Operation Paramour: Executive Summary
Prologue
Second Falklands Islands War
Appendix 1: Argentina Military Modernization
Date: March 2018 – July 2019
Belligerents : Argentina +/- United Kingdom
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 0430 ZULU
Location: Río Grande / Tierra del Fuego, Argentina:
21 members of Grupo Albatros (Albatross Group) board the fishing ship Solana, they are departing for the Falklands coast. The 21 commandos mission is to plant landing markers for a follow on amphibious assault which would take place roughly 36 hours after they land on the Island, this would give the GoA time to cancel Operation Paramour if the British detected the force or repelled the commandos. The 21 commandos were dressed as civilian fishermen and carried only sub-machine guns and silenced pistols. On board the Solana was the landing beacons and four zodiac inflatable boats, plus a special cargo was to be used only if the mission failed they had not successfully carried out their first objective.
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 0430 ZULU
Location: Río Grande / Tierra del Fuego, Argentina:
110 miles south of the Rio Grande Airbase, 2 CASA C-212 Aviocar light transports carrying 42 airborne commandos make a 90 degree turn towards the Falklands. The two C-212 are Army aircraft but painted to match two Argentina Coast Guard maritime patrol planes, the planes issue a radio broadcast which is intercepted by a British electronic monitoring ground station on the Falklands. In the radio broadcast the airplane says that its spotted a boat on fire and they it is going to attempt to get a closer look at the burning ship. The ground stations relays this communication to the British watch commander who logs it and notifies the Falkland Island coast guard. The two C-212 flied a flight plan with the Coast Guard on the Island early that morning, and it was to take the them south along the continental shelf, this is a deception by the Argentina military who plan to use the planes to get close to the Falklands. The two transports drop below radar and continue to fly north east, dropping 42 heavily armed paratroops onto the western island of the Falklands. The objective is to plant markers for additional airborne forces to land in 24 hours.
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 0830 ZULU
Location: Río Grande / Tierra del Fuego, Argentina:
Two Z-9WA’s call sign Zorro and Zorro 2 take off from Rio Grande Air Base, within a hour they are within radar range of main Falklands SPY-77 Early warning radar station, these helicopters broadcast that they are Argentine Coast Guard helicopters responding to the distress call of a boat on fire. The Falklands island ground radar station monitors the flight of the two of these helicopters, then loses them after thirty minutes. The Z-9WA are being deployed by the Argentine Navy to recovery any killed or wounded during the initial raid.
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 0930 ZULU
Location: Río Grande / Tierra del Fuego, Argentina:
The ARA Malvinas surfaces 450 km south of the Falkland Islands, the sea is rough but the ARA Malvinas is able to make radio contact with the Argentine Navy central command. At 0958 ZULU the Argentine Admiral issues the order to fire 12 MLR-10 [ Argentine copy of DH-10 missile] missiles at programmed targets. The missile streak out from the ARA Malvinas VLS system towards their intended targets six minutes later. The targets were identified 72 hours prior when the last of the SIDE agents return from the Falklands and were debriefed. These agents were posing as oil service technicians which were sent from a Dutch oil company. The 6 SIDE clandestine officers flew into Falklands via a direct flight from Europe. Their flight plans were booked nearly two months prior to Operation Paramour, in order to lower the chance of their detection by MI6. The 6 agents spend nearly 3 days engaged in meetings with local oil officials speaking Dutch and English about ways to improve their oil extraction methods. On the fourth night the SIDE agents drove out at night posing as two half drunk Dutch couples and pinpointed the GPS locations for dozens of critical fixed military structures included the main runway and hangars for the islands only 4 Euro Fighters and Rapier SAM sites. The SIDE agents located both the main Falklands Armory which contained 12 Challenger 2 MBTs and the islands only Mobile Star Streak SAM. After they swap the data onto USB thumb drives they boarded a flight back to Europe, once in Europe they transmitted their intelligence data to SIDE headquarters where it was verified against satellite imagery. With all the missiles fired the ARA Malvinas submerges below the surface, and sets its course north.
