25-Mar-1982, 1/2 Gurkha Battalion arrives at Falklands

Britain's 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles was based in Brunei in the 1980s. The regiment's two battalions (each with approx. 650-800 soldiers) alternated between Malaya, Borneo, Brunei and Hong Kong.

ATL - after serving mostly in warmer climates, it's determined that the Gurkhas would benefit from cold weather training, in case they're needed in NATO ops in Norway and other British led areas in ETO. Not wanting to take on great expense, seeing that the full winter hasn't arrived in the south, it's decided to send them to the Falklands for six months of training, including live fire training, outdoor cold weather survival, etc.

Thus, a single company of 250 Gurkhas are sent to the Falklands via Chile, leaving Brunei in early March 1982, arriving by vessel March 25, 1982, along with their rifles, grenades, light mgs, winter kit (tents, coats, boots, etc.) and their Kurkis. The company will be subordinate to Major Mike Norman during their training period.

By the early morning of March 27 the Gurkhas have moved into Moody Barracks, unpacked their kit and began preparing for Major Norman's inspection and commencement of winter combat training. Norman's force of 68 Royal Marines welcome the newcomers and the shared respect is evident. Spies on the islands report back to Argentina of the arrival of the troops, but the arrival of 250 small sized men from the tropics are not considered much of a problem.

April 3rd, Argentina invades South Georgia, Major Norman meets with the Gurkha commander and orders his men to prepare for trouble.

Major Norman's got 68 Royal Marines, 11 sailors and now 250 Gurkhas, the latter of which you know will not surrender, their motto being Better to die than live a coward.

Does this change anything? You've still got thousands of Argentinean troops about to arrive! If we changed it to two companies, totaling 500 Gurkhas, would the Argies still come?
 
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This probably means that the Argentinians don't invade the Falklands at all.
I'm not convinced. They were planning to invade when the garrison was almost 100 Royal Marines (22 of these were sent to South Georgia). Would Galteri call off the invasion because some Nepalis arrived for cold winter training? Did he understand what the Gurkhas were?
 
This probably means that the Argentinians don't invade the Falklands at all.

Yes, I agree. The Argentine invasion force was under orders to avoid injuring, let alone killing, British soldiers. That's doable with the original garrison. Add 250 soldiers, and that can't be done.
So, they need to cause causalities, which means even in Galtieri's delusional mind that the British will try to fight, and with allies if they can't, which means war is certain, which means he calls back the invasion.

OTOH, the invasion could be postponed to spring, after the Ghurkas have left. That means Argentina had time to receive additional Super Etandards and Exocets and conscripts have gotten through basic training (not good, but better than the half, unfinished training they had OTL). Adversely, the S-2 Trackers are definitely unserviceable due the lack of spares because of the American embargo at this point so they aren't flying, the torpedoes of the Argentine modern subs aren't likely to be fixed yet and the overall level of readiness of the Argentine Armed Forces remains low because the Junta is still operating under the idea that the British won't/can't fight.
Depending on the naval exercises the British are carrying, the British naval task force might take longer to form. In OTL, the Junta ordered the invasion by the time NATO naval exercises were finishing, so the British had plenty of ships ready to go.
 
I'm not convinced. They were planning to invade when the garrison was almost 100 Royal Marines (22 of these were sent to South Georgia). Would Galteri call off the invasion because some Nepalis arrived for cold winter training? Did he understand what the Gurkhas were?

I don't think Galtieri understood what "war" meant, if it comes to it, but the lower echelons of the Argentine Army did know.
 
I'm not convinced. They were planning to invade when the garrison was almost 100 Royal Marines (22 of these were sent to South Georgia). Would Galteri call off the invasion because some Nepalis arrived for cold winter training? Did he understand what the Gurkhas were?

It MAY dissuade the Argentines. From what I've read, one of the key reasons for the war was Thatcher withdrawing the RN patrols from the South Atlantic, which, combined with the vague discussions of perhaps sharing sovereignty over the Islands, made Galteri believe that Britain would not fight for the Islands, meaning it would give the military junta the opportunity to have a short victorious war on the cheap.

The Gurkhas might make the Argentines decide that Britain still cares about the Islands.

I doubt it though.

So as others have posited, the Argentines may wait for spring.

I suspect that if the Gurkhas are involved in the initial defense of the Islands, it will become mythologized, with potentially interesting effects and us Falkland Islanders will like Gurkhas even more.

fasquardon
 
All of a sudden I’m imagining a cartoon of a bunch of Gurkhas standing around Rex Hunt with a battered Argentinean Type 42 destroyer behind them, telling him that they found it, honest, and can they please take it home with them.
 
OTOH, the invasion could be postponed to spring,
Given the Argentinians domestic situation I'd think it doubtful that the Galtieri regime could last until the spring. Might the Junta consider remounting Operation Soberanía or something along similar lines instead?
 
To be honest, I don't understand why you'd send anyone to the Falklands to train for operations in Norway - we've been training people in Norway for decades, why send them somewhere which (in 1982 at least) doesn't have anything like the facilities required to house that many extra men for a relatively long time and doesn't have the required weather conditions or training facilities?

