Chapter 1580: The Seizure of the Island

The vast majority of people would not have thought that Britain would strike first in Tierra del Fuego, when it was clear that Britain had previously said that it would not occupy Argentine territory.

Alan Wilson had something to say about this, it was British public opinion that said so, is it possible that the war between countries is a matter of public opinion? What was the point of having a staff?

Will command and decision power are given to the highest naval commander, so as to facilitate their growth, victory is naturally the best, if the failure? Britain may fail, but will never lose to Argentina, the big deal is to temporarily retreat to regroup, but like the Argentine Navy suffered a loss to do the existence of the fleet absolutely not.

Already at war with Argentina, the United Kingdom is naturally no reason to retreat, the task force from the Pacific Ocean, the distance is farther than the main fleet in the Atlantic Ocean, must find an island to do recuperation, Tierra del Fuego is necessary to capture, who can not stay on board for a long time.

If even to fight a Tierra del Fuego have to be concerned about the international public opinion, then make such a big scene for what, might as well just start to follow the memory of the war in the island of Ma set up.

Around four o’clock in the afternoon, a British helicopter appeared over Tierra del Fuego. Obviously, this airplane was not there to watch the fun. If the British were planning to watch the fun, they were also preparing for the next battle, not using a reconnaissance helicopter that only had passive detection capabilities.

This reconnaissance aircraft is to explore the reality of Tierra del Fuego, for the next landing preparation, obviously this reconnaissance is successful, Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands, because of the climate problem belongs to the sparsely populated islands, for the British task force equipped with landing craft, there is no difficulty.

After this reconnaissance, the sky has been obviously dark, this condition landing is very dangerous, normal circumstances should be avoided, but, loyal Nepalese mercenaries must show loyalty to Her Majesty, the landing operation as scheduled, anyway, the Argentinean defenders did not find, mercenaries need to be careful not to sit down to be flooded.

To be honest, this landing can be said to be all smooth, the Argentine Navy has been blocked by the British nuclear submarine blockade and can not advance, into the existence of the fleet, landing forces have taken the islands of the people, these islands are not the focus of the Argentine defense, if a little larger islands to be sent to garrison, Argentina’s military strength will be greatly diluted.

Tierra del Fuego Argentine part of the population density, are less than one square kilometer of a person, the Argentine garrison on the island for the landing forces also said that it is better than nothing, so it is logical to let the British touch in.

From this point of view, it is clear that Argentina is still in the military understanding of the World War II era, and does not understand its own opponent in every sense.

While progress was being made in Tierra del Fuego, preparations for a counter-attack on the Falkland Islands were also underway, and since the Argentine Navy had been cut off from the Falkland Islands, seizing the Falkland Islands became a matter of ways and means for the British Expeditionary Force.

While Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego, was surrounded by Nepalese soldiers, operations to land on the Falklands had begun, and late at night a British landing party of three assault battalions, rowing in rubber dinghies, flew onto the beach.

At the same time, helicopters carrying two battalions of paratroopers, but also in the night sky quietly landed behind the enemy, the entire landing almost no trouble, fifty Argentine soldiers heard the sound of gunfire and fled in a hurry.

As for the main body of Argentine defenders, naturally they had other problems to contend with, and the squadron of Vulcan strategic bombers that had appeared at the airfield on South Georgia began bombing the Falkland Islands.

Night. The bombers had already devastated the Argentine camps that had been reconnoitered during the day, but after all, it was night, and with the lack of familiarity with the area, it was hard to say how effective it would be, but the fires were so conspicuous in the night that it was believed that the losses should not be small.

The Argentinean garrison on the island responded with anti-aircraft fire, which had no effect on the Vulcan strategic bombers, and the hissing anti-aircraft fire was more like a venting of the Argentinean’s indomitable will.

Even this indomitable will was questionable, and if the Argentine defenders had known by now that the British had successfully disembarked from other landing sites, they might not have felt so self-conscious.

But even so, in the face of the bombardment of the garrison officers and men also appeared to be demoralized, they do not know, the last batch of two strategic bombers, with the latest type of cloudburst bombs towards them, ready to borrow the head of the Argentinean townspeople, to test the cloudburst bombs have not yet been through the war test, in the end how powerful.

Danger is approaching the defenders but still do not know, in the previous bombing, there is little radar has been destroyed, this is not the anti-radiation missiles, purely Argentine defenders in the island after the establishment of so few radar stations have not been hidden, already in the previous air raids have been terminated.