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 1005 ZULU
Location: RAF Mount Pleasant Airbase, Falkland Island:
The ground crew was working on a jet engine which had recently pulled out of one of the 4 operations Typhoon Fighters, when the first impact from a MLR-10 struck. The missile hit a Rapier SAM site on the far side of the airfield. The initial blast at first looked like a crashed civilian plane, the base did have a small population of private aircraft which was used by both oil and tourism companies. But within 30 seconds of the first blast, four more occurred with rapid succession. These missile struck the runway and one of the hangars which contained a new Typhoon fighter, it was instantly destroyed on impact, the blast killing all the servicemen inside and collapsing the hangar. Within the next 5 minutes the remaining 7 missile struck targets all over the airbase. The DH-10 warhead was a near replicate of the US Tomahawk. The strike was devastating, killing 128 airmen, destroying three of the four fighters, and two helicopters on the ground. The blast damaged the runway with three huge craters roughly 10 meters wide, this would prevent any aircraft from landing or taking off from the runway. The RAF commander on station was badly wounded but was able to call the local Army watch commander and alert the Islands Defense chief who immediately called the governor of the Island.
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 1230 ZULU
Location: Fort Meade, Maryland, United States:
The NSA detects a burst of cyber activity in Argentine, the US CYBER COMMAND notifies the US embassy in Buenos Aires that the NSA data center in Utah has monitored a increase in traffic associated with a denial of service attack, the attack jams Argentine internet access and cuts off the Falklands only data link to the outside world. The NSA office monitors a increase in military chatter by the Argentine Army and informs MI6 that there was a local report via twitter of explosions on the island shortly before the data streams stopped. MI6 wakes up the MOD under-secretary for defense and he reports to the defense minister of the situation. At 2100 ZULU the MOD issues a directive for all MI6 agents in Argentine to report in, the British embassy in Argentina had been closed for nearly 6 months and MI6 agents were operating out of the US embassy. SIDE agents tailing the MI6 agents arrest them in a sweep up before they can reach the US embassy. The MI6 agents are taken to a military prison in Buenos Aires outer district. Two MI6 agents codename JADE STONE and JOHN HUNT evade capture and make it to the US embassy. US Marines shot and kill two SIDE agents who are attempting to abduct Agent STONE and Agent HUNT, who is killed by SIDE agents in a dramatic standoff she is wounded and flown to a US military base in Chile city of Concon where she dies of here injuries. The other agent is debriefed by CIA and NSA agents in flight to Chile and moved out of the Embassy the next night using a Embassy helicopter. The MI6 agent is then flown via C-17 to the USA and then directly to the UK. The MI6 agent was tailing a number of intelligence leads on a movement of forces south into the Rio Grande military district.
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 1120 ZULU
Location: RAF Mount Pleasant Airbase, Falkland Island:
The RAF airbase is hit with a second wave of cruise missiles, these being fired from the ARA Rio Grande which is 300 km south of Port Stanley. The missiles target the main air bases ground radar and fuel depot destroying it. As the island comes under attack again roughly 500 Royal Marines leave the main UK base on the island to deploy west. This is to reinforce UK military garrisons on the western island. some of the islands 5000 soldiers which include a mix of Army and Marine forces are stationed along the coastline. In the last 3 months the Royal Marines had begun to fortify the coastline setting up numerous firing positions. The Royal Marines on the island while drilled to repel a invasion had not done so for nearly 4 years. The initial shock from the cruise missile strikes put most of the officer corps and NCOs in disarray. The GoA plan was to decapitate the islands defenses and its aircraft, then establish air domination and deploy and airborne and amphibious invasion. The GoA had a ambition plan to land the major of their forces at night. This was complicated by the disbursement of forces on the island. The island itself was rough rocky terrain and in many areas well defended and which was not easily traversable by tanks and heavy armor making the islands southern detachment of 6 Challenger tanks and 4 155mm self propelled guns already heavily fortified, effective at defending the south western basin of the island. From there position they could target nearly a third of the Island. The Argentines plans were to simple strike these positions with cruise missile and aircraft having gain air superiority.
