'Argentine Fight for the Falklands'
Brit historian writes from interviews and official records of how the Argentinians saw and fought the war. Lots of first-hand stuff, and nicely balanced. Proper consideration of the courage and skill of so many of the Argentinians involved, in particular their pilots. Proper weighting for their successes.
One thing leapt out at me, as it always does when I read their accounts, and that is their rather sad jingoism. The sort of shit that the Sun posted made me squirm; this appears to be an entire country obsessed with similar adolescent excess.
"I saw the ship, and after a prayer to the most holy Mother of God, I said 'Viva la patria' and dropped the bomb"
I saw an interview years ago of Chris Keeble, the eventual victor of Goose Green. He was calm, controlled and respectful. He spoke of how his main concern was to avoid needless deaths, so he went for a walk and did his best to work out a way to end the killing, finally coming up with the idea of simply demanding the pother side surrender.
The Argentine commander spoke a load of bollocks about sacred soil and willing sacrifice for the holy Patria and... Pillock.
I am not going to have a discussion on the causes of the war, as I do not wish another session of "Ugh! English bad!"; I am writing about the conduct of the same, and I found the constant Argentine "Brave martyrs for the holy flag..." bullshit profoundly depressing. So many lives wasted.
One of my stories begins in the Falklands, and I came up with a phrase to describe the nightmares of a survivor: "Empty eyes, filled with rain".
Stick your patriotic glory where the sun shineth not.