Richard Freeman

Tuesday

Richard Freeman

Midway: The overlooked battle

From our UK edition

For many of us the Battle of Midway is just one more Hollywood spectacular in, to paraphrase Neville Chamberlain, a far-away sea of which we know little. But having recently taken a closer look at the battle I am struck both by what was at stake and what the consequences of the American victory were for the Allies at the time and geopolitics since then. When the Japanese attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 they sank four battleships, destroyed 188 aircraft and damaged 159 other planes. Because, by sheer chance, there were no American carriers at Pearl Harbour on that day, the Japanese failed in their strategic aim: supremacy of the Pacific Ocean. They would have to fight again. The next major conflict between the two fleets was at Coral Sea in early May.

Monday

Richard Freeman

The Falklands files

From our UK edition

As we approach the thirtieth anniversary of the Falklands War, Britain’s victory is justly recalled. That the war came near to disaster is conveniently forgotten. How well-placed are we to hold the islands today? When the 127 ships of the Task Force — a number that could not be assembled now  — returned in triumph to the home ports in 1982 no one wished to talk about how near the venture had come to grief. Without detracting from the courage and skill of the British forces, victory came because of three unpredictable weaknesses on the Argentine side: they ran out of Exocet missiles, many of their 1000lb bombs failed to explode, and they foolishly attacked the warships instead of the troop transports at San Carlos Bay.