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 1200 ZULU
Location: Port Stanley, Falkland Island:
The two C-212 transports carry 42 special operations commandos parachute out and land 7 km south of the city. The commandos are part of the Army’s Digital Commandos Units, they job is to seize the towns only telephone exchange and disable the city wide radio network and security alert system. The DCU units will then focus on disrupting any outside commons they will then head north and capture the government’s office building and the governor himself. The commandos all land successfully but two of them are wounded and remain at the landing zone, the Z-9WA are ordered to begin recovery of the wounded commandos. The rest of the commando force moves into the city and successfully disabled the telephone building and then fired rockets at the government building this sends the cities population fleeing into the countryside and the military forces are able to move out among them. The Argentine military while limited to only a small number of forces on the island were already witness they full scale retreat of the UK forces into the countryside. Eager to not kill a excessive numbers of civilians or British military personnel the Argentinians let the military forces escape.
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 2200 ZULU
Location: Port Stanley, Falkland Island:
Over 1200 Argentine paratroopers and commandos are on the island and conducting various missions to degrade and destroy the Royal Army’s military forces. The garrison of Royal Marines and Army armored tanks at the south point remains operational. But 4 of the 12 tanks have been knocked out. The Argentine forces on the island are primary light infantry and only have a limited number of anti-tank missiles. The Argentine Air Force launches two Rafale D strike fighters from Rio Grande air base, with a range of over 1000 miles the Rafale can stay on station and attack multiple targets. The first air to ground kill of the war is by a Rafale D when it destroys two Challenger MBT which were in a small farmhouse. The commandos from the fishing boat Solana arrive on the north western tip of the island. They land their forces and setup a powerful IR strobes which allows the landing ships to carry out the sea landing operation at night under the cover of darkness landing both heavy weapons and a Marine ground force to seize the Western Island. The commandos offload their secret cargo and open it, they read the instructions and are briefed that they are guarding a explosively pumped flux compression generator which is common known as a EMP, the generator is the GoA poison pill should the invasion fall apart. The EMP will be set off by the commandos as the retreat from the island. The EMP will wipe out the islands communications and computers which will cause millions of dollars in damages to oil production on the island.
Day One, March 27th 2018 : 2230 ZULU
Location: Port Stanley, Falkland Island:
The local British commander of the Falklands attempts to use his secure satellite phone to contact the MOD in the UK, the commander a 20 year veteran of the British Army, receives instructions that a major Argentine force is preparing to leave Rio Grande including the two main amphibious landing ships. The commander informs the MOD that both of all of Euro Fighters and Heavy Armor have been destroyed, his forces have take over 200 KIA and nearly 100 wounded in less than 24 hours of fighting. The MOD orders the commander to fight as long as possible and that a SAS unit on South Georgia Island has been sent to reinforce his position. The UK MOD instructions the commander if he is unable to hold Port Stanley, they are to withdraw into the mountains and conduct a guerrilla war with whatever forces he can muster until the main UK force arrives to retake the island, this could be up to six weeks away. The UK MOD has already authorized roughly 20,000 troops to liberate the island, but they are 3 weeks away from being ready to even deploy.
The UK commander then calls his counterpart on South Georgia island who informs him that his forces have been struck by a cruise missiles attack as well, the SAS unit on station has suffered 24 KIA including 12 SAS commandos and a dozen wounded. Their helicopters are also badly damaged. The SAS unable to fly, is not able to quickly reinforce the UK forces on the island. Undeterred the remaining commandos have already left in civilian boats, 121 SAS commandos in total from Squadron D.
The UK Parliament issues a emergency directive at 2259 ZULU declaring a state of emergency in the commonwealth and marshal law in effect on the Island, the Governor is informed of the attack on the island and that the MOD believes that a major military action is in progress. Essentially a surprise attack is currently underway and the Argentine military is invading the Falklands once again. The Governor orders a patrol team of SAS commandos currently on the Falklands, part of 22 Squadron A on rotation from South George Island escort him in a land rover convoy to the main UK military compound which is 20 miles north of Port Stanley. The Governor orders all civilian employees on the Island to return to their homes and prepare for a possible military attack from the sea. The Governor records several messages during this time, one for Falklands Island flagged ships at sea which states that they are to attempt to sail to St George Island and if not to surrender directly to the Argentine Navy. In a tape which will be broadcasted from the radio station which urges all Islanders to fight the Argentine forces and that the UK will not abandoned them.
