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    Goose Green 1982
    Goose Green 1982
    Goose Green 1982
    Ebook224 pages2 hours

    Goose Green 1982

    By Gregory Fremont-Barnes

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    About this ebook

    The Battle of Goose Green was the first major land conflict of the Falklands War.

    The Battle for Goose Green has become an integral part of the Falklands story, and yet it nearly didn’t take place at all. Originally earmarked to be isolated, Goose Green was eventually attacked due to the loss of momentum in the invasion force.

    The British 2 Para Regiment were deployed against the 12th Argentinean Regiment, which numbered about 1,200 men. The British believed that the Argentinean force numbered at least half this and set off with a strength of 690 men. They took two days’ rations, weapons, and ammunition in the belief that it would be a swift conquest.

    There followed a bitter and bloody fight as the Argentine forces fiercely defended Goose Green. Despite reconnaissance, the British were hampered by trench systems that they had been unaware of. Eventually the Argentines were forced to surrender, with 961 men captured, 145 taken prisoner during the fighting, and 47 killed. It was the first major engagement of the Falklands War.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDundurn
    Release dateFeb 20, 2016
    ISBN9781459733954
    Goose Green 1982
    Author

    Gregory Fremont-Barnes

    Gregory Fremont-Barnes is Senior Lecturer in War Studies at Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He has previously lectured around the world and holds a doctorate in Modern History from Oxford. He has written widely on military history, and currently lectures at Sandhurst on the conduct of the Falklands War. He lives in Surrey.

    Read more from Gregory Fremont Barnes

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      Book preview

      Goose Green 1982 - Gregory Fremont-Barnes

      CONTENTS

      Title

      Introduction

      Timeline

      Historical Background: What were they Fighting for?

      The Armies

      Argentine Forces

      British Forces

      The Days Before Battle: Opposing Plans and Dispositions

      The Argentine Plan of Defence

      British Plans and Landings

      Preparations for Battle

      The Battlefield: What Actually Happened?

      The Assault Begins

      The Advance on Boca House and Darwin Ridge

      B Company’s Attack on Boca House

      Final Objectives: Goose Green Airfield and School

      The Last Act

      After the Battle: Strategic Postscript

      Preparations for the Advance on Stanley

      Operations on 11–12 June: Mount Harriet, Mount Longdon and Two Sisters

      Operations on 12–13 June: Mount Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge

      The Legacy: Lessons Learned from Goose Green

      Professionalism and Esprit de corps

      Misallocation of Time

      Argentine Inertia and Failure to Counter-attack

      Inadequate Co-ordination of Fire Support and Absence of an All-arms Approach

      Inadequate Transport and Resupply

      Faulty Command Style

      Inadequate Numbers, Composition and Disposition of Defenders

      A Final Word

      Orders of Battle

      Argentine forces

      British Forces

      Bibliography and Further Reading

      Author and Publisher’s Note

      Copyright

      INTRODUCTION

      Goose Green was the first and the longest battle of the Falklands War. It represented a fourteen-hour struggle with The Second Battalion the Parachute Regiment (2 Para) pitted against various sub-units of the Argentine army and air force over nearly featureless, wind-swept and boggy ground, most of it in clear daylight and against entrenched defenders. 2 Para were heavily outnumbered and lacked proper fire support; by all calculations they should have lost. In the event, they not only succeeded, but captured or killed the entire Argentine garrison – a force more than twice their size – and so set the tone for the engagements that were to follow in the drive against Stanley, the capital of the Falklands.

      The battle is notable for a number of features. It was fought within just a week of the British landings at San Carlos Water – at the western end of East Falkland, the larger of the two main islands – as a consequence of the political priorities set by the British government to seize the initiative and maintain the momentum of the attack from the outset of the campaign. In doing so, ministers overrode the judgement of the land forces commander, Brigadier (Brig.) Julian Thompson, who believed an attack south was unnecessary and a diversion to the main thrust of his offensive against Stanley, clear on the other side of the island. A victory at Darwin and Goose Green, the government and its strategists at Northwood and the Ministry of Defence in London concluded, would form a prelude to further attacks in the drive on the capital. In so doing, it would preserve the high degree of public support enjoyed at home and set a precedent for other successes on the battlefield to come.

