and Darwin, in complete darkness, supported by naval gunfire from the Type 21 frigate Arrow in Falkland Sound. Their first objective is the Argentine platoon at Burntside House. A Company overwhelms the enemy positions there quickly, with a deluge of machine gun fire and grenades. They find four British civilians lying on the floor terrified, and two dead Argentinians. The rest of the enemy have fled to the rear. Thankfully the only non-combatant casualty is a dog which has lost a tooth.

Thirty minutes later, B Company assaults and overcomes an Argentine platoon to the west, killing twenty-four of them.

Colonel 'H' Jones, in command, now moves A Company forward toward Darwin, and B Company forward to attack a defended ridge running west from Darwin Hill. The Paras now come under sustained fire from Argentine mortars, artillery and machine guns. By this time, Arrow's 4.5" gun has jammed, and the Paras have run out of mortar ammunition.

Arrow is ordered to return to the relative safety of the San Carlos anchorage at first light.

As dawn breaks, the battle has turned in the Argentines' favour. The Paras' forward elements are caught in open ground sheltered only by contours, facing a determined enemy well dug into defensive positions along the ridge. They struggle to gain momentum, and start to take casualties. Along the length of the isthmus, pinned down by heavy fire, men lie and crouch. Some Paras in B Company, deadlocked and unable to move forward, make themselves a mug of tea.

Fearing that the Argentines will soon bring reinforcements, Jones now gathers the men he has around him for a concerted assault on the ridge. He divides the group into two. Twelve men attempt to assault an Argentine machine gun post but suffer fatalities and are beaten back.

'H', a brave but impulsive man, famously now attempts to break the deadlock at Goose Green by personally taking out a machine-gun position. Clutching his submachine gun and accompanied by two NCOs, he dashes up a gully towards it. But seconds later he is fatally wounded by gunfire from a trench to his rear, within a few feet of his objective. He dies almost immediately. For his courage under fire, he will be awarded posthumously the highest military honour for valour in the face of the enemy - the Victoria Cross.

Command now falls to his second in command, Major Chris Keeble. Two other Paratroop companies manage to move around the west of the ridge, undetected by the Argentines. The British artillery positions have now received fresh stores of ammunition, and Keeble brings artillery fire down onto the ridge.

Milan anti-tank missiles are brought up by the support company, and used to devastating effect against Argentine trench positions, in combination with grenades. White flags begin to appear. The Paras are in control of the ridge on Darwin Hill by 11:10, and the tide of battle has turned once again in their favour - but they have still not encountered the main Argentinian force.

Two Skyhawks attack, but their bombs miss the British positions. Two Pucarás attack with napalm and rocket fire. They too miss their targets. One is shot down by a Blowpipe surface to air missile.

A scout helicopter flying ammunition from San Carlos to the Paras at Goose Green is shot down by two Pucarás. It is the only Argentine air to air victory of the entire war, but the victor crashes his aircraft into a mountain after flying into low cloud. His body won't be found until 1986.
Two Aermacchi light attack aircraft also attempt to engage British positions in the afternoon. Blowpipe claims one of these, as well.

Keeble orders A Company forward. They attempt to take a schoolhouse a kilometre north of Goose Green, but it is aggressively defended. Following a firefight during which approximately fifty Argentines are killed, a white flag appears. A subaltern from D Company walks forward to take the surrender, but is shot dead. In response, the Paras unleash a withering volley of machine gun and rocket fire into the building, which quickly catches fire. No enemy survivors emerge.

Meanwhile, Argentine anti-aircraft guns are being used to fire at British positions on the ridgeline, keeping the Paras there pinned down.
Three Harrier GR3s, previously unable to fly due to fog, now run in at between 50 and 100 feet, and perform a precise and devastating attack on the Argentine gun positions with cluster bombs, followed by cannon fire. Some of the defenders scream and sob in terror as the violent blast of the explosions from the British weapons ripples across the peninsula. It is an hour before dusk. Enemy resistance now begins to fade. They are not yet beaten, but they are surrounded by British paratroopers.

Keeble orders his men, now exhausted, to pull back into the dead ground, off the ridgeline. As night falls he orders the British artillery to stop firing, and orders his men to fire only if attacked. The Argentines accept the gesture, and also cease fire. The dead and wounded are helicoptered out. Ammunition and supplies are brought forward to the Paras from San Carlos.

By this time, civilians at Darwin have reported that 112 civilians are being held by the Argentines at the hall in Goose Green. This limits Keeble's options, somewhat.

In the darkness, Argentine conscripts kneel and pray, some clutching their rosaries. Around them, British paratroopers take refuge in shellholes. Some will discover at dawn that they have sheltered in craters where stray cows have wandered onto anti-tank mines.