Day One, March 28th 2018 : 0650 ZULU
Location: Port Stanley, Falkland Island:
The 16 SAS Commandos begin to filter out of the Governor’s mansion and assembled into four Land Rovers, the SAS commandos are lightly armed with only automatic machine guns. The SAS expect that the Argentine Army will attempt to size the governor or attack the mansion during any invasion. Which is why they plan to leave as soon as possible. They have a 35 minute trip to the main UK base. They send a radio transmission to the local commander at Air Base, they informed the commander that the governor is secure and in route to the base. The request that the commander send two additional light armored vehicles to meet them. The MOD tells the local commander that they have already activated two Astute Class Submarines by satellite and that both the HMS Dauntless and the HMS Daring have been recalled from there trip to South Africa, along with 4 Type 23 Frigates in training exercises in the Antarctic. This force will form the first wave of UK forces which will then include additional 4000 Royal Marines Paratroopers. The Army draws up plans to send as many as 23,000 soldiers to retake the islands. Along with nearly the all of the Royal Navy. Caught off guard there is a sense of urgency inside the MOD as they scramble to salvage what is quickly turning into a embarrassing route of UK forces on the island.
Day Two, March 28th 2018 : 1040 ZULU
Location: Army Command Center, Rio Grande, Argentina:
The Argentina Marines reach the outskirts of Port Stanley, and encounter nearly no resistance, only a small firefight with some civilians, which ended peacefully. The first recon elements of the Marine Paratroopers radioed that they had reached Port Stanley. The Argentine military command order the Marines to not enter the city, until dark and allow time for civilians to flee the city. The GoA issues the orders to begin preparation for the midnight landing on the western half of the island. Naval commandos successfully place landing markers for the force of Argentine Marines several hours early.
The two main landing ships left the home port nearly two weeks prior and then sail east to South Africa for the World Ocean Summit, but 1 week into their voyage they altered the course, no Us or UK assets were tracking the ships and it successfully approached the Falklands without arousing suspicion of a maritime patrols. The ships traveled with four other commercial tankers and was disguised as a tanker ship with large plastic fake fuel tanks on its helicopter deck which were dumped into the ocean. Shortly before combat operations began the crew dumped these into the sea.
Roughly midnight the Argentine Marines landed a force of roughly 1000 marines and AAVs on the western half of the island. The Marines setup positions along the ridge lines which dot the mountains western island, and begin helicopter borne transporting of additional forces including artillery.
Day Three, March 29th 2018 : 0032 ZULU
Location: 26 km from Isla Gran Maldivians, Western Beach, Falklands Island:
The ocean sea is rough and the AAVs were bobbing like corks in the open ocean. Despite its weight this AAV7 is no match for the sea, a giant hunk of steel and plated armor the AAV7 was older then most of the Marines inside. The AAV-7 were used during the first invasion nearly 40 years before. The AAF has modernized them twice since then, and withstanding their age they are in excellent condition. The Argentinians essentially can manufacture them new, but without the license are limited to rebuilding the original 21 they purchased in the late 1970s. The Argentinian Marines inside are dealing with the motion sickness the best they can, as the ocean sways and waves wash over the air intake the smell of diesel fills the inside, small fans brought along are blowing the mixture of hot air, body order, and fumes around. The crew are following the lead vehicle the best they can, using infrared strobes attached to the turrets they maintain a slightly broken formation, and periodic GPS checks to correct their course over the estimate 90 minute trip to the beach. The GPS is a luxury they trained without, and which they hope remains available for a few more hours. There no way to know if or when the USA will cut off the GPS signal for the region, the UK has likely already asked the Americans to disable the system in the region after it realized the scope of the attack.