      Marines from 42 Commando disarm Argentine prisoners at Stanley, 14 June. (Ted Nevill)

      Thus, Goose Green stands as an example of how political intervention can and does – for good or ill – interfere with military priorities set by commanders in the field. Thompson was quite right: the Argentines at Goose Green did not pose a threat to the beachhead established by the amphibious landings, and London made little attempt to establish this as a rationale for 2 Para’s attack. So long as Thompson could prosecute his advance across the northern route to Stanley – an operation feasible by foot and by helicopter – the garrison at Goose Green could be pinned in place, exerting very little influence on events beyond the narrow isthmus upon which the tiny settlements of Darwin and Goose Green sit. Nor did the Argentines expect such an attack, which accounts for the peculiar composition of the forces deployed there.

      The Battle of Goose Green may, nevertheless, be seen as a pivotal event in the Falklands War. By boosting the morale of British forces and, conversely, fatally damaging that of the Argentines, its result had a profound effect on both sides for the remainder of this brief, yet decisive, campaign. Victory at Goose Green established British forces’ moral superiority over the defenders, a position which maintained the momentum of the ground offensive until the point of Argentine surrender on the Falklands as a whole, little more than two weeks later.

      The battle is also noteworthy for the degree to which the attackers operated outside an all-arms context. When 2 Para struck on 28 May 1982, it did so largely unassisted, with the odds heavily against it. The battalion faced twice its numbers; the defenders occupied entrenched positions overlooking gently undulating, open ground, which they could sweep with rifle, machine-gun, mortar and artillery fire. The quality of 2 Para’s highly trained, highly motivated personnel bore no resemblance to their opponents, but in light of 2 Para’s almost complete lack of support from other arms, it found itself largely dependent on its own resources to cope against poor odds. This was exacerbated by the lack of air support until the close of the battle; only the briefest naval support; the absence of most of the battalion’s heavy weapons until very late in the day; the absence of armoured support; and grossly inadequate artillery support. The battalion was left to fight its way through enemy defences with rifle, grenade, machine-gun, light anti-tank rockets and just two mortars. It took fourteen hours of close-quarter fighting to move 6km (3.7 miles), some of it in darkness. This, by any standard, stands as a remarkable achievement.

      The fact that Goose Green need never have been fought in order for British forces to attain their objective – defeating the main concentration of Argentine forces in and around Stanley – must not detract from the battle’s significance. Having made the decision to engage the Argentine garrison there, a great deal hinged on the outcome of the engagement – particularly if Britain had lost. The British were off to an auspicious start a week before Goose Green, when 3 Commando Brigade, of which 2 Para constituted but one of five battalions, had effected a successful lodgement and secured a bridgehead against possible counter-attack. But victory was by no means inevitable, for at the same time Royal Navy ships just offshore found themselves under intense air attack and suffered accordingly high losses: four ships destroyed and five seriously damaged in the week of the landings. If to these losses were added a defeat inflicted against 2 Para, it is difficult to underestimate the negative repercussions that would have occurred back in Britain, both in Whitehall and amongst the public at large.

      Quite apart from the serious impact on the morale of the armed forces in theatre, a repulse of 2 Para would result in a delayed offensive against Stanley, and time was in woefully short supply. Even if the simultaneous movement east of ground forces proceeded as planned (and there would have been a real prospect that, in the wake of a defeat at Goose Green, this offensive would be cancelled altogether with forces digging in around Ajax Bay in a defensive posture) it was more than likely that the Argentines, elated by success at Goose Green, would launch a counter-thrust against the meagre British forces, 3 Para and 45 Commando Royal Marines, already en route to Mount Kent on foot. True, reinforcements were on their way to the Falklands in the form of 5 Infantry Brigade, but the delay forced upon Thompson would have derailed his timetable – a timetable utterly dependent upon taking Stanley before the full weight of winter brought a swift halt to any British offensive. Ships could not operate in the rough seas of the South Atlantic winter; aircraft could not fly combat sorties, or helicopters ferry troops and supplies or evacuate the wounded; logistics would break down; and the troops, exposed to snow and freezing winds, would find themselves huddled in a ring around San Carlos and unable to move or, worse still, obliged to disembark. This, in turn, would have forced the Task Force to Ascension Island 6,500km away or, more probably, home to lick its wounds and reflect on its failure to liberate the Falklands.

      Argentine prisoners. In all, 13,000 fell into British hands during the course of the war.

      2 Para’s flag flying over Goose Green after the settlement’s liberation on 29 May. (Dr Stephen Hughes)

      In the event, the Argentines surrendered on 14 June – with no time to spare for the Task Force. In this respect, the outcome of the fighting at Goose Green may rightly be seen to assume a position of vital importance to the war itself.

      TIMELINE

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