WI Rational British Falklands?

Given that D-Day had to be 20-24 May and thus the CBG had to have left Ascension Island by April 18 and the Amphibious ships were hopelessly loaded and had to repacked at Ascension Island what could Britain have done to fight the Falklands more rationally? What difference would this have made?
 
Given that D-Day had to be 20-24 May and thus the CBG had to have left Ascension Island by April 18 and the Amphibious ships were hopelessly loaded and had to repacked at Ascension Island what could Britain have done to fight the Falklands more rationally? What difference would this have made?

Keep more decent fleet carriers if you are serious about doing blue water operations. As for fighting the actual Falklands don't put all the heavy lift helicopters on one boat would be a good start.
 
Not to have announced that HMS Endurance was being scrapped and NOT replaced would have been a start!
Also given what had happened in 77 keeping a bigger garrison and a flight of Harriers if "only for training purposes".
Otherwise what has been posted above.
 
A pod of 31 march 1982,

Allows you to send SAS/SBS/Para's to the island before the Argentineans land on 2 April 1982 (even if you have to ditch the airplanes to get to the islands or divert them to Chile ?)

With 600 troops Argentinians landing and needed 3/1 to win how many do you need to defend them ? and they need to win fast or the SSNs arrive (and you have fully destroyed the only runway as well)

Would Argentina still attack after you announce that 100s have been parachuted in ? Or do you keep quit and hit them as they land expecting very few troops ?

(Do you allow ASB hindsight ? if so they can be on the right beach with Milan's ;))

JSB
 
Given the ARA was present in force off the Falklands in the evening of 1 April and how slow a Hercules flies I doubt that there is enough time to do anything before the invasion itself from 31 March.
 
Not wasting resources on retaking South Georgia for a start. It was a completely unnecessary sideshow that cost the task force two helicopters. Once the Falklands proper were retaken the Argentines on South Georgia would have had only two options. Surrender or freeze to death.

Goose Green was also pretty much a waste of effort. Taking Stanley was the main objective and once Stanley was taken the war would have been all over bar the shouting. The enemy force at Goose Green could have been contained with a covering force to the South of the main body. IIRC the British ground force commander at the time didn't want to bother with Goose Green and was more of less ordered to undertake the operation.
 
Not wasting resources on retaking South Georgia for a start. It was a completely unnecessary sideshow that cost the task force two helicopters. Once the Falklands proper were retaken the Argentines on South Georgia would have had only two options. Surrender or freeze to death.

Goose Green was also pretty much a waste of effort. Taking Stanley was the main objective and once Stanley was taken the war would have been all over bar the shouting. The enemy force at Goose Green could have been contained with a covering force to the South of the main body. IIRC the British ground force commander at the time didn't want to bother with Goose Green and was more of less ordered to undertake the operation.

I think the capture of sth Georgia was a useful task, it lead to the capture of one of the ARAs 3 submarines and provided a useful forward base for ship repairs and transshipment of men and equipment. Not bad considering that it didn't divert many ships from the main mission, although a bit less micromanagement would have been helpful.
 
Here's a couple of ideas, in no particular order.

The San Carlos landings couldn't take place until Intrepid was available, so Fearless and the LSLs conduct exercises for a few weeks while she is made ready. This will also allow a proper loading scheme to occur.

Name Vice-Admiral Derek Reffell, Flag Officer Flotilla 3 (formerly named Flag Officer Carriers Amphibious Ships), as commander of the Carrier group.

Send a diesel sub south as early as possible.

Task Rear Adm Woodward (FOF1, surface ships) with the recapture of Sth Georgia, with less micromanagement of the operation from Northwood.
 
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Does anybody know what the garrison had (weapons wise ?) did they have any explosives (or JCBs) ? could they have damaged the runway ?

JSB
 
Nothing heavy, only light infantry weapons and 2" mortars.

Port Stanley runway was built on top of a solid rocky base, damaging it would be difficult.
 
The main one I can think of is to get more support helicopters down earlier. All but one of the Chinooks were lost on board Atlantic Conveyor, along with a number of Wessexes, and the remaining Wessexes arrived on board Atlantic Causeway a few days late along with more Sea Kings, with both ships carrying Harriers as well. However, Atlantic Causeway at least was also fitted with a Ski Jump, hangar, etc.

At the time she was hit, Atlantic Conveyor had already offloaded her Harriers, but still had the support helicopters on board. I don't see any reason why the decision couldn't be made to fly off the support helicopters ASAP to San Carlos (OK, they would have been vulnerable on the ground, but in retrospect less vulnerable than at sea where you risk losing the lot). Lack of helicopters pretty much defined the campaign - Goose Green was in large part fought because it was the only major Argentine garrison we could reach at the time, and all the yomping/tabbing cross-country through peat bogs was forced by the fact we couldn't fly the troops to where they wanted to go (same with the Welsh Guards at Bluff Cove).
 
I don't know if the Wessex had the range to fly off from the AC's position, the Sea Harrier has heaps more range than a helicopter and the Chinook also has quite a long range. The AC also carried a good deal of PSP runway, which slowed the construction of Sids strip, a serious blow since this strip was a major force multiplier when it was up and running.
 
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I don't know if the Wessex had the range to fly off from the AC's position, the Sea Harrier has heaps more range than a helicopter and the Chinook also has quite a long range.http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/wp-co...ands-Harrier-and-Helicopter-Operations-04.jpg
Wessex range is 300 miles on standard fuel - more than enough to keep the Atlantic Conveyor well out of Exocet range. In a worst case scenario they could have refuelled on the carriers and then flown on to San Carlos from there.
My understanding is that the Atlantic Conveyor was due to sail into San Carlos to deliver her cargo when she was hit, and was with the carrier group of ships with the missle which hit her potentially being decoyed away from a naval target. Bravo November was off on a test flight, and so survived - which implies it should have been possible to fly the helicopters in earlier. A lot of this is second-guessing the guys on the ground (or indeed water) who did an excellent job in difficult circumstances however...
 
I don't know about that, but what about taking Scorpions and Scimitars? Was there space? Could they have been used at Goose Green?
He's talking about his very own Fireflies of Port Stanley, which is rather good if a trifle silly :D
Not sure of which vehicles were taken specifically, but a number of CVR(T)s were in use in the war - Max Hastings managed to stash a typewriter in one (I think from the Blues & Royals) throughout the campaign.
 
Yes, I read that some time ago.

There were 2 Scorpions and 4 Scimitars with the landing forces, double that might have been handy, certainly the assault ships were designed to carry a squadron of tanks each.
 
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