Motoring through the rough seas is new to some of these Marines, not many of them have done this before. Trying to keep their men clam and motivated, several of the officers start to sing soccer songs, but mid-note, one of them pukes, the enlisted men crack jokes under their breath and tell each other they should have joined the Army. The ranking officer leading the platoon of AAVs is in the center of the formation, in front of him are two AAVs which form a armored wedge. He is peering through his infrared scope trying to local the landing markers which, he’s been assured were set by Naval Commandos the day before. He’s been looking for a blinking dot in the horizon for nearly a hour. Staring into a small gray scale image. He gives his eyes a break, staring for too long at the screen gives the Colonel a headache. He looks down at his GPS receiver, its signal guiding them for most of the trip, he is not worried his strayed off course. The idea of being this far out to sea without it is particular scary to him though if this was the 1980s he thinks to himself, I wouldn’t want to be out here without it.
This mission will set the record for longest naval amphibious assault. In order to avoid the main sea search radar at Port Stanley and the HMS destroyers patrolling in the Antarctic the ARA deployed the AAVs nearly 29 km north of the Western islands main island, this was 9km beyond the official range of the AAV7 and was stretching them to there limits. The sea is not as easily to move through this far out to sea, and in the open ocean the AAV7 top speed is only 12 km, when the waves are over 2 meters they can only go 8km. To fast and water will overflow onto the engines killing power and drown them. To slow and they will lose the cover of darkness and land on the beaches in full view of any UK forces defending it. The timing has to be perfect, the 21 AAVs are only carrying 500 marines not enough to hold the beach for very long should the UK attack them while they are still on the beach. Another 500 marines will land in combat boats 50 minutes behind them. Hopefully they won’t get much contact when they hit the beach. They are on their own, they deployed from the ARA ships which is now roughly 45 km from shore at the mouth of Bryon sound, outside of the radio range of the AAVs and any UK forces defending the shore lines.
Day Three, March 29th 2018 : 0032 ZULU
Location: Isla Gran Maldivians, Western Beach, Falklands Island:
The Argentinian Colonel finally spots the weak blink of a IR strobe on his scope. He radios his second in command a Captain from a career military family. His father commanded men during the first invasion, he is eager to prove himself in combat. Young and somewhat inexperience the Colonel instructs him to make his first 45 degree turn and head towards Landing Zone FORSTA, he will take 10 of the AAV-7 and capture the peninsula. The Captain barks back a confirmation on the radio and the platoon of AAV break into two lines, he tells his drive to adjust course again and increase to full speed, we wants to get on shore as soon as possible they sun will come up in less than 5 hours. He orders his men to get ready for a combat landing, they all sigh relief, 90 minutes in a tin can floating in the open ocean has taken its toll and they rather be in combat. The begin to load their guns and put on there body armor. In less than 20 minutes they will get what they want and be the first Marines to land on the island. The Marines gearing up have no idea what is waiting for them, the AAF Marine Corps were told to take these two landing zones based on intelligence they received from four UAV overflights which took place over 2 weeks ago. The Colonel trusts his intelligence but he much rather have a UAV above him right now as he gets ready for hitting the beach. He remembers when he was with the Americans, they never did anything without a UAV above, during his exchange program 3 years before with the, he conducted a mock landing, commanding a force of US Marines, they had the UAV always above, giving him a bird’s eye view of everything. As the Marines AAV get closer to the shore the Colonel notices some activity on his scope even at 40x zoom the body heat of faces popping up from what he concludes are new fortifications dug into the rocks above the beach, he orders his gunner to start firing as soon as he is in range.
The first wave of AAV at FORSTA are about to overrun a observation post set up by the Royal Marines the last week. OP WRETCH, its lightly manned, with only 18 Royal Marines instead of the normal 40. The position has two 10 meter towers and a single heavy machine gun emplacement, four anti-tank missiles and only one launcher. The radio jumps alive as the traffic from the attacks on the other island have the Royal Marines here on edge. They can hear reports of Paratroopers on the eastern island and missile strikes. The commander of OP WRETCH comes out of his tent, a makeshift combination of sand bags an polyurethane camo netting, he has just received orders from the watch commander 25 km south at the main basin, his orders are to pull out of the OP and move back to the town of Clove Hill, the main town in the north.
