As we heard in Episode 15, the British were ascendant, but they’d paid a high price.Twenty-six Argentinian planes had been shot down since the landings at San Carlos, ten British ships had been damaged by unexploded bombs, so imagine the carnage had these been fused properly. 

Five ships had been sunk – HMS Sheffield, Ardent, Antelope, Coventry and the SS Atlantic Conveyor. One more would go down before the end of this short war. 

Back in the U.K. the cabinet was muttering about action and naturally, this pressure on the leadership in the Falklands became unbearable. 

Their gaze switched to the south, instead of the east where Port Stanley stood. It turned to Darwin and Goose Green. Then on the morning of 23rd May, 2 Para received a warning order from 3 Commando Brigade – three of the four companies were to carry out a large-scale raid on the Argentinian positions at Darwin and Goose Green. 

One company would remain behind at Sussex Mountain. The officers were not happy about the plan. Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Jones, or H as he was known, pointed out that they were advancing in exactly the opposite direction to the main strategic goal, Stanley. H was also unhappy about the plan itself, they were going to attack strongly held enemy positions from the obvious direction, the north, without full air and artillery support. He asked that 3 Para be moved by chopper or by sea to the south. No said the brigade commander, Julian Thompson. The loss of the Chinooks on the Atlantic Conveyor made any move of this sort impossible.  

So on the afternoon of 24th May 1982, Delta company led off the long march to secure its first objective known as Camilla Creek House. That was eleven miles down the route, and following Delta company would be the remainder of the battalion. Camilla Creek house overlooked the Goose Green Settlement, it was the obvious strategic point. 

At seven that night the attack was cancelled – poor weather meant that their supporting artillery could not be moved. D Company had to march back up Sussex Mountain, back to their waterlogged trenches and cold nights. 

Two days later on the 26th May, Lieutenant Colonel Jones was summoned to another urgent meeting at Brigade HQ – 2 Para were now heading to Goose Green once more. What Jones didn’t know was that Brigadier Thompson was trying to stop the assault – he’d phoned the war cabinet back in the U.K. and tried to convince his superiors that the southern isthmus was no real danger on his flank – he could easily hold them back while he marched on Stanley. He was worried that what was a form of sideshow would go horribly wrong. But he failed. Thatcher and her cabinet wanted blood as quickly as possible, it was a political imperative because she was aware that public opinion had shifted after the loss of so many ships – and the fact that since the landing at San Carlos, the British had appeared to have frozen at the Bay. 

There were a few significant failings that began about now – and one involved intelligence. 

As you’re going to hear, 2 Para were sent into battle against a far bigger force because intelligence had got a few things badly wrong. They suggested that the Argentinians defending the settlement had a weak battalion, probably fewer than 600 men,  and Thompson believed the 450 men of 2 Para were enough. Once his attempts at stopping this assault failed, he was determined to make it a swift victory. 

Unfortunately, there were close to 4 times that number of Argentinians waiting for his men. 

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