Scenario: The Battle for the Falkland Islands Time: May 3rd, 1982 Place: Isles Malvinas Situation: The Air Defence Commander has just gotten the results of his air strike. Realizing that his COIN aircraft would have little chance to make it to the British fleet off shore by themselves, he had worked out a plan to co-ordinate his strike with that due from the mainland at 100 hours, local time. At 1005 his attack waves took off, with 20 Pucaras aircraft making up his force. Arriving at the location of the British fleet, his force found no sign of any ether aircraft save for British Harriers, who quickly sent half the force down as wreckage. The remainder dumped their leads and ran for home. Informed of these results, Air Commodore Wilson Pedroze quickly started to write an angry dispatch to the mainland, along the lines of I was there, and where the hell was you. In the midst of his writing, one of the game's referees pointed out that if he checked the operational order for the attack sent from the mainland the 1000 hours was right, but the date for the joint attack was to be made on the 4th of may. Realizing his mistake, Air Commodore Wilson Pedroze quickly ripped up his dispatch, and started another one: I regret to report that last night members of the SAS raided our airstrip at Goose Green and destroyed ten Pucara aircraft an the ground On March 2nd, 1985, the members of the "Goldfish Bowl" with the cooperation of the Military Gaming Club of the University of Illinois held a "Committee Game" of the recent Falkland Islands/Islves Malvinas. We did not get a chance to do all that we wanted, nor complete the war, but a good time was had by all. A committee game is more of a paper game than a miniatures game. Players, each representing an actual person or officer, are placed together and put to work. For this game, four committees were organized, and held in separate areas. The committees were: BRITISH HOME GOVERNMENT: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; Defence Minister John Knott; Sir Terence Lewin, Chief of Defence Staff; Sir John Fieldhouse, Commander in Chief British Fleet; Major General Jeremy Moore, Commander Falkland's Landing Force*; Brigadier Anthony Wilson, Commander 5th Infantry Brigade*. (*Moore and Wilson would start the game at home and then shift places where the QE II sailed south with the 5th Infantry Brigade. BRITISH FORCES AT SEA: Rear Admiral John Woodard, Commander First Flotilla; Commodore Michael Clapp, Commander Amphibious Force; Brigadier Julian Thompson, Commander 3rd Commando Brigade; Lt. Col. Michael Rose, Celdstream Guards, Commanding SAS/SBS. (When the QE II sails, Moore and Wilson will join this force and committee) ARGENTINE FORCE ON ISLVES MALVINAS: Major General Mario Benjamin Menendez, Military Governor; Brigadier General Joffre, 10th Infantry Brigade; Air Commodore Wilson Pedrozo, Malvinas Isles Air Command. ARGENTINE MAINLAND: General Leopoldo Galtieri, President and Commander of the Army; Admiral Jorge Amaya, Commander of the Navy; Brigadier General Basilo Lami Doze, Commander of the Air Force; Nicanor Costa Mendes, Foreign Minister. Players are given a packet of information on the units (if any) that they control, as well as their personal victory conditions. Communication between committees is by written message for the most part, though a flying visit can sometimes be arranged if required -- General Galtieri during the course of the game flew in a C-130 out to the Malvinas to visit with the garrison. The need to keep communications simple and to the point showed up when the British home committee sent so many messages from all of their members to the officer commanding the fleet that he never was able to answer all of them before he went down on HMS INVINCIBLE on the 2nd of May -- and his successor kept getting nasty notes as to why he didn't replay to my message of.... Command is based on the level that the player's character is actually holding. For example, General Joffre got to decide where on the island he would place his units, but did not actually decide how each battalion would set up. He did, however get to issue an order that proved to be important during the course of the campaign -- that each battalion would have to keep a platoon on ready alert status at all times. John Woodard as commander of the British Task Force could detach ships or add them, but did not worry about which weapons would fire when. When minor detail was needed, it was the task of the referees to work it out. One rule that was given to the players was that unless told otherwise, the referees would carry out the player's orders in the easiest possible way. People tend to go around mountains when they have the chance, not climb over them. Hence planes sent from A to B go the most direct route. This is Murphy's Rule, named after a character who was sent in a game to purchase parts to build a bomb, and who walked into a store and purchased six alarm clocks, six sets of batteries, six rolls of friction tape, and six reels of wire. The referees for this game were, myself, Greg Novak; organizer and head referee; Frank Chadwick -- referee for the Falklands; Phil Hall -- British Home Government and Commander SAS; Tom Harris -- British Navy Force; Rob Davidson -- Argentine mainland; and Walt LeBeque -- person in charge of figuring out the root of the matter and keeping us moving. Overall a right good crew and with enough knowledge to figure out any problems between us and work them out. Play commenced on May 1st, with the British fleet north of the Falklands, and Argentine and British submarines at seas. Of all the packets, Margaret Thatcher's had gone astray in the mail, so she was off and running looking for information. To start the game off, Harriers intercepted and shot down two Argentine 707's flying recon for the Argentine Air Force. Argentina quickly sent a dispatch to the British Home Government accusing them of shooting down two passenger aircraftwhich in turn led to additional dispatches being sent to the fleet asking what happened. The fleet sent back an answer that, yes, they had shot down two 707's but forgot to add that they were recon planes, not airliners. Cries of despair at this time were heard from the Cabinet Office at this message. On the 1st through 3rd, a cat and mouse game was played in the waters about the Falklands as the submarines HMS CONQUEROR and ARA SALTA chased each other while helicopters of the Task force looked for both -- London forgot to tell the fleet that the CONQUEROR was in the area dropping off some SOS teams. The copters got the SALTA