cover image Operation Corporate: 2the Falklands War, 1982

Operation Corporate: 2the Falklands War, 1982

Martin Middlebrook. Viking Books, $18.95 (430pp) ISBN 978-0-670-80223-4

Middlebrook quotes an observer's comment that the Falklands War was ""like two bald men fighting over a comb,'' then goes on to contradict that remark, suggesting that the war may have been the opening phase of a struggle to control the world's last reserves of oil and minerals. Based partly on interviews with Falklanders as well as with military veterans, this is the most thoughtful and detailed account to date of the Anglo-Argentine conflict. Though told mainly from the British point of view, the book offers new information about President Galtieri's original expectations, the tactics of his troops and details of the surrender. The author's descriptions of confrontations in the air, on the sea and on the various battlegrounds are superb, as are his explanations of the use of new weapons, such as the Sea Harrier and the Exocet missile. Middlebrook, a Fellow of England's Royal Historical Society, does not neglect the more freakish aspects of the war, of which there were manyfor example, the sinking of a neutral tanker whose tonnage exceeded by four times the combined weight of all warships sunk in the conflict. Photos. (May 6)