Did prayer decide the Battle of Goose Green?
by John Scriven, Artillery Row:
The fight to take back the Falkland Islands was riskier than we might think.
This is the fortieth anniversary of the year of the Falklands conflict, and we are now close to the anniversary of the battle at Goose Green. As I describe in my book Beyond the Odds, prayer was a theme during the two World Wars — there were nine National Days of Prayer during the Second World War, and many of the commanders had a strong faith. After the Second World War, the Christian faith and worldview declined, as it has done further since then. There were no National Days of Prayer, and some people were opposed to the war. Nevertheless, there was private prayer at home and in the serving forces.
The expedition to take back the Falkland Islands was a far riskier venture than it may seem in retrospect. It was thought at first that the Super Étendard Argentine fighter planes, based on the Argentine mainland and armed with Exocet missiles, could not reach the Falklands with any effective weapons load. This proved to be wrong, since the planes refuelled in mid-air. The British did not have air superiority and the landing was going to be extremely dangerous. However, on 21 May, British troops landed unopposed at night in San Carlos Bay in favourable weather. Fortunately, an Argentine pre-conflict study had concluded that it was an impossible site for a successful landing. Reports that the force was heading for San Carlos were dismissed by Argentine commanders on the basis that this must be a diversion. We cannot connect the successful landing with particular prayers, though individuals were praying. And everything did not go right following the landing, when a number of ships were sunk with great loss of life.
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