RAF Harrier Ground Attack, Falklands

RAF Harrier Ground Attack, Falklands

Falklands War Heroes - Extraordinary true stories of bravery in the South Atlantic

Falklands War Heroes - Extraordinary true stories of bravery in the South Atlantic

All For One, One For All - Argentine Navy Operations During the Falklands/Malvinas War

Jorge Boveda

All For One, One For All provides a much needed cultural interpretation of the Argentine Navy, and is essential reading for anyone interested in modern Argentine naval history and strategy. It includes over 100 photographs, specially commissioned maps and unique colour profiles.
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All For One, One For All provides a contemporary perspective of the baptism of fire of one of the oldest, most resourceful and well-trained war fighting institutions in Latin America: the Argentine Navy. It offers a rare insight into the relationship between institutional culture and modern warfare, with specific reference to the Falklands/Malvinas War of 1982, and is a case study of how a very modest navy with very few naval platforms engaged in a limited war against a major naval power and nevertheless was able to make its mark. This book examines the institutional culture that accounts for a great deal of the activities and rationale of the Argentine Navy as an instrument of state policy and includes a detailed reconstruction of all operations by the Argentine Navy during the Falklands/Malvinas War. The Falklands/Malvinas campaign was a major naval landmark for the Argentine Navy, but the influence of institutional culture was clearly identifiable in the actions of the service as a whole. Illustrated by over 80 photographs, specially commissioned maps and unique colour profiles, All for One, One for All is essential reading for anyone interested in modern Argentine naval history and strategy.

ISBN: 9781914059193
Format: Paperback
Author(s): Jorge Boveda
First Publishment Date: 20 May 2021
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Author(s) Jorge Boveda
Customer Reviews
  1. A well-illustrated, large format book whose superficial, rather ‘light-weight’ appearance belies the quality of its content
    ‘Know thy enemy’ is the oft-quoted saying of the legendary Chinese general and philosopher Sun Tzu. The Royal Navy did not have time to do so as it scrambled for up to date maps of the South American littoral and copies of Jane’s Fighting Ships while embarking for Operation Corporate in the Spring of 1982. Nor did the Argentine Navy, according to this book. Operation Rosario came as a complete surprise to all but a tiny number of the ruling Junta which left the Navy struggling to prepare for a conflict with a major world naval power in a state of general unpreparedness equipped with much obsolete or malfunctioning materiel. This is an important work, evidently the first book-length English language account of the Falklands War written by an Argentinian with life-long, close associations with his country’s navy. And this is no panegyric: Jorge Bóveda does not defend his country’s political decisions or its leaders. Nor does he seek to exaggerate the ability or performance of the Argentine Navy: he is equally praiseworthy and critical of both sides. The author introduces a further element in this short book which provides the reader with a deeper understanding of the decision-making underpinning many of the events during that short but deadly conflict. Bóveda explains the institutional culture within the Argentine Navy which had developed since its inception in the early part of the 19th Century. In this respect he pays tribute to Alistair Finlan’s excellent 2004 comparative study of the influences of culture and strategy in the British Royal Navy during the Falklands and Gulf Wars. He portrays the Argentine Navy as rigorously doctrinal in its officer training which was matched by a steeply pyramidal hierarchy, the top brass almost exclusively drawn from the ranks of its surface fleet. At the time of the war the fleet air arm and submarine branches were subservient in terms of funding and status, bound by a strategy fixated on a future surface fleet engagement. In that important respect, as Bóveda acknowledges, his Navy’s thinking by 1982 had fallen woefully behind contemporary nations. Some of the information in this scrupulously researched work is novel and revealing. The fact that the Argentine Navy possessed two Type 42s, exact copies of the RN destroyers, enabled their navy pilots to avoid the radar ‘envelopes’ of the AAW pickets. Only one of their five submarines, ARA San Luis, was operational but handicapped through lack of practice with live ammunition, inexperienced command appointments and faulty wire-guided torpedoes - all due to neglect or gross underfunding. Surprisingly, the surface fleet’s withdrawal following the sinking of the cruiser General Belgrano was not wholly accounted for by the continuing presence of the RN’s SSNs. It needed to be held in check in the expectation of a future clash with the Chilean Navy in their long-running territorial dispute over the Beagle Channel. The overriding importance of an imagined engagement with their Southern Cone neighbour underlines the Argentine Navy’s ingrained and outdated strategic culture. Thus, historic claims to the Malvinas appear to have been of subsidiary importance within the bastions of the Puerto Belgrano naval base. All for One, One for All is a well-illustrated, large format book whose superficial, rather ‘light-weight’ appearance belies the quality of its content. It provides an excellent counterbalance to the very large number of British accounts available on a conflict which this year marks its 40th anniversary.

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