Note: All game images are of Vassal playtest art and not final

Volume 3 of Fields of Fire brings three campaigns featuring The British Army – the Battle of Arnhem in 1944, the Falklands War in 1982, and Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2008.

Previous Article: Episode 1 – Arnhem

Episode 2 – Falklands

I was 12 years old when the Falklands War was being fought. I remember watching the nightly news bulletins; my uncle was a Chief Petty Officer on one of the destroyers, HMS Glamorgan. She was hit by an Argentinian Exocet anti-ship missile, fired from the shore in the last couple of days of the conflict but, despite the loss of 14 of her crew she survived, and limped to the maintenance area before being patched up and sailed home to the UK – I was on the dock in Portsmouth when she came home, fascinated with her battle scars.

Also, one of the paratroopers killed at Goose Green was the son of one of my dad’s colleagues – I remember hearing his name read out in the newsreel of the mass burial of British troops after the battle, and the photo of him his father had on the wall, proudly sporting his maroon beret.

I joined the British Army six years after the conflict and the stories were still fresh in the collective minds. The tactics taught were drawn from the experiences of the war, and often passed down by people who had fought there when you went on courses.

So I’ve always had an interest in the Falklands War, and I felt it fitted into the Fields of Fire system very well.

The Campaign

The Volume 3 Falklands campaign comes in two parts; the Battle of Goose Green, and the Battle of Wireless Ridge.

Goose Green was the first land battle of the war. For weeks the British Royal Navy had been enduring relentless attacks pressed home with extreme bravery and skill by the pilots of the Argentinian Air Force – the Fuerza Aérea Argentina, or FAA. A number of warships had been sunk and the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and the public wanted a victory to outweigh the losses, so 2 PARA were ordered to attack the settlements of Darwin and Goose Green, to oust the Argentinian forces.

Six missions make up the Goose Green part of the campaign, and you will command all of the four companies of 2 PARA during this battle. You will start in the hours of darkness, to dislodge the forward enemy positions at Burntside House, before conducting the tortuous advances across the open ground to seize Darwin Hill. Then, more flat terrain as you approach Goose Green settlement and the airfield, into the face of heavy anti-aircraft guns firing over open sights. Lastly, as dusk begins to fall and the will of the Argentinian defenders is nearly broken, you will have to repel the attempted heliborne reinforcement of the airfield by the Argentinian reserve company.

Following the brutal battle of Goose Green, 2 PARA became the Brigade reserve for 3 Commando Brigade, but were called into action again a few weeks later at Wireless Ridge, having walked across the boggy frozen islands with the rest of the land forces, to just short of the capital Stanley. This part of the campaign is three missions; a night assault up the slopes of the feature, and then another as you work your way along the long craggy main ridge, followed by a dawn defensive mission as Argentinian forces counterattack.

So what’s new in Volume 3’s Falklands Campaign?

Unlike Arnhem and Afghanistan, the Falklands campaign doesn’t introduce that many new rules to the Series, though there are a few. Advanced Handheld Radios make their first appearance in Fields of Fire, for example – they have always been in the rules, but in the eras covered in Volumes 1 & 2 they have not featured. You will find that these will give you more tactical command and control than in previous campaigns, as you can give orders to units as they advance, but they are not infallible.

The campaign does, however, also highlight some differences in the way British Companies were organised differently to the US Army or Marines; the paratroopers (rightly) put great faith in the venerable L7A2 General Purpose Machine Gun and carried two per section. The GPMG, better known as the ‘Gimpy’, or just ‘The General’, is still in service today. The US Army and Marines also later adopted it in the 1990s; in US service it is known as the M240.

Another difference players will note, at Goose Green in particular, is the dearth of fire support compared to most previous US-based campaigns. The British were fighting at the end of an 8,000 mile long logistics chain. Everything had to be sailed to the islands, unloaded at the beachhead at San Carlos and forwarded to the troops. All but one of the British heavy lift helicopters (Chinooks) had been lost when the FAA sank the merchant ship Atlantic Conveyor with two Exocets, probably having mistaken it for one of the British Aircraft Carriers on radar, making resupply and troop movements harder.

The terrain at Goose Green is also frightening flat and open and some areas were liberally sown with anti-personnel mines. Advancing in the open, in daylight, and with no real fire support will be a challenge. Post-action analyses of Goose Green show that the fire support allocated to a battalion attack, against an entrenched and numerically superior enemy, was pitiful. Only the courage, training and sheer determination of the paratroopers carried the day.

By the time 2 PARA attacked Wireless Ridge, on what would turn out to be the last day of the war, lessons had been learned. Whereas only three 105mm artillery pieces had been present at Goose Green, there were 12 at Wireless Ridge. Two 81mm mortars had provided support at Goose Green; at Wireless Ridge the Mortar Platoons of 2 PARA and 3 PARA came together, totalling 12 mortars. A Royal Navy Frigate (HMS Ambuscade) would provide additional firepower with her 4.5” gun (HMS Arrow had supported Goose Green, but suffered a turret malfunction early on and had to withdraw). And on the ground, multiple MILAN Anti-Tank Guided Missile posts, Sustained Fire Machine Gun teams, and even Light tanks (Scorpion and Scimitar) from the Blues and Royals added to the support. Also, following Goose Green the decision had been made to conduct all future attacks at night, where the British Army’s superior training in this type of warfare would give them an advantage.

Look out for the next InsideGMT article, which will cover the Afghanistan campaign.

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