Context matters. HMS Brilliant was the bodyguard. It had to be evaded or removed. The San Luis tried to attack with SST-4s which went wild. The torpedoes failed. No failure and the next target would have been HMS Invincible. Abusus non tollit usum. Incorrect application does not omit correct use. (of the torpedoes.)
HMS Brilliant was about 100 miles from the Invincible that day
What if, before the war, the Argentinians decide to let the Israelis tinker with the Belgrano?
The USA backs the British, which would probably cause the USSR to back Argentina. The Argentinean Government suffers a coup that devolves into civil war with sides backed by either super power. The British already present at the Falklands get dragged in. The war for the Falklands doesn't really end as so much as be absorbed into the new Argentina Civil War.
That would be a wholly different Argentina! The regime there was extremely anti-communist: Condor / Southern Cone comes to mind, so does helicopter murders for dissents. No way does Argentina want nor get Soviet support, not without a significant POD many years before and thus butterflying away the whole Falklands War as we know it.
Very true. Remember that the US embassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick, was a strong supporter of the regime, even at the expense of the UK. Imagine if Reagan had listened to her...
(yes, I know, hightly unlikely, but wth...)
I was writing about the Falklands earlier and considered afterwards some ways the fighting could have gone more different, especially making the war more destructive and costly.
Who for? Quite easy to boost the death toll for Argentines. There's only so much you can do to boost the death toll for the UK, without causing the abandonment of CORPORATE and the humiliating fall of the Thatcher government.
Now if I was the PM I’d not bother to send the fleet only the Vulcans along with a free fall nuclear weapon drop it some remote part of Argentina along with a cable to say 48 hours to pack up and go home or else.
To do what? Install Gabriel missiles? This would also require new radar and guidance electronics. Not something you do in a rush.
As I said how in that opening post.
I was thinking more along the lines of what the ship already has. 15 Soltam-upgraded 152mm guns would probably make things interesting.
A heavier death toll, even at the expense of the enemy, would alienate support for CORPORATE in the UK and the rest of the world. The disgust felt in Britain at the lives lost when the Belgrano was sunk was no small thing.
True how ever if no one is killed at all apart the the ones that died when the Islands were taken it’s a not a that bad yes the odd bit of radiation flying about
Thinking out of the box comes in to play. The Chinese take the long look ahead look what they have achieved so should we. It would send a message around the world not to mess with us in any way shape or form. We may have lost an Empire but this old Lion still has teeth.
A few years down the line the world would have gotten is knickers out of a twist then comes Hong Kong just think that at the beginning of negotiations on the new territory’s a hint was dropped some thing along the lines of remember the Falklands and how we reacted when we were pushed around.
A heavier death toll, even at the expense of the enemy, would alienate support for CORPORATE in the UK and the rest of the world. The disgust felt in Britain at the lives lost when the Belgrano was sunk was no small thing.