No Picnic

Julian Thompson

• Editorial: Pen & Sword Military
• Año: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781473816800
• Categoría: Historia
• Categoría: Historia militar y marítima

A new edition of the classic Falklands War memoir "which many regard as the most perceptive description of the momentous events of April to June 1982" (Maritime Adviser). Major General Julian Thompson first wrote this account (previously published as No Picnic ) when what happened in the spring and summer of 1982 was fresh in his mind. As Commander of 3 Commando Brigade, he was at the heart of the planning and conduct of the Falklands War. Under his direct command had been the Royal Marine Commandos and the two battalions of the Parachute Regiment who conducted the lion's share of the fighting. No one therefore is better qualified to tell the extraordinary story of their taking of the Falkland Islands from the Argentinians. The author, now a celebrated military historian, has revised his early book and added for this 25th Anniversary edition more of his own personal thoughts and impressions. It is all too easy to overlook just how perilous and risky a venture this expedition to the depths of the Southern Hemisphere was. Victory and defeat hung in the balance. Even those who feel they know about this most remarkable of wars will learn more from reading this classic account. "A fascinating perspective on the war from a key participant and a valuable insight into the mind of a field commander." —Flying in Ireland

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

List of Maps

Glossary

Author’s Preface

1 Alarm and Excursion

2 Mid-Atlantic Interlude

3 South Georgia

4 Approach to Battle

5 First Foothold

6 Goose Green

7 Yomp East

8 Probing

9 Night Battle

10 ‘Capture Port Stanley’

Notes

Index

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank everybody who has helped me to write this book, but in particular James Ladd for his help and encouragement and for casting a critical eye over the first four chapters; my Personal Assistant, Tricia Roberts, who typed most of the first drafts in her spare time, skilfully managing to decipher my writing; Mrs Shandra Keelan and Miss Betty Gershon who typed both first and second drafts; Corporal Latimer who drew the maps in his spare time; and last, but not least, my wife who for almost a year while I wrote endured being ignored on most evenings during the working week, at most weekends and through Summer leave, Christmas leave and most of Easter leave; and listened patiently to each chapter she was read.

I would also like to pay tribute to Chief Petty Officer Peter Holgate, Royal Navy, who took most of the photographs that appear in this book; but I must also thank 2 Para and 3 Para for providing some of the photographs, as well as Petty Officer Birkett, Leading Airman Ryan and Leading Airman Campbell.

