Goose Green
The Decisive Battle of the Falklands War – by the British Troops Who Fought It
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Goose Green
Buy Now for £29.99
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Keeble
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By:
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Nigel Ely
About this listen
As featured in the landmark BBC2 documentary Our Falklands War: A Frontline Story
Published to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Falklands war
'There was a time when we did extraordinary things.'
On 28 May 1982, 450 men of the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment—2 Para—went into action to retake the settlement of Goose Green on East Falkland, where more than 1,000 Argentine soldiers were holding 119 Falkland Islanders—men, women, children and one baby—in squalid conditions.
Forty years on, Goose Green is still the biggest and bloodiest battle the British Army has fought in modern times. This book is the living narrative of the battle told by the very men who fought it; not just the soldiers of 2 Para, but also the SAS, the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy, and others, in more than a hundred exclusive and untold personal accounts.
Some are extremely funny, some touching, and some heart-breaking. All were recorded face to face, the speakers' own words adding a gritty authenticity to each account and conveying the confusion and terror of battle, as well as the courage and selflessness of men in action. Goose Green is a book that goes beyond the official histories and the many memoirs to bring to life the first and, as it turned out, the decisive battle of this country's outstanding campaign to retake the Falkland Islands from a foreign invader.
This is a true story of a great victory against all the odds, told by the men who fought it.
©2022 Nigel Ely (P)2022 Bonnier Books UKListeners also enjoyed...
Now I'm older, I find the recent history just as interesting as the far past. As Britain fractures into component nations, the 1982 conflict will be seen as one of the high watermarks of British achievement. To send a collection of ships thousands of miles away to take back an inhospitable set of islands was dismissed as impossible at the time. That the task was achieved is more jaw-dropping now than it was then.
As a key landmark in the fight was victory of 400 Paras over 1,200 dug-in opponents. Military experts will tell you that to stand a chance you need a three to only
The author, Nigel Ely, was there. Rather than simply give a personal account he has used his access to colleagues to stitch together a 360-degree account of the fog of war that's astonishing.
The book has contradictions. Colonel H Jones led the Paras to victory but gave his life doing it is chief amongst those. What emerges is a marmite character who would end careers of those who came up against him and whose impossible plan was poorly thought through. There's the suggestion that vital intelligence passed onto Jones was kept out from Para battle plan. But while he's not mentioned with love one Para speaks of the rude disloyalty of even being asked what he thought of Colonel Jones by another serviceman years after the battle. That's not something to talk about. To even call into question a Victoria Cross winner seems disloyal. Yet so many accounts of bravery got unrewarded.
What's also particularly striking is the way many of the injured Paras are cast out of the Regiment after the battle. Only one, dubbed 'Metal Mickey' as his body is full of enemy shrapnel, remains. But despite this, the voices speak with pride of their achievements.
if there was one flaw it's that it didn't have an Argentine perspective. True, the title spells out that this was from a British perspective but the story of the Argentine serviceman remains the untold story and would have added greater depth.
A magnificent story.
Far more than a war memoir
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Carnegie
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This book tells the story of the second parachute regiment's battle for Goose Green. The book has a multitude of accounts from various participants, both military and non military. The book starts a few years before and we see how some of those telling their stories entered the parachute regiment and the training they did. This proves to be a fascinating back story to those brave men that become such elite soldiers.
Jonathan Keeble does an amazing job of voicing all the character accounts, being able to change his voice and employ a range of convincing accents to help portray the story as told by the various men that were there.
Once battle is joined, the accounts pull you into the thick of it and we glimpse the fury, confusion and terror of war. Horrific injuries and horrible deaths leave one with a real sense of the brutality and visceral nature of combat.
Further, this book goes a little beyond the battle and we hear some of how the injured men recovered in a time before PTSD was really recognized.
A gripping read from start to finish.
Brutal, Funny and Sad
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A great book well told from lots of sources.
Fantastic
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Really excellent
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