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dinsdale -> RE: The Falklands Conflict (8/3/2007 6:49:22 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mek42
If the French shipment of Exocets had arrived and the task force severely punished, how badly would that have tarnished UK - France relations?
One of the dirty little secrets of the war was that we supplied far more arms to Argentina than the French. Their SeaCat ASM, Blowpipe and Tigercat SAMs were ours, their infantry MG was the same as ours. IIRC, we sold them their boots.
They also had American helicopters and fighters, Belgian infantry weapons and German anti tank missiles. So it would have been a bit harsh to yell at the French. But as to the question, UK-French relations have been about the same since Agincourt :)
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Dredd,
I also find that war fascinating for a number of reasons:
1) All I remember from the time was that the media portrayed it as a foregone conclusion from the moment the task force sailed. Reading about it afterwards though, the war could have been a much closer run thing, and was potentially disasterous. British history for the next two decades could have been dramatically different.
2) In an era where modern weapons and platforms are the stars, the war was won by infantry tactics and marching. A really unique event in the past 100 years. Not just a part of a campaign, but the entire campaign devoid of heavy tanks.
3) Us scraping together bombers from the 60's, fighters from the 70's, cruise ships and ships we sold off to the Aussies, as well as the last conflict where our infantry weapon training focussed on single shots. I think everything from being caught pants down, not having a navy to get enough men there and the state of our military is sort of the punctuation mark at the end of a 30 year long paragraph of British decay. Perhaps one of the lowest points of our history.
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