Captain Terry Bowmen; a 15 year career officer of the Royal Marines and combat veteran in Afghanistan is in charge of OP WRETCH his just given the last order for his men to start breaking down the OP. At the bottom of the hill which separates the beach and the rocky valley on the interior of the island are six Land Rovers left since they got there 8 days ago. They are the only way back to the main base, the 45 minute drive to the main UK compound is over rough terrain and something could go wrong even without the hundreds of paratroopers attacking the UK. Bowmen’s deployment to the Islands was the last leg of his career it was supposed to be a quiet ‘desk job’ after a long career in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. As he walks out of his bunker, he peers out for the last time the beach he’s been watching for the last 7 days. Almost immediately he see them, bellowing smoke and kicking up a foam of sea water, it’s not the sound of the engines is what gives away the first wave of AAV marching towards the beach. It’s the wake, instead of using a narrow pattern, they made one which gave the impression of more numbers. The Captain calls his senior NCO to get every man awake and anyone from the far side of the OP. He runs towards the ammo crate containing the four Javelin anti-tank missiles, he rehearses the process in his head. Take the battery out, remove the cover, insert into the launcher imaging device, then attach to the missile. He quickly connects the missile, and pushes down the on switch. The Javelin missile springs to life, the green indications light turns on, and the imaging scope flickers on. Bowmen looks into the scope and sees a massive wave of AAV seconds away from hitting the beach. He yells down to the NCO to tell his men to get to the Land Rovers and tell the Marines at the base that the Argentina have landed. The Captain locks onto the led ship, waiting for the low tone to switch to a rapid one. It only takes a few seconds for the missile to pick out the AAV from the cold water. It appears like a bright gray blob on the CCD. Bowman presses the trigger and a soft launch sends the missile out and a tenth of a second later blasts off. The flight time of the missile is less than 10 seconds, it flies a direct trajectory towards its target. The impact lights up the dark ocean and the first mass casualties of the Argentina forces is suffered, all 28 men on board die. It triggers a massive counter attack by six of the lead AAV which light up the spot where the missile is fired. Killing the Captain instantly. His forces make it to the Land Rovers and flee.
Day Two, March 29th 2018 : 0240 ZULU
Location: Isla Gran Maldivians, Western Beach, Falklands Island:
The radio chatter from the retreating convoy of Land rovers is picked up by two Rafale’s flying escort 40 thousand feet above the wave of AAVs. The Marines on the ground were told they would have a air escort, but without a way to link to the aircraft, the Marines couldn’t direct ground support, it would have delayed the entire operation another week to install a data-link. The planes were given strict orders to remain radio silent, AAF pilot Captain Raul Garavani was was reading a real-time intercept of the convoy chatter, the Rafale were equipped with a advanced electronics platform and four very powerful computers, it could decode, translate, and spoof radio transmissions, and a whole host of other sneaky things, Garavani only had 36 hours in the jet, enough time to learn how to fly it and to qualify for the mission, but he still had another hundred hours left to learn everything about this jet, he was still quite amazed with how confident be felt sitting in it. He looked down at one of the 3 MFD displays in the cockpit, it was triangulating all three radio contacts giving him the range, and options for engaging them, before he even realized what it was doing, aircraft was ready to flip a switch and kill them. The convoy moving back towards the town, was designated RED1, it was chatting back and forth with two other ground contacts, which he had designated BOGEY 1 and BOGEY 2, reading the transcript, he recognized the English word for artillery and armored tanks. He realized that the convoy was trying to get BOGEY 1 and BOGEY 2 to move to the landing zones. The Rafale breaks radio silent and sends a data transmission back to the AAF HQ, asking for orders. The AAF gives him permission to engage the ground targets. The AAF pilot sends a text message to his wing man. The message is simple ENGAGE BOGEY 2.
Both jets peel off into a dive, and the lead Rafale points it nose towards BOGEY 1, the pilots helmet tracking system cues the target which is highlighted with a green box, the cue locks on and a low tone goes from beeping to steady, then the optical tracking system takes over. The release icon on the other MFD changes from yellow to green, and the pilot pulls the trigger, there is a loud thud, the sound of the missile flying off the pylon, and then a brief trail of white smoke, which then fades. The missiles flight path is short, it takes less than 20 seconds to react it’s target. There is a brilliant flash of heat on the other MFD as the outline of a explosion fills up the MFD, and a plume of smoke raises up and the sound of the blast reaches the pilot. A few seconds later the second target is hit, Garavani wingman sends a confirmation text message to him, it reads BOGEY 2 CONFIRMED KILL. The two Rafale’s take a battle damage assessment pass, wonder what exactly they just blew up. The remains of 2 AS-90 are blacken out, totally destroyed, and one Challenger is totally destroyed, the other is burning.
