Diesel

CrisP - dont think you have countered what I have said at all; just muddied the waters! Spain isnt colonised by descendants of Argentineans? Sticking with geography the analogy closer to home still stands for me [granted there the Menai Bridge would need to be a bit longer over there..]. D

Jamie

They cant be arsed to dig it up yet

Argentina scraps Falklands oil deal | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

CrisPDuk

Strictly speaking you are correct, but seeing as over 80% of Argentina's population are of Spanish decent, surely you can see where I'm coming from
At the end of the day the whole argument can be boiled down to this: One bunch of colonists' decendants are still p!ssed off that their forebears were beaten to a bunch of windswept rocks by another bunch of colonists


As far as I'm concerned the Argies can have Anglesey if they want it anyway

rallying1

I am trying not to get wound up by this but remember this, myself and my regt went out there to defend our people, regardless of what used to be, and some of my friends died for them.

Following your train of thought though fella, does that mean that if when you get home tonight someone has turfed your family out of your house because their great greandfather lived there, thats ok is it?

The Trooper 1815

iTrader: (31)

What about all the Welsh speaking Patagonians, then again are they from Angelsey

PS. Don't mention Gibralta

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I was out there for 4.5 months in 91 and Stanley has grown massively but the Globe pub/hotel still looks as it did 16 years ago

MPA has changed alot aswell, it was just a mish mash of portacabins when I was there, also I have pics of that argy cemetry and me at the 2 para memorial in Goose Green.

9 Years after the war Burnside house in the valley down from Goose Green was still riddled with bullet holes.

The Islanders were more than friendly towards us and had no problems giving us accomadation whilst out on patrol for a week at a time.

It is not a place I will ever forget going.

I have an Argy 7.62 round somewhere that I dug out of a trench in Goose Green, not to mention a massive piece of shrapnel form a crater on the hill behind Burnside house that our Navy had created

My PC during our tour was ex 3 para and wanted to retrace 2 paras march form San Carlos to Stanley, so whilst a stint of R&R we did just that, a section of us kitted up and tabbed it. We took 4 days to do it with the only enemy insight was our whinging PC who couldn't keep up

rallying1

Bet u didnt Tab it in fekin DMS boots carrying enough gpmg link to kill a donkey?

dsmith

"PC" ?

rallying1

Panicking c...... as we used to call them or Platoon commander as it is otherwise known

CrisPDuk

OK

If you don't mention Ceuta and Melilla

Diesel

Dont get wound up mate - this is a politics/history chat and not knocking the army in any way! An army does what it is told by politicians and there is no room for them not to agree with them or it would all go pearshaped!

In your second paragraph it has similarities to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus - which way do you point your gun???

D

D

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

You are absolutely correct, we did it in the latest BCH boots, SAS windproof combats, gortex waterproofs and carrying large comfortable bergans and webbing. With no one shooting at us.

Bergans were loaded up to 140lbs consisting of warm clothes, arctic sleeping bag, gortex bivibag, foam karrimat and food. I also had a PRC 320 in mine, spare battery and ancils, so no where near what you lot went through.

rallying1

Fair play to you fella, plenty of Gucci kit for you then?

I binned most of my kit on the way back, we stunk like polecats, I remember an orderly coming into our cabin and throwing up

Long time ago now, and to be fair I wouldnt want to go back.
People like to collect stuff dont they, bullet cases and shrapnel, but you can't collect the smell!! That will stay with me forever.

brihoppy

ive never met or talked to a falklands veteran after nearly 17 years in the forces so far...

fooking good job you lot did there...

rallying1

Wanna know a sercret??? I was scared sh***less most of the time! (but I dont think I was alone) but then again I was only 17, one of the youngest in the Regt, the youngest was a guy called Jason Burt and he didnt make it. RIP.

Im very proud of what we did and still think about my mates who didnt come back. Looking forward to seeing a few of the boys on 10th june in Aldershot.

Sbradley

I was there as a young, green, Royal Marines officer. Cold, miserable and, like the man above says, scared sh*tless for a lot of the time. First operational job after finishing training, and thank God I had a good Sergeant Major to keep me out of trouble. Lost my helicopter on the Atlantic Conveyor so ended up going ashore with the lads and yomping across to Stanley...

I saw myself on the TV, must've been the 10 year anniversary, walking past a Hawk battery we'd taken out and looking cold, wet and miserable. Didn't remember the incident at all but my wife recognised me!

SB

The Zohan

I wonder of there will be a national day of celebration and rememberance to comemorate this great victory?

I do hope so but i doubt the BBC or NL will want this remembered as it is not their way to celebrate our triumphs and victories.

scoobynutta555

I thought I read/saw somewhere that some Exocets were intercepted by British agents, before they were delivered to the Argies, and fiddled with so they were effectively useless.

dsmith

From memory - On atlantic conveyor the task force lost 3 out of 4 Chinooks and 3 wessex helicopters.

scoobynutta555

Also, this from Wikipedia:
many British ships escaped terminal damage because of the Argentine pilots' bombing tactics. In order to avoid the high concentration of British air defences, Argentine pilots were forced to attack at very low altitude.


the low release of the unretarded bombs (some of which, ironically, were sold to the Argentine FAA by the British years earlier) meant that many never exploded as there was insufficient time in the air for them to arm themselves. Simple free-fall bombs will, at low altitude, impact almost directly below the dropping aircraft, therefore there is a minimum safe altitude for release. The pilots would doubtless have been aware of this, but in the heat of bomb alley, many failed to climb to the necessary release point

Thirteen unexploded bombs[22] hit British ships without detonating. Lord Craig, the former Marshal of the Royal Air Force, is said to have remarked: “Six better fuses and we would have lost”[23] although Ardent and Antelope were both lost despite the failure of bombs to explode. The fuses were functioning correctly, and the bombs were simply released from too low an altitude.[

rallying1

This is true, the fuses didnt have time to arm or something, I remember one of our mob saying that the UXB lot had cradled a 1000lber on cornflakes on one ship!!!!

The Zohan

You have to love British ingenuity

Sbradley

Fortunately the Argentines had previously declined the offer of retarded bombs...otherwise we'd have been in deep doo-doos.

But at the end of the day we proved that our fleet defences worked pretty well close in, even when hamstrung by some appalling decisions (like scrapping carriers which denied us AEW capbility). It also proved the Harrier as a combat aircraft - something which was up to then somewhat dubious - and demonstrated that if you want a military campaign conducted properly, thousads of miles from home, you ask the British to run it...



SB

PS Those 13 bombs included 2 that hit Ardent and Antelope, 1 that bouced off the flight deck of a Type 42 (I forget which) and exploded alongside, 1 that went clean through another Type 42 and a land launched Exocet that took the chopper off the flight deck of another ship (again I forget the names) but didn't track properly on the way so effectively missed.

The 2 Exocets that hit Conveyor sure as hell weren't duds, so I suspect that story may not be entirely true.

There is another story which is true but I'll leave that to someone else. It involves an unusually large number of aircraft goig u/s on a mainland base...