The battalion in Brunei is paid for by the Sultan so they're not going anywhere without being replaced by another battalion and the one in Hong Kong would have had duties to carry out there which would require them to be replaced by another battalion before they went off for their skiing holiday.

I also don't believe the Gurkhas ever had anything to do with the AMF(L) - I think it was always British units that provided the infantry.
 
Given the Argentinians domestic situation I'd think it doubtful that the Galtieri regime could last until the spring. Might the Junta consider remounting Operation Soberanía or something along similar lines instead?

Well, they managed to last until December '83 after the OTL war, albeit with the promise of a return to democracy, so September/October '82 seems doable, even if the political situation was tense and the economy in hell
 

CalBear

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I'm not convinced. They were planning to invade when the garrison was almost 100 Royal Marines (22 of these were sent to South Georgia). Would Galteri call off the invasion because some Nepalis arrived for cold winter training? Did he understand what the Gurkhas were?

There isn't a military professional on Earth that doesn't know about the Gurkha.

Even if the Junta wasn't intimidated by Gurkha's well deserved reputation for fighting like madmen, the fact that the assault would result in heavy losses on both sides, instead of what expected to largely be a walkover would cause them to hesitate.

Argentina kills 250 men with the Union Jack on their sleeves the British are vastly more likely to react than a fairly bloodless occupation (and the U.S. is far more likely to openly support the UK straight out of the gate). Argentina loses 250 men conducting the invasion and the Junta is in a world of trouble.

From a military perspective the number are now a disaster. Argentina managed to lift around 600 troops, this was just about the most that could be moved for a combat assault. That gave them a 6:1 advantage (in the actual invasion that swelled to 11:1 since there were only 54 Royal Marines, or a reinforced platoon, on the Island). The addition of the Gurka battalion drops that to a 2:1 ratio and the Battalion would have much more in the way of heavy weapons, including 120mm mortars and Carl Gustav anti-tank weapons (you don't send troops for cold weather training without sending their weapons to train on). As a guess the landing is repulsed, probably with heavy losses.
 
Hmmm.... now I'm thinking, what if retiring Gurkhas are given land or farming rights in the Falklands? What would the locals make of that?

The weather's not close to Nepal, but not arctic freezing either.

average-temperature-falkland-islands-mount-pleasant.png


average-temperature-nepal-pokhara.png
 
Yes, I agree. The Argentine invasion force was under orders to avoid injuring, let alone killing, British soldiers. That's doable with the original garrison.
But didn't the attack destroy the Marine barracks and it was only because they had already deployed that there were no casualties?
 
But didn't the attack destroy the Marine barracks and it was only because they had already deployed that there were no casualties?

I don't recall the specifics of the assault of the top of my head, but they went with orders of forcing the garrison to surrender without hurting them
 
I don't recall the specifics of the assault of the top of my head, but they went with orders of forcing the garrison to surrender without hurting them

Then they failed to read those orders. The barracks at Moody Brook was attacked. As others have said, the only reason why there were no casualties was that the garrison had already been deployed.
 

CalBear

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I don't recall the specifics of the assault of the top of my head, but they went with orders of forcing the garrison to surrender without hurting them

Well, those orders are going to be REALLY tough to achieve if you have a company of the Rifles there.
 
There isn't a military professional on Earth that doesn't know about the Gurkha.

Even if the Junta wasn't intimidated by Gurkha's well deserved reputation for fighting like madmen, the fact that the assault would result in heavy losses on both sides, instead of what expected to largely be a walkover would cause them to hesitate.

Argentina kills 250 men with the Union Jack on their sleeves the British are vastly more likely to react than a fairly bloodless occupation (and the U.S. is far more likely to openly support the UK straight out of the gate). Argentina loses 250 men conducting the invasion and the Junta is in a world of trouble.

From a military perspective the number are now a disaster. Argentina managed to lift around 600 troops, this was just about the most that could be moved for a combat assault. That gave them a 6:1 advantage (in the actual invasion that swelled to 11:1 since there were only 54 Royal Marines, or a reinforced platoon, on the Island). The addition of the Gurka battalion drops that to a 2:1 ratio and the Battalion would have much more in the way of heavy weapons, including 120mm mortars and Carl Gustav anti-tank weapons (you don't send troops for cold weather training without sending their weapons to train on). As a guess the landing is repulsed, probably with heavy losses.

Indeed even if Argentina managed to still take the islands - incurring savage losses in the process - killing so many of our troops would really get Britain angry.

The military would still be sent to retake the islands, but the force would likely be larger and have more Gurkha along as they'd certainly want to avenge their fallen brothers. The islands would be retaken as OTL though probably with even more Argentinean dead.
 
Given the Argentinians domestic situation I'd think it doubtful that the Galtieri regime could last until the spring. Might the Junta consider remounting Operation Soberanía or something along similar lines instead?

This plus the longer they wait the greater chance of some little bird singing to Century House regarding the Juntas plans!
 
The mechanics of moving 2 companies of troops to the Falklands in early 82 would be such a significant event that it alone would deter the landing, particularly as the timing coincides with the South Georgia incident.

In 1982 2 coy would either be deployed by ship or by air in an operation requiring 3rd party cooperation as flying troops into Port Stanley's 4100' runway in peacetime conditions was not practical or economical.
 
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