Ghost Force

jets.

The BBC's first words in their 10:00 p.m. newscast were: 'Was this the war that should never have been fought?'

The early editions of the Sunday newspapers, traditionally on sale in London's Leicester Square at 10:30 p.m., were absolutely lethal to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

The Sunday Times splashed over eight columns on its front page:

ROYAL NAVY BLAMES THE GOVERNMENT FOR DISASTER IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC

Falkland Islands fall to Argentina — British warships 'defenseless'

The source, or sources, for this scything statement of fact was in truth a succession of off-the-record conversations with a half dozen retired Admirals and Captains, three of whom had commanded ships in the first Falklands conflict.

Like everyone in a senior position in the Navy, they knew of the reductions in the Senior Service, the cuts to the fleet, the closures of dockyards, the lateness in the arrival of the new aircraft carriers, and above all the four- year gap in the production of a top-class guided-missile fighter jet to fly from the carrier's decks.

And every last one of those sources had instantly said the same thing…You can't fight a state- of-the-art war at sea facing any threat against aircraft or missiles without fixed-wing air defense aircraft armed with a state-of-the-art medium-range air-to-air missiles system. Hit the archer, not the arrow.

Great Britain had gone to war 8,000 miles from home without the proper kit — and the British media sensed blood, and they were going to ride this 'story' to the bitter end.

ROYAL NAVY SURRENDERS FALKLANDS

Can't shoot, can't fight, Government Cuts Blamed

— Sunday Mirror

Falkland Islands fall in two-hour massacre at sea

ARGENTINA WIPES OUT 'DEFENSELESS' NAVY

— Sunday Telegraph

ARK ROYAL SUNK — ROYAL NAVY SURRENDERS FALKLANDS

— News of the World

(This narrow headline ran alongside a huge picture of the British aircraft carrier in her death throes.)

The newspapers devoted pages and pages to interviews with Whitehall Press Officers, and were currently engaged in a relentless, ghoulish search for photographs of the dead. By midnight reporters were besieging naval towns like Portsmouth and Devonport, trying to contact families whose sons and husbands may have gone down with the Ark Royal.

By first light the press would have done its work, sowing the seeds of doubt and suspicion in the minds of the British people. Was this government as bad as many people think? Was it just a self-seeking bunch of incompetents, concerned only with their own jobs, and careless of their duty to the armed services?

That's what it looked like as dawn broke over London. And, prophetically, an enormous black rain cloud hovered over Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. At least that's how it seemed. But inside the debating chamber, that cloud seemed to hang over the Prime Minister alone.

He had taken his seat on the government front bench as, high above, Big Ben chimed midnight. He arrived, predictably in this Parliament, to thunderous roars from the Tory benches of, 'Resign!! Resign!! Resign!!'

And, at the invitation of the Speaker, he had begun the proceedings with a frequently interrupted speech, in which he had endeavored to explain away the obviously shattering defeat of the Royal Navy in the South Atlantic.

The fact was, no one was listening. The scale of the nightmare, the reverberations of the consequences, were too great for any British government. And, with the aid of the media, the loss of those little islands four hundred miles off the coast of Argentina was rapidly being compared in the minds of MPs to the end of all life as they knew it.

When finally the PM did sit down, the Tory leader of the opposition stood up and demanded, 'Well, I'm sure the House would like to join me in thanking you profusely for shedding a glaring light on the obvious…now perhaps you would tell the House what you plan to do about the recapture of the islands and the rebuilding of our armed forces?'

Another storm of derisive cheering broke out, and the Prime Minister's Secretary of Defense, Peter Caulfield, climbed to his feet and revealed that in the opinion of his Ministry, it was far too early to make any such announcements, but that the Cabinet would be considering all of the facts later in the morning.

It may have been too early to ascertain the precise moment-to-moment ebb and flow of the short sea battle. It was not, however, too early to discuss the ramifications of the defeat and the surrender.

And the debate was now open to the floor. The first Member of Parliament on his feet was the Tory Alan Knell, who represented Portsmouth, and stated flatly, 'The Right Honorable gentleman was warned a thousand times about the dangers of rendering the Royal Navy impotent by scrapping the Sea Harriers. Indeed he was warned by me on many occasions.

'Now his folly has been exposed, can there be any reason why the Right Honorable gentleman should not immediately offer his resignation to his party and to the House?'

Before Alan Knell had regained his seat on the green leather back benches, the Tory side had once more erupted with howls of 'Resign!! Resign!! Resign!!'

The Speaker stepped in and demanded 'Order!!..Order!!' And now the Tory MP for Barrow-in-Furness, the Prime Minister's old nemesis on issues of defense cuts, Richard Cawley, was on his feet, to remind the House of the many warnings he had personally issued about the sheer scale of slashes in the Navy and military budgets.

'I personally warned the Right Honorable gentleman about the loss of the Harriers — and what the lack of a beyond-visual-range fighter jet would mean. I told him over and over that without that look-down shoot-down Blue Vixen radar in the Harriers the Navy was in shocking trouble.

'And now there are twelve hundred and fifty of this country's finest men dead in the South Atlantic. And the blame can be laid at no other door than the one that opens into number ten, Downing Street, his home and that of his benighted government…'

The cheer from the Tory benches ripped into the great vaulted ceiling of the House. And again the Speaker stood up and demanded Order from the Members.

And so it went on. And five more times the echoing chimes of Big Ben tolled out the hour. Until eventually the Members staggered out into the morning air, the opposition congratulating themselves on a debate well won. Government ministers were wondering whether indeed their leader would have to resign in clear and obvious disgrace.

Throughout the night, they had been watching the glaring newspaper headlines, reading reports from the twenty-four-hour television news programs. The drift against the Prime Minister was becoming very plain. The outrage of the Admirals and Generals was apparent on every page of every newspaper.

The headline on the leader column of the Tory Daily Mail was darkly amusing, parodying one of Churchill's most moving wartime speeches. It quoted the Tory party chairman, the droll and urbane Lord Ashampstead…

IF THIS PARLIAMENT SHOULD LAST FOR ANOTHER WEEK (GOD FORBID), MEN WILL STILL SAY, 'THIS WAS THEIR DARKEST HOUR'

In the dying moments of the debate, the Tories had pushed for a vote of no confidence in the PM. And this