Falklands War: A History from Beginning to End by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The Battle for San Carlos Water

“Crewmen around us paid tribute to the courage of the Argentinian pilots. They also deserved credit for their own bravery, both those exposed and manning the ships defences and the many others, marines and sailors, crouched and waiting in the vessel.”

—Gareth Parry, writing in The Guardian

The combination of advanced Super Étendard aircraft and the Exocet missiles clearly posed a major threat to the British task force. Following the Argentine invasion of the Falklands, the French had placed an embargo on the export of all arms, but it was known that Argentina had five Super Étendard aircraft at the airbase at Río Grande in Tierra del Fuego, and it was believed that the Argentine Navy had an existing stockpile of around 20 of the deadly, sea-skimming missiles.

A plan was developed (Operation Mikado) to launch a direct attack on the base at Río Grande using British Special Forces troops with the objective of destroying all remaining Exocets. This was abandoned when details of the operation became known to the Argentines, who deployed more than 2,000 troops to protect the airbase. On May 14, the Special Air Service (SAS) did carry out a raid on the grass airstrip on Pebble Island which resulted in the destruction of several Argentine Navy aircraft.

As the British task force approached the Falkland Islands, the tempo of Argentine air attacks increased, but there were no further hits on British ships by Exocet missiles. By May 20, the main British amphibious landing on East Falkland, Operation Sutton, was about to begin. The area chosen for the main British landing was San Carlos Water, a narrow bay on the northwestern coast of East Falkland, facing onto Falkland Sound. It was hoped that the narrow, steep-sided bay would provide protection from Exocet attacks and that the location was sufficiently distant from Stanley to preclude a rapid response from the Argentine troops stationed there.

During the night of May 20, the task force entered the bay and began unloading troops and equipment. By daybreak, over 4,000 troops of 40 and 45 Commando Royal Marines and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Parachute Regiment were ashore and had established a secure beachhead.

Initially, the Argentine commanders doubted early reports of a British landing at San Carlos Water, believing that this was not possible. At 08:45, a Pucará ground-attack aircraft was sent to investigate. This aircraft was able to make strafing attacks on several British positions and ships before being shot down by anti-aircraft fire from a British frigate. This was the first but by no means the last air attack on British forces in San Carlos Water. The Argentines knew that, if they had any hope of winning the battle for the islands, they had to destroy the British beachhead before large-scale offensive operations could begin. For precisely the same reasons, the British understood that they had to hold the beachhead there.

Fifteen minutes after the first attack, three more Pucarás from Goose Green attacked. Two were shot down, and the third was so badly damaged that it barely made it back to base.

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