Day Three, March 29th 2018 : 1040 ZULU
Location: Army Command Center, Rio Grande, Argentina:
General head of the Operation Paramour is standing in the CIC watching the war unfold, a career officer and son of a Air Force Colonel, Brigadier General has his entire life spent in the military and has never been in combat. This is his first war, and he hopes his last. As the report come in of early success, he says a quick prayer, thanking God for these successes, he knows that had the element of surprise not been achieved the entire operation could have unraveled. His senior aide, a Lt Colonel name , walks into his office.
“General i have a report of the first air to ground engagement.”
“What of it.”
“Last night during the landing of our Marines on the western island.”
“Two Air Force Rafale engaged ground targets supporting UK forces on the beach, they destroyed four armored vehicles at two sites, two tanks and two self propelled artillery guns. We have recovered 8 to 10 KIA on the UK side, so far the UK has not responded to our requests to confirm their identities. Our men have secured the two sites and are trying to recover any intelligence.”
“The English will never talk to us again, we have just stolen their island from them.”
“Order the men to bury the KIA’s and bag any personal items, we will send it back the to UK once this operation has concluded.”
“Yes sir”
The General looks back at his laptop, a small computer on a otherwise large oak desk, the screen displays a live feed of the war, reports coming in from four dozen commands and nearly 100 other sources. This information all goes into a fusion center located four floors below, the information is sorted and organized and then sent back up to the chain of command for men like the general and his superiors. The General war plan calls for both air and sea based invasion, both of which are very risky, the Argentinians plan was to use the element of surprise to capture the island, and then transport over additional heavy units once the initial attack ended. This would take two weeks roughly and he would have almost 25,000 soldiers ready to defend the island, he requested nearly 50,000 but was denied, the Massa government said that mobilize that many soldiers would give the wrong signal domestically, he wanted to use the less amount of forces possible, but would increase it once they had secured all of their objectives.
Day Three, March 29th 2018 : 1040 ZULU
Location: Goose Green :
Lt Col Steven Bridgeford was looking down Darwin Road for any signs of , he is using a thermal imaging camera, the contrast between the infrared image of the ground below and the green from his COP at the top of Mt Usborne. His trying to spot the Argentina paratroopers heading his way. The COP is situated in a strategically important choke point. Nearly 600m above sea level, along a plateau beneath Mt Usborne, he has a grand view of the entire southern island. Ordinarily the view was something you would see on national geographic, but clouds of blacken smoke fill the air and as he looks out onto the coastline he can see aircraft flying overhead the dropping of flares the only light in this moonless night. He remembered the first time he looked out at the southern basin, snapping a picture with his DSLR camera for his personal collection. He looks back at that same view now and watches the night, the distance flash of artillery striking the ground is like a delayed camera flash. Brief and bright, the light from the impacts remind him of the flash from his camera, a second later the sound wave hits him reminding him that there is nothing congenial about it. His fellow soldiers are dying out there, in the middle of a major military battle. He starts counting the impacts, trying to figure out how many artillery pieces the Argentinians have on the coastline and the ranges. The last thing he wants is to be inside of there guns range. His COP is covered in camo netting and is well hidden among the rocky outcroppings blasted out of the mountains in the late 1880s. But they offer very little protection from artillery, or aircraft the Argentinians have a much different Air Force now, and his men will stick out against the cold mountains. He knows once they zeroed in on him there isn’t much he will be able to do, his orders are to defend the choke point and prevent the paratrooper from regrouping with the forces outside of Port Stanley. The Lt Col is about to take part in what would be later called the “Second Battle of Goose Green”.
