Pluck and Luck

By Donald Morrison

THE BATTLE FOR THE FALKLANDS by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins Norton;384 pages; $17.50

For 2 1/2 months last year, Britain and Argentina fought a 19th century naval battle with late-20th century weapons over possession of some remote islands. When it was over, Britain had regained lost honor, Argentina was politically devastated, and much of the world was left wondering what all the fuss was about.

In this stirring, impressively detailed account, London Evening Standard Correspondent Max Hastings and Economist Political Editor Simon Jenkins chronicle the gallantry and grotesqueness of a war that should never have been fought.

Once the British task force set sail, its commanders had only a hazy notion of what to do when they arrived. They met an unexpectedly formidable enemy: the foul South Atlantic winter, which claimed lives and aircraft and often made fighting impossible. The war's major weapons, as expected, were missiles. Yet some of the most advanced models stumbled: Argentina's air-to-ship Exocets sank the destroyer Sheffield but usually missed their mark, and Britain's ground-to-air Rapiers proved unreliable. In the end, it was not technology that won and lost the war, but foot soldiers. Britain's commandos, paratroopers and infantry had to dislodge a well-armed force of defenders. But the Argentines, many of them frightened, hungry, ill-clothed conscripts, put up only tepid resistance.

The most riveting parts of The Battle for the Falklands are the tales of pluck and heroism by British forces: a platoon sergeant who died attempting to silence an enemy machine-gun nest with hand grenades, a helicopter pilot who flew a solitary mission over Port Stanley, a wounded commando who stayed behind to cover a comrade's escape. By contrast, Argentine forces are generally, and perhaps unfairly, depicted as inept and their leaders as divided and squabbling. Yet if Hastings and Jenkins are partial to the home team, they can also be critical: of the Royal Navy's tendency to act without consulting its sister services, of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's inability to avoid hostilities in the first place. The authors do, however, applaud the Prime Minister's Churchillian tenacity once there was no turning back. "The figure of Margaret Thatcher towers over the Falklands drama from its inception to the euphoria of the final triumph," they conclude. "Her single-mindedness, even her arch phraseology ('Defeat--I do not recognize the meaning of the word!'), all seemed to armor her against any suspicion that this might be a dangerous, even absurd, adventure."

It was, of course, both dangerous and absurd. But the adventure was also emotionally unifying for the British and, in the eyes of most of the world, a justified response to Argentine piracy. Britain regained, for a moment, its sense of power and purpose. But the victory will forever be measured in Britain against the estimated $1.2 billion cost of the war and the blood of 255 valiant Britons who never came home. For them, Hastings and Jenkins have constructed a poignant memorial.

--By Donald Morrison This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.