Falklands War Campaign - The Battle of Goose Green

DATE: 17/10/2024

TIME (GMT): 18:00

ERA: Cold War

MAP(S): Falklands

TYPE: COOP

GAME: Arma 3

EVENT: Official

AUTHOR(S): Doctor for Brothers in Arms

SLOTS: 55 / 80

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RATING: (22)

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Goose Green was the first and the longest battle of the Falklands War. It represented a fourteen-hour struggle waged by 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, they overrode the judgement of the land commander, Brigadier Julian Thompson, the land forces commander, as 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 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.

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. 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.