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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 28, 1982
PAGE 11
From "Gung Ho" Optimism to Growing Doubts
The biggest story of all, of course, is the Falklands War. Only two days
ago, after British commandoes successfully established a beachhead on East
Falklands, the British press was confidently predicting an early end to the
war. "Victory in One Week" shouted the page one headline in the May 24th
DAILY MAIL; "Next Stop Port Stanley" exclaimed the DAILY EXPRESS. Even the
more reserved DAILY TELEGRAPH headlined its May 25th lead editorial "After
We Win."
But then the "Argies" came striking back, hard.
The British frigates
Ardent and Antelope exploded in spectacular fireballs after being bombed.
On May 25th (Argentina's national day) the destroyer HMS Coventry--sister
ship to the HMS Sheffield, destroyed earlier in the conflict--sunk after
being hit by what newsmen in San Carlos Bay called a "kamikaze" wave of low
flying fighter bombers.
One hour later, the container ship Atlantic
Conveyor (which had transported additional Sea Harrier jets to the task
force) was hit by two deadly Exocet missiles and abandoned. This time the
headline on page 1 of the May 27 SUN screamed in 3-inch letters, "OUR
DARKEST HOUR."
There is little doubt that the two Super Etendard jets, each carrying one
Exocet missile and refueled in mid-£light to extend their range, were
really after a bigger fish--one of the British carriers, probably the
Invincible. But fortunately for the British (despite the loss of precious
cargo) the planes' radar screens could not distinguish between the carrier
and the Conveyer, both about the same size and tonnage.
"We knew we had scored a hit," a military spokesman in Buenos Aires
allegedly told a British reporter, "and thought at first that it really was
the Invincible with your little Prince [Prince Andrew] on board. It would
have been an important victory for us on our national Revolution day."
Nevertheless, the vulnerability of Britain's Navy has been rather rudely
exposed. Budgetary cost-cutting by the Navy, along with a plain lack of
vision over what kind of naval force was needed, have been largely respon
sible for the remarkable losses suffered so far.
The Naval Editor of
DEFENSE MAGAZINE, Anthony Preston wrote an article for the May 25 DAILY
MAIL entitled "Blunders That Left Our Ships in Peril."
Here are some
excerpts:
There is, for every political decision, a moment of truth. And
for many of the decisions made in the name of Britain's defence
in the past 16 years that moment has arrived in the waters off the
Falklands.
Amid the general euphoria over the stories of success, there has
been the appalling news of the losses at sea.
First, the
Sheffield, then, at the weekend, the Ardent, and now the
Antelope. One thing has been common in each case: fire raging
out of control through the ships••••The problem is that aluminium
is light and melts at a much lower temperature than steel•••• The
Type 21 frigates in the Falklands, which include both the Ardent
and the Antelope, have aluminium superstructures.
The basic problem, summarizes Preston, is that the aluminium (aluminum in
the U.S.) super-structured frigates represented a concession by the British