LIST OF MAPS

The Falkland Islands

The Beachhead

East Falkland

2 Para’s Battle for Darwin and Goose Green

3 Para’s Battle

45 Commando’s Battle

42 Commando’s Battle

2 Para’s Battle for Wireless Ridge

GLOSSARY

Bandwagon	See BV 202
Basha/Bivvie	A shelter made from a poncho, a couple of sticks and rubber ‘bungies’. More elaborate models have walls made of stones or peat blocks. Infantry in the British Service, which includes Commandos and Paratroopers, are not issued with tents. Some specialists, such as SAS, SBS and M & AW Cadre are supplied with two-man tents.
BV 202	Tracked, articulated, oversnow vehicle consisting of a tower and trailer built by Volvo. Although designed for oversnow work it was also highly successful on peat bog. Referred to as ‘Bandwagon’ or ‘BV’.
Chinook	Large, twin-rotor helicopter with a payload of ten tons, about five times that of a Sea King helicopter. Built in the USA and used by both Argentina and Britain.
CVRT	Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Tracked — Scorpion or Scimitar light tank.
Carl Gustav	84 mm medium anti-armour shoulder-held, recoilless weapon, known as ‘Charlie G’, or ‘84’, or ‘MAW’.
DF	Defensive Fire — pre-recorded and adjusted artillery, mortar or machine-gun fire by troops in defensive positions against attacking troops or patrols. Likely approaches, FUPs and so forth will be selected for such treatment.
Direct Fire Weapons	Weapons that have to be aimed directly at the target to hit as opposed to indirect fire weapons such as mortars or artillery.
FAL	Argentine rifle that fires automatic or single rounds. Looks similar to the British SLR. Some versions had a folding butt.
FOO	Forward Observation Officer, an artillery officer who directs artillery fire. Normally one with each forward rifle company commander; provided from the battery supporting the battalion or commando.
FUP	Forming Up Position — the area behind the Start Line in which assaulting troops form up for an assault. Preferably in dead ground, i.e. out of sight of the enemy and therefore unable to be fired at by direct fire weapons.
GPMG	General Purpose Machine Gun — belt-fed 7.62 mm weapon, normally one per section in every British commando or battalion. Can also be mounted on a tripod and equipped with a heavier barrel and dial sight to enable it to fire at night, or through smoke and mist, and hit pre-recorded targets. The kit to carry out the conversion is known as the Sustained Fire (SF) kit. There are three SF kits per rifle company.
H-Hour	The time at which the first wave of assaulting troops cross the Start Line (see Start Line) or leave their landing craft to assault a beach.
Individual Weapon Sight	(IWS) a British, first-generation image intensifier sight which can be clipped onto a rifle or GPMG for shooting or observing at night. The Argentines had second-generation night sights and excellent night vision binoculars.
L-Hour	The time at which assault helicopters touch down and the first wave of assaulting troops deplane.
LCU	Landing Craft Utility — a landing craft capable of carrying 200 men or 22 tons of stores, or four large trucks. Four LCU’s were carried by each of the two LPDs (Fearless and Intrepid) in their docks.
LCVP	Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel — a landing craft capable of carrying an infantry platoon (30 men), or a landrover and trailer.
Light Machine Gun	Magazine-fed machine gun based on Bren of Second World War design but firing 7.62 mm ammunition.
LPD	Landing Platform Dock — assault ship. Britain had, and still has, two, Fearless and Intrepid.
LSL	Landing Ship Logistic — roll-on, roll-off ships manned by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
MILAN	Wire-guided, anti-tank missile, very useful for bunker-busting.
NGFO	Naval Gunfire Observer — an officer provided by the artillery to observe naval gunfire.
NGFO Party	A gunner term to describe the NGFO and his radio operators.
OP	Observation Post — a small, well concealed position from which to observe.
OP Party	A gunner term to describe the FOO and his radio operators — see FOO.
PNG	Passive Night Goggles — image-intensifying goggles mainly used by helicopter pilots to fly at night.
Rapier	British surface-to-air missile.
Sangar	A protective wall built of stone or peat blocks constructed in ground too hard to dig, or when trenches are flooded.
Scimitar	CVRT — light tank built by Alvis equipped with 30 mm automatic cannon.
Scorpion	CVRT — light tank built by Alvis with the same chassis, drive and hull as Scimitar, but equipped with 76 mm gun.
Sea King	A medium-lift helicopter built by Westlands. The mark IV designed for troop lift can carry about twenty men depending on the equipment with which they are loaded. The anti-submarine version can carry about ten men.
Sixty-Six	66 — a shoulder-held light anti-armour weapon (LAW), anti-tank rocket in a throw-away launcher.
SLR	Self-Loading Rifle — adapted by the British from the original Belgian FN design. The British version does not fire automatic.
Staff Titles	Until January, 1982, the Commando Brigade, in common with its British Army counterparts, used the peculiar, but effective staff titles given below: Brigade Major (BM) — A grade 2 staff appointment and the co-ordinator of the General Staff at Brigade level which deals with operations, intelligence, training, organization and air matters. Under him he had a number of General Staff Officers grade 3 (GS03), such as the GS03 Intelligence and so forth. The BM was de facto Chief of Staff. DAA and QMG (DQ) — The Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quarter Master General was head of the Brigade Personnel (A) and Logistics (Q) staff. Under him he had a Staff Captain A (personnel), Staff Captain Q (logistics) and a number of specialist advisers such as the Brigade Electrical and mechanical Engineer Officer (BEME). On 1 January, 1982, the titles changed. The new system was intended to conform with that in use in NATO Armies. On 2 April, 1982, we instantly, and without any formal announcement, reverted to the old system. We intended going to war with a system we and our Naval opposite numbers understood, and which avoided wasting precious time while people worked out which title went with which staff officer — perhaps in the heat of battle. The new system is summarized below and readers, if they are familiar with the NATO system, may judge for themselves how much it conforms to the NATO system.
	Old BM DAA & QMG Staff Captain A GS03 (Intelligence) GS03 (Operations) Staff Captain Q	New Chief of Staff Deputy Chief of Staff S03 G 1 (Personnel) S03 G2 (Intelligence) S03 G3 (Operations) S03 G4 (Logistics)
Start Line	A line in the ground, usually a natural feature, stream, bank or fence, preferably at ninety degrees to the axis of advance, which marks the start line for the attack and is crossed at H-Hour in attack formation. Can be marked by tape if there is no natural feature which lends itself to being used as a start line. (American term is Line of Departure [LOD].)
Time	All times in this book are local in the country in which the events being described take place. Falkland Islands Time is four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time and five hours behind British Summer Time. For a reason which is not clear to me to this day, the war was ‘fought in “Zulu” Time’, i.e. Greenwich Mean Time. Thus some accounts of the war, based on reports, official or unofficial, have dawn at about 10.30 am and dusk at about 8.15 pm in mid-winter at 52°30 minutes south and all other timings seemingly out of kilter. To avoid readers puzzling over why, for example, night attacks were apparently being conducted at seven o’clock in the morning, I have stuck to local times throughout. Last light in the Falklands was at about 4.15 pm and first light at about 6.30 am local time. When we arrived in Stanley, we found that the Argentines had imposed Argentine Time (three hours behind GMT) on the town, but left the countryside in Falklands Time. Having to operate in two times was bad enough, but this was ridiculous. The British Land Forces switched to local (Falkland Islands) time within a day or so of the surrender, and invited the citizens of Stanley to do likewise. I have used am and pm instead of the 24-hour clock used by the military.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

When I gave the orders for the landing at San Carlos to the Commanding Officers of the Units in 3 Commando Brigade I said, among other things, that the operation we were about to embark upon would not be a picnic. I was determined that no one in my Brigade would be under any illusion but that we would have to fight to win. Although the Falklands War of 1982 was both small in scale and short in duration it was indeed no picnic, hence the title of the book.

Mercifully the casualties, both at sea and on land, were light in comparison with many previous wars, long or short — although this is no consolation to the bereaved. The British fought this small, short war at a distance of over 8,000 miles from their home base, with only Ascension Island as a staging point just over half-way down the route. The problems imposed by di...