OK, part three of the Falklands 25th anniversary series. The others are here, dealing with command, and here, dealing with Margaret Thatcher. It’s been quite a common idea since the war that the Falklands represented some sort of throwback to the empire, or alternatively a rejection of Europe in favour of it. This is usually…
Read More Falklands Myth 3: An Imperial War?The Falklands War represents a big part of the Thatcher mythos, to the extent that it’s become part of the media’s operational code that you can’t divide the two. This is founded on a couple of facts, and more myths. The fact is that it undoubtedly helped her win re-election from a fairly ugly starting…
Read More Myths of the Falklands 2: Thatcher’s War25 years ago, there was a war on, too. Everyone knows the story – fascist dictator invades forgotten colony in middle of nowhere, stalwart soldiery and jolly Jack Tar kick him out, patriotic rejoicing, vague guilt, and kajillions of words of editorialising ever since. The Falklands War remains an event that badly needs good history,…
Read More Myths of the Falklands: Number 1, CommandI do not care whether or not the sailors from Cornwall profit by selling their stories. Michael Portillo thinks that it is the worst misfortune to befall the Navy since the Falklands. I disagree strongly. Which ships have sunk? Who is dead? Let’s not be snarky and mention Portillo’s term as Defence Secretary, one that…
Read More I Don’t CareHow many times do I have to tell you? A US aircraft carrier will leave port for the Gulf every six months, about six months after the last one. BTW, the assorted speculation on some of the US blogs about the RN’s carriers is risible. The current RN presence in the Gulf consists of two…
Read More Yes, there is STILL not going to be a war with IranAnother in our occasional series of comments that ought to be posts: Rob Farley discusses a Max Boot article in which Boot accuses Britain and Canada of “unilaterally disarming” on the grounds that Canada had the world’s third largest navy in 1945. Farley, of course, gives Boot short shrift, but does point out that armies…
Read More Bad British HistoryChatter builds that the US govt is considering moving another carrier to the Gulf to put pressure on Iran. Meh. Fleet availablity is still low. Eisenhower is on station, Enterprise back from deployment and due to go in dockyard hands. Nimitz is doing her COMPTUEX off Southern California. Reagan is still in the CARQUALs phase…
Read More There is still going to be no attack on IranYet more stupid giant floating radar news. Not only can’t it keep the sea if the weather turns bad, not only is there no sea boat, and no security – but its support vessel won’t be able to go alongside it most of the time, according to the US Coast Guard. This really is one…
Read More I see a ship in the harbourThis pissed me off all week. Yesterday, the world’s biggest container ship, M/V Emma Maersk arrived in Felixstowe on her first trip from China to Europe. There has been a degree of pre-Christmas hype about this sailing, revolving around the notion that she is packed with nothing but Christmas presents-to-be. This may be a little…
Read More Saving the planet in the slowest possible wayYesterday, October 31st, at 1126 Central European Time, we had the following entry in the server log… 205.65.1.21 [entrypoint #424] 2006/10/carrierwatch-update_30.html Oct 31, 11:26:28 [0:00:00] views: 1 Proxy: noca-b1.uar.navy.mil – CVN65UCSDC2, 1.0webc2.uar.navy.mil:80 (squid/2.5.STABLE3) That is to say, someone aboard CVN-65, the USS Enterprise, read this post. You know who you are. You know where the…
Read More Best visit ever