MYTH FIFTH: THE “GUYS” OF THE WAR
- Why were they sent?
When I started working with the gral. Galtieri as a lawyer (April 1983), one of the first questions that
I did – if it wasn't the first – it was: “General, why did they send conscripts?
He explained it to me.
He told me: "Dr.: on 4.23.82 the Naval Intelligence Service (SIN) described an encrypted message from General Pinochet addressed to
to all the Chilean Armed Forces: land, sea, air and police, ordering them to prepare to "support
openly or covertly to Great Britain” (the Fleet arrived on the 25th.).
That is why the best Argentine troops - the most experienced and equipped -, were left in the mountains, for the
fear of having to face a second front”-
This was confirmed by testimonies before the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (incorporated into case no.
59 of the Federal Chamber), by the grals. Vaquero, Garcia, and other senior officers.
But also, over the years and thanks to the information that has come to light, it was confirmed
Chilean support for the British Fleet.
2. It is a derogatory, disqualifying and partial concept.
It is partial because not all the brave Argentines who fought in Malvinas were "boys".
The heroic pilots of the Argentine Air Force, the Naval Aviation, the Argentine Navy, the
Merchant marine, infantry personnel, artillery, BIM 5, they were not “boys”. They were men.
And the "boys" performed, fully, as men.
I am of the opinion that the British government should have applauded the decision of that great son of the Fatherland
as was Carlos Saúl Menem, having abolished compulsory military service in Argentina (true "quarry"
of lions).
3. THE PERFORMANCE.
Was there any other time the British Empire faced war "boys"?
Yes, saving geographical and cultural distances.
It was January 22, 1879: Battle of Isandhlwana in South Africa.
Great Britain, in search of economic resources (never for democracy or human rights), tried to
appropriate these resources – mainly minerals – in Zulu territory (Zululand), in South Africa.
He found himself opposed by the owners of those lands: the Zulu tribes, who did not agree with the dispossession.
To convince them, the British government sent one of its best regiments – 1,200 men and 900 auxiliaries -,
armed with the most modern weapons of the time: cannons, machine guns, rifles, pistols.
Opposite were the Zulu tribes: barefoot, clad in loincloths, and armed with spears and shields.
Then the battle of Isandhlwana took place.
There were no survivors from the British side. None survived.
In the Malvinas, the British casualties are far from being the 240/250 that they mention (for a reason the state secret with
Regarding the events of 1982, it lasted for 90 years, when the normal was 30).
The German magazine "Stern" (1984) gives a British loss estimate of around 1,500 men.
Captain Robacio and Admiral Busser mention the same on the basis of conversations held with
British officers when they were taken prisoner (talks between comrades, after firing ceased)
4. THE MAGNITUDE OF THE EPIC.
The Argentine people have no idea of the magnitude of the epic that he starred in, among others, with the “boys”.
We hardly remember that in 1806 and 1807 the population of this "village at the end of the world" kicked out of Buenos Aires
Aires to the second army in the world.
In Malvinas, the epic is gigantic.
Suffice it to say that Britain's last naval defeats were in 1941, when the German battleship "Bismarck"
He sank the cruiser "Hood" and in 1942 when the Zero fighters of the Japanese Navy sank two jewels:
the “Renown” and the “Prince of Wales”.
It will take 40 years to reach the enormous British naval losses in the San Carlos Strait and in
Pleasant Bay (“the blackest day in the Fleet”).
As for ground losses, the last suffered by the British were in September 1944, in the
arnhem bridge.
It was an operation devised by Marshal Montgomery to reach Germany from the north, for this
they had to cross three bridges in the Netherlands: Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem.
These 'bridges were to be captured and held by paratrooper troops (American, Polish and British),
while a column of armored vehicles advanced along the highway until they reached the bridges.
British Intelligence gave the go-ahead for the operation. They were wrong.
The British paratroopers who descended with the mission of capturing the Arnhem bridge did so at the
You will see a forest where an SS Panzer Division was resting.
The British had 9,000 casualties, although some estimate 16,000.
Again, it will take 40 years to reach the Malvinas.
5. Finally, in all these years, it has been publicly recognized that without the help of the US and Chile, Great
Britain would have had to withdraw from the Malvinas.
That is, it would have been defeated.
Among other bravos, for the "boys" of the war.