Battle of Goose Green

The Battle of Goose Green (28–29 May 1982) was an engagement of the Falklands War between British and Argentine forces. Goose Green and its neighbour Darwin are settlements on East Falkland in the Falkland Islands. They lie on Choiseul Sound on the east side of the island's central isthmus. They are about 13 miles south of the site of the major British amphibious landings in San Carlos Water (Operation Sutton).

The bulk of the Argentine forces were in positions around Port Stanley about 50 miles (80 km) to the east of San Carlos. The position at Goose Green and Darwin was well defended by a force of combined units totalling about 1,200 (at the start of the battle the number was thought by the British to be less than half this), well equipped with artillery, mortars, 35 mm cannon and machine guns. However the force was fairly static and judged to present little threat to the beachhead. Consequently it had no strategic military value for the British in their campaign to recapture the islands, so early plans for land operations had called for Goose Green to be isolated and bypassed.

Things changed in the days following the landings on 21 May. While the bridgehead was being consolidated no offensive ground operations of any size were feasible and yet Argentine air attacks caused significant loss of and damage to British ships in the sea area around the landing grounds. This led to a feeling among senior commanders and politicians in the UK that the momentum of the campaign was being lost.

As a result British Joint Headquarters in the UK came under increasing pressure from the British Government for an early ground offensive. And so, on the 25th May Brigadier Julian Thompson, ground forces commander, commanding 3 Commando Brigade was ordered to mount an attack on Argentine positions around Goose Green and Darwin.