An overview of the 1981 Falkland war when the UK took back the Falkland Islands after a surprise attack and occupation by Argentine forces. Military Book Club selection. ( )

It is now twenty-five years since the Falklands War, so I thought I'd read this book of my father's to remind myself. I left for the States during the conflict, so missed most of the events of June. ("Now for the World news. In Texas today ...")

This is certainly a well written and constructed book, but it covers a lot of ground and as a consequence the depth is lacking. Also, it was written and published in 1982, so there is limited perspective. The overwhelming message is the sheer number of cock-ups that happened, both on the political and military fronts.

The perspective issue is the big stumbling block. This is supposed to be the product of an 'Insight' team, but it just came over as journalism: very good journalism, but no earth-shattering insights. There are a number of events that have come to light in the intervening years: no - the Harriers didn't use viffing for fear of tearing the airframes apart; the Falklands Islands economy has been revived; the Navy couldn't mount another such operation; the poor support for the veterans; the strong relationship between Reagan and Thatcher. OK, so predicting any of these possible outcomes was beyond the remit of this book, but even so, this comes across as just a narrative. I haven't read Thatcher's 'The Downing Street Years' yet, so I suppose that I should bump that up the list to get another perspective.

I think this is probably a good starting point if you are intending to get an overview before doing detailed reading around the subject, but you won't come away thinking that you've learnt something new. ( )