It’s just that technological advances are bound to affect tactics, if not revolutionize them. More importantly, for the party that has the technological advantage, if the existing tactics are still effective, there will be no rush to seek new tactics, especially in actual combat, mature tactics will certainly be more popular with the commander, and only when there is no choice, the commander will adopt new tactics.

This phenomenon is very common from ancient times to the present day is not uncommon.

For example, after the advent of the machine gun, the cavalry was doomed, but during the First World War, both sides used sizeable cavalry. Trench warfare became a thing of the past with the advent of the tank, but until the Second World War many countries still relied on strong strategic defenses for their security.

Ground forces became secondary to aviation, but throughout the Cold War both the NATO and Warsaw Pact groups retained large ground forces and invested considerable effort and money in them.

If the opponent was Argentina, a strategic bombing campaign by Vulcan bombers, similar to that of World War II, was not an obsolete tactic, but rather a tactic to maximize the advantage, especially for the Argentinean island defenders, who had already lost their backup.

Britain didn’t tell Argentina not to set up anti-aircraft missile positions, it was Argentina itself that didn’t take it seriously, and now having bombs dropped on it by Vulcan bombers was purely a self-selection on the part of the Latin American subpowers, and no one else was to blame.

Two Vulcan bombers with an important mission, crossing the anti-aircraft interception positions that can not be said to be completely absent, but also almost absent, will carry the cloudburst bombs sent to the head of the Argentinean defenders, in terms of electronics the UK claimed not to be backward, on the contrary, and the United States of America’s technological exchanges have always been in the midst of the process.

The world’s first laser-guided bomb is the product of the U.S. “Jewel Road” program, born during the Vietnam War.

Laser technology was a very advanced technology at the time, with high light color purity and frequency purity, very small projection dispersion and very high brightness. The weapons used by the United States in Vietnam were never a secret to the United Kingdom, and there are still a group of high-ranking South Vietnamese living in Malaya today.

The world of 1982 could be more technologically sophisticated than it had been a decade or so earlier, and the Argentine defenders who were about to eat the bombs were nowhere near as professionally educated or as technically supported by the Soviet Union as their North Vietnamese counterparts.

Was thrown down the cloudburst bomb in power would have been able to make up for the lack of precision, not to mention that this is a precision-guided weapon, accurate hit the target, if it is broad daylight under the sky, was hit by the position will inevitably appear tragic scene, will give people a great shock.

Cloudburst bomb explosion instantly drained the air in the area, so that the defending soldiers into a headless fly around looking for the right to breathe, if this scene occurs in the daytime, the morale is a great blow.

But to happen at night? An equally huge blow, the morale of the Argentine defenders was already low, and their courage was gone like air dried up by a cloudburst.

The British troops landing in San Carlos Harbor did not know what was going on here, after landing, completed the assembly of the landing forces immediately headed toward Darwin Harbor, the Falkland Islands is not a giant island, but it is not as small as it is imagined, the landing of the British troops in Darwin Harbor in the Argentine main force of the encounter, completely unaware of the situation.

By the time these marines with dreams of heroism arrived here, darkness had passed and the sight before them made the marines feel that it might as well have been dark.

The Argentine soldiers who died unable to breathe even made the British officers and men whisper with peculiar faces, “Did the air force use gas bombs? How do you even use such a weapon?”

“Don’t speculate wildly, how could the RAF use something like that.” A middle-aged major sternly stops his subordinate from making unfounded comments about the scene in front of him, “It’s a high-powered bomb. War is when people die, is it acceptable to you that it’s us lying here?”

In fact, although the major spoke with a strong bottom, but his heart was not without doubt, only that he could not say this doubt out loud, completing the mission as the first priority option.

Cloudburst bombs no matter how powerful, it is impossible to wipe out all the defenders, but fortunately the effect is still very obvious, sporadic exchanges of fire occurred, but after promising to guarantee the life of a complete persuasion, the remaining Argentine soldiers to get back a life, chose to recognize the times, raised his hands, and ended the mission with a clear conscience.

The British army took advantage of the victory to march towards the capital, Port Stanley, and the Argentine troops stationed outside the harbor let off a few shots and fled back into the harbor. The British easily took the high ground in the harbor, and the 10,000 or so Albanian soldiers in Stanley were trapped in a jar.

At this point in time, the British could have declared that they had regained control of the Falkland Islands, all that was missing was the largest garrison, like the two battalions that were buried under cloudburst bombs in Darwin Harbor, to bravely persevere to the end, or to make a humanitarian choice.