Despite warnings from senior Catholic clergy in the UK that he would stay away if Britain continued to take part in armed conflict, it has been the first day of Pope John Paul's 1982 visit to the UK. Public opinion in Argentina, a Roman Catholic country, is said to be shocked that his hosts should launch an attack on the same day that the Supreme Pontiff arrives there. It doesn't cause a controversy in the UK.

5 Infantry Brigade transfers from QE2 to Norland and Canberra at South Georgia, to prepare to go ashore.

British bombardment by air and sea of Port Stanley recommences.

[Slim]

This is Sergeant Barry Norman (1:15 in), who was with 'H' Jones when he gave the order to assault the trench where he was killed. Although he doesn't say so explicitly, I get the impression he believes his commanding officer acted foolishly and impulsively.

Years ago I read an account by another of his men who was there, that 'H' "unravelled".

[Slim]

29th May, 1982

At first light, Major Chris Keeble, in charge of 2 Para at Goose Green, sends two Argentine POWs into the besieged garrison there, with a note bearing the following surrender terms:

  MILITARY OPTIONS

  We have sent a POW to you under a white flag of truce to convey the following
  military options:

  1. That you unconditionally surrender your force to us by leaving the township,
  forming up in a military manner, removing your helmets and laying down your weapons.
  You will give prior notice of this intention by returning the POW under a white
  flag with him briefed as to the formalities by no later than 0830 hrs local time.

  2. You refuse in the first case to surrender and take the inevitable consequences.
  You will give prior notice of this intention by returning the POW without his
  flag (although his neutrality will be respected) no later than 0830 hrs local time.

  3. In the event and in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Geneva
  Convention and Laws of War you will be held responsible for the fate of any
  civilians in Darwin and Goose Green and we in accordance with these terms do give
  notice of our intention to bombard Darwin and Goose Green.

  C KEEBLE
  Commander of British Forces, Goose Green Area
  29 May 1982

The POWs return, with a request from the Argentine commander for a meeting. Keeble and a number of other officers put aside their personal weapons and walk to a hut on the airfield, with the two civilian journalists accompanying 2 Para. There they meet two Argentines: Air Commodore Pedroza and a naval officer.

Pedroza asks to consult Menéndez, the Argentine military governor at Port Stanley, by radio. Menéndez reluctantly gives Pedroza the discretion to act as he sees best.

Pedroza agrees to release the civilians. And he agrees to surrender, with one pre-condition - his men must be allowed to submit with dignity. Keeble replies that they can do whatever they like, as long as they surrender. Roughly one hundred and fifty Argentine air force men emerge. Pedroza addresses them. They sing their national anthem and lay down their weapons.

At the same moment, the Paras are amazed to see a huge column of Argentine soldiers, many more than expected, emerge from Goose Green, marching in three ranks.

More than nine hundred more men lay down their weapons before the Paras.

The battle has cost seventeen British lives including that of the commanding officer, while at least fifty Argentines have been killed (some accounts have the number of Argentine dead as high as two hundred and fifty). The Paras take more than a thousand Argentine prisoners and a large quantity of munitions, including three valuable anti-aircraft guns. The Argentine small arms and ammunition are distributed among the British ships at San Carlos Water.

The first major ground battle of the Falklands campaign has seen a British Army battalion assault and decisively defeat a well-armed and supplied force roughly twice its strength in number, in well prepared defensive positions.

Major General Jeremy Moore arrives onshore, and takes command of British land forces.

Two Argentine Daggers attack ships in San Carlos. One is destroyed by a Rapier missile. The pilot is killed.

An Argentine C-130 transport aircraft is used to attack a British tanker. One of its bombs hits the vessel, but bounces off and into the sea, unexploded.

The Organisation of American States condemns Britain's military action and calls on the US to stop helping Britain. The US, Chile, Columbia and Trinidad & Tobago abstain.

At 17:30, a group of 170 Argentine special forces assembles at Port Stanley to be taken to Mount Kent by helicopter. Their task is to establish a forward defence line there. But thirty men of D Squadron SAS are already operating on the mountain, only twelve miles west of Stanley. They have been tasked with holding the high ground until reinforcements from 42 Commando are sent to join them.

A Harrier is lost on Invincible when the carrier makes a hard turn to port in high winds and lurches strongly against the sea. The aircraft, ready to launch on a wet deck, slides over the side. Lieutenant Commander Mike Broadwater ejects and is recovered from the sea. In the wardroom that evening, as the Captain is being entertained by 801 Naval Air Squadron, one of the pilots comes up to him after a few drinks and says "that'll teach you to treat the ship like a fucking speedboat, eh, Sir?"

Hours after the Argentine surrender at Goose Green, British signals intelligence intercepts a message from General Menéndez, the commander of the Argentine forces at Port Stanley, to Buenos Aires. It warns Galtieri to prepare for defeat.