The COP casts it’s a digital eye over most of the Darwin road. The only road that connects southern towns to the north. Dotted along the road are fire positions his men have dug. Roughly 20 position dot both sides of the road leading back to the COP. His thermal camera lets him zoom in enough to see which of his lads is sleeping. He radio’s his staff Sergeant, to wake up PO12 two of the men were laying motionless, likely asleep. The click of the radio confirms the order and he watches his Sargent get up and scurry along the road 50 meters down into the foxholes. The men snap up and grab there rifles as the Sargent motions his hands obviously yelled at them, the Lt Col relaxes for a minute. At least the morale was good. Bridgeford is part of a 240 man element of Royal Marines guarding the choke point, he was sent to Goose Green a week before, to setup position along the road and to mine it to prevent the movement of forces from the south, this was the last set of orders he received from HQ, part of troop movements the UK order as information was coming about a possible invasion. The Argentinians paratroopers objective was to seize the hill and capture the airfield, Darwin road was the only route for armor vehicles landing in the southern island to connect with forces laying siege to Port Stanley. During the last battle the roles were reversed and it was the Argentina’s that were defending these same positions from UK commandos attached to the 3 Para attacked on May 28th 1982. It’s importance hasn’t changed, as the Lt Col is reminded of that as he looks down at the memorial where 16 British soldiers were the laid to rest seizing it.
Instead in the last 24 hours have greatly increased his stress level, before his biggest threat was the men fighting boredom, but he knows that at anytime the paratroopers could enter the area, and they would be in a real fight. Out gunned, less than 2 hours before his men fired a one of the only SAM’s they had at a Argentina fighter which flew too low, likely doing a recon flight over the area. The missile missed and the fighter escaped, but they likely alerted the Argentinians of their position. He knew that the attack would be coming very soon. His worried now is that his position has been compromised, his intelligence officer had told him that the radio chatter for the last two days has indicated that roughly 500 to 1000 paratroopers were moving toward this position. Then his radio got jammed cutting him off from the main Army HQ compound feeding him intelligence from in the north of the island. Without signals intel or communications the Royal Marines have decided to hunker down and wait for the Argentinians to approach the roadway. The will ambush the paratroopers and then withdraw. The previous night during the initially attack he was order to lay mines along the road and to close it to traffic. There are roughly 300 mines blocking the road, these are a mix of Anti-tank and anti-personnel. The UK commander figures it will take the paras a few hours to clear the minefield. While they are inside the minefield his forces will attack with mortars and heavy machine guns from their position on top of the mountain. Hopefully they can further delay the Argentinian forces long enough for a armored reaction force from the north to arrive. The force is a few hours away, and left in the morning to reinforce his position after reports of the landing of forces on the southern island. The armored column includes a heavy artillery piece and two tanks, some of the only remaining UK armor on the island. It’s his only hope without the armor reinforcements his men are outnumbered and outgunned, his orders say he should retreat to new position if can no long hold Goose Green.
They are paras a exposed right now roughly six miles from the choke point, they are a mixed force of light infantry, lightly armed with FN rifles and SAWs, and without heavy weapons. In the night the paratroopers had been resupplied by helicopter, four CH-47 dropped 4×4 vehicles and anti-tank missiles. This greatly increase the amount of land the paratroopers could cover. The UK has lost both drones it had providing real-time intelligence, in the southern basin last night when they were shot down along the coastline. His well aware of the size of the forces moving towards him. The UK Marines The road was wide enough to drive a tank through and the only road which could support the weight. The Darwin road was a critical link, it ran the narrow strip of land which divides the southern and northern half of the main island.
The first detection of Argentina forces, is noticed by the alert software used to watch the road. The camera is connected to a small computer setup to detect motion. The camera servo wines as it turns and focuses its lens at a small car driving up the road. It’s a small hatchback, at first the Lt Col thinks it a civilian vehicle, locals trying to escape from conflict further south. But as his camera zooms in he can actually see the men inside four armed soldiers, the cold metal from there rifles against there warm bodies gives them away. He orders his men in snap count, the rehearsal chain of action that will get them all ready for combat. They been planning this for a week since they arrived and it’s now go time.
Day Three, March 29th 2018 : 1040 ZULU
Location: Army Command Center, Rio Grande, Argentina:
To Be Continued…