in the end, and came very close to doing in the CONQUEROR as well. The CONQUEROR's plight came to an end when it happened to get off a message to London stating that it was under attack and the fleet was told to provide all possible aid and assistance. The fleet then realized whose side the sub was on! A massive air assault took place on the 2nd as Argentina put every aircraft she had into the air. Fighters coming in high quickly found out how good the British long range SAM missiles were when the targets came in at high altitude. Wave after wave of Skyhawks flew in, damaging one ship very badly, and coming close on numerous occasions -- pilots reported back one cruiser and destroyer sunk, several damaged. However, the air arm of the Argentina Navy, circling around behind the British Fleet put an Exocet missile into the HMS INVINCIBLE while she was rearming aircraft. Read Admiral Woodard and 30% of his crew were lost and the wreckage stayed afloat burning for the next day (Prince Andrew was off flying an ASW mission at the time and was not hurt). There was great rejoicing in Argentina and much sadness in London. The third was marked by the massacre of the Pucaras mentioned at the start of the article and the messages that followed between the Air Force and the Mainland, and the mainland the islands. The Army commander Joffre informed Galtieri that no raid had occurred, but the Junta decided that he was covering up for his neglect of the airfield. Argentine ASW units began a sweep of coastal waters to ensure that any British submarines near the fleet would be driven off or destroyed and in the process sank HMS SPARTAN for the first of three reported kills on the same ship. On the fourth, the Argentine air assault hit the British Fleet again, with the added punch that three of Argentina's last four Exocet missiles were used. Little damage was done, though some interesting moments occurred as the Exocet which locked on the HMS HERMES was decoyed away at the last minute, while the other two ended up each locking on one of the British store ships supporting the fleet. The RFA FORT AUSTIN was hit but the missile failed to explode and was pushed overboard by a rating who became the winner of the first VC of the conflict. The RFA RESOURCE was also hit and her helicopter landing deck and two of her Sea King helicopters were lost. Faced with this effort, the British Navy decided to retire to the east and await orders from London. On the fifth day, the Argentina Navy, minus the carrier ARA 25th of May, sailed for the islands only to find that the HMS SPARTAN was still off shore. The cruiser ARA GENERAL BELGRANO was quickly torpedoed and sent to the bottom. Orders from London that the Royal Marine Raiding Squadron was to be transferred to the submarine HMS CONQUEROR for a series of pin prick raids on the Falklands was meant by requests from the fleet that elements of the 40th Commando be sent instead. The withdrawal of the fleet meant that air activities in the area of the Falklands fell off, though the British did commence (finally) a bombin mission on Port Stanley. Though the field was not put of action, two light attack aircraft were hit on the ground. Due to respect for the British long range surface to air missile systems, Argentine pilots flying recon missions with the Learjets of Groupo 2 were ordered to break off at first contact. Accordingly on the sixth, a jet flying south of the islands reported contact with an enemy force. An air strike sent out found nothing in the area save for several icebergs and the location of the British Fleet was felt to be east of the Malvinas. General Galtieri took a chance and made a run into the islands on the nightly C-130 run and spent the day reviewing the troops, promising reinforcements and the like. Reports of his visit were made to London, as SAS units learned and confirmed the arrival of the General. A top level debate took place as to whether or not the SAS should attempt to take the General's plane down when he left, but the final decision was to let him leave. Argentine ASW units again sank the HMS SPARTAN and the fleet at sea divided, two destroyers sailing to the Falklands while the rest of the Fleet stayed in coastal waters. The 7th, which turned out to be the last turn of the exercise, resulted in some interesting events. A long range strike with the last Exocet Missile was made against the British Fleet. Again, the missile found the HERMES and locked out, but the British were able to decoy it way in time. Galtieri returned home and a SAS/40th Commando Royal Marine's landing raid was made on a land based Exocet battery on the north coast of the island. A band of 40 Marines/SAS atacked the battery which was guarded by a 150 man detachment of Argentine Marines. Due to the reactions of the sentries on duty, the raiders made it to 10 meters of the Argentine lines before the alarm was given. A brief and bloody action took place with the raiders losing 50% of their force but destroying two missiles, the radar set, and the control bunker. The raiders would have not gotten away, for the ordered line of retreat was able to be cut by an Argentine Ready Alert Platoon, which delayed the remaining British force and prevented their escape. Time had run out for us at this point and we called the game. Several important points were noted by the referees and will need to be adjusted for the next round: 1) Make sure that players have individual victory conditions as well as team victory conditions. Individual conditions give players the ability to round out their roles and force all players to wonder and worry about their teammates. 2) Limit the amount of time that players have to communicate with each other. Messages have to be sent in code, communications sometimes fail, etc. 3) Have a press referee -- most of the player's victory conditions had to do with getting a good press rating -- this was one area that we could have used another person. For the next attempt we are looking for a place with a PA system so while the referees work out the actual turn, radio BBC and RADIO ARGENTINA can go on the air and give their sides of the story. 4) Make sure that we have as good a group of gamers as we had for this game -- none of the players -- and only three of the referees, had been in such a game before. All played to a very high standard -- accepted the rulings of the referees in good faith and got into the spirit of things. A well-done to all of them! Back to MWAN # 20 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1986 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com