Word: port
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Falkland Islands conflict is not a televised war, and almost the only real sense of the scene must come from the dispatches of British correspondents with the troops and the recollections of expatriate islanders. Here is a summary sketch of Port San Carlos before British troops moved out, derived from press reports and from interviews with Falklanders now in England...
There are some 50 Falklanders living in Port San Carlos. The population is up from an original 30, thanks to recent refugees from Port Stanley. Villagers watch the bombs and antiaircraft fire from their doorways like spectators. But they have adapted to the new conditions, having dug trenches covered with corrugated iron, with 2 ft. of turf over that. Digging is a principal activity in Port San Carlos these days, and it is not always easy going. The earth is spongy. Dig down deeper than 2 ft. in certain areas and you'll have carved yourself a well. Still...
...soldiers have evidently conducted themselves quite decently during their occupation. A sheep farmer in San Carlos said, "The Argies used to give sweets to the kids and ask them if there were British soldiers in the area." He also reports that the Argentine soldiers told the citizens that henceforth Port Stanley was to be called Porto Argentina, and the settlement of Darwin, Belgrano, after the sunk cruiser. That was about the extent of their impositions. Still, there was some passive resistance to the Argentines by the residents. No one would tell the invaders, for instance, how to turn...
...British soldiers, who know perfectly well why they were sent there, have been given tender care by the Port San Carlos citizens while awaiting orders to move out. Falklanders are generous enough to offer the troops mutton broth, but are probably considerate enough not to offer them sheep's brains fritters, an island specialty and clearly an acquired taste. There was a widely distributed picture in Britain of Regimental Sergeant Major Laurie Ashbridge sipping from a mug of hot tea handed him by some smiling San Carlos women and children, shown leaning on a fence. When Ashbridge...
Where the soldiers are headed, however, a motorbike would not be of much help. Parts of the "road tracks" running from Port San Carlos to Port Stanley are treacherously soft. The route runs over open moorland. You either ford streams in a Land Rover, water up to the wheels, or go across small bridges. Residents know the best way to Stanley is to proceed south, over the Sussex Mountains (about 900 ft. high), and the British forces have shown they know it too. The road is boggy on the tops of the hills, but once over, the clay track...