DEFENDING THE FALKLANDS PART I THE GATHERING STORM
On 1 April 1982 Major Mike Norman took command of a small garrison of around 70 Royal Marines stationed on the Falkland Islands. He was looking forward to a quiet year’s posting, with time for some adventure training, fishing and exploring the rugged interior of the islands. His Foreign Office briefings and their low-level intelligence summaries gave him no major cause for concern, forecasting a slow ratcheting up of economic sanctions by the Argentine military junta of President Leopoldo Galtieri. But that afternoon, at 2.25pm Falklands Time, a dramatic message came through from London, “We now have apparently reliable evidence that an Argentinian task force will gather off Cape Pembroke [the easternmost point of the Falkland Islands] early tomorrow morning. You will wish to make your dispositions accordingly.”
This brief announcement left everyone aghast. Why hadn’t such a threat been properly anticipated? Falklander John Smith noted in his diary, “Now it has all become suddenly clear why we have had regular overflights by Argentine aircraft. But the enormity of the news has left everyone absolutely stunned. How could an invasion force be assembled, put to sea and then be off the Falklands for at least ten
