The Battle for the Falklands - Max Hastings and Simon jenkins

 

On the day, the Falklands War started 2^nd April 1982 I had just turned 14.  I was becoming aware of the world around me and a little bit addicted to the news.

San Carlos, Goose Green, Bluff Cove, Tumbledown, Kent, The Belgrano, HMS Sheffield, Atlantic Conveyor, HMS Coventry.  These are all names that have passed into recent history and will always be a part of that 14-year-olds life and memory.

The Falklands War was perhaps the greatest crisis in Britain’s post war history and with no social media, the news reports each day were hung on to with every word analysed and every image scrutinised. 

I first read The Battle for the Falklands book in 1983 as I had received it as a present that year.  I have since read the book numerous times to check my understanding of events and simply because I like this book.

The book is written from two perspectives, those of Max Hastings a journalist who travelled with the task force and was at the front line of the battle and Simon Jenkins who sets out the wider political and diplomatic twists as the crisis unfolds.

The book gives first hand, eyewitness, on the ground accounts from Max Hastings who walked into Port Stanley ahead of the British Vanguard, who went ashore with leading elements of the Royal Marines at San Carlos, and watched the battles and war develop from key points based within the British forces with pretty much open access to leaders and soldiers alike.

Simon Jenkins traces every twist and turn in the political shenanigans and provides an in-depth analysis of intricacies and repercussions of those political developments.

For me, this book is and will always be my history of the Falklands.   It goes into fantastic detail and as it is eye witness it really gives you a feel for being there, on the ground, within the battles that took place, living the war.   It has a fantastic balance between the excitement of battle and the brutality of war.   It does not hide away from telling the difficult stories and does not try to gloss over the difficulties that had to be overcome to regain the Falklands.  The loss of life involved is in vivid reality and the impact on those involved is very apparent.

On the political side it helps you understand the pressures and stresses the government were under the thinking and diplomacy involved and sets that against the wider world political picture.

For those interested in our recent history although it is now 39 years since the Falklands War.  This book is a must read.  

Highly recommended