The Falklands War, 1982

The Falklands War by Martin Middlebrook is a detailed account of the Falklands War that was written almost immediately after the war ended. The book gives good insight into the British side of the battles, telling about the battles themselves as well as the logistical challenges faced. The author has compiled information from interviews, news reports, official documents and many other sources to create an amazing account of this modern war. 

Pros 

The book gives a full account of the war, starting at how the dispute between Argentina and Britain over the Falklands began and going right through to clean up efforts still happening at the time of its publication. There is a section that describes the Falklands geographically which I really appreciated as it gives the reader a better sense of what the soldiers faced and why logistics were so important during this time. Descriptions of units, equipment, and tactics were in depth and concise for the most part. At times it did feel like too much detail when it came to specific units but I would rather that information be there than not. The author interviewed multiple people that were involved in the war and it definitely comes through in the writing. Mr. Middlebrook’s writing style is very matter of fact (which I personally like) but where he is British himself it appears that he has a personal connection to the war and that just makes his writing that much better. 

The organization of the book is good. Everything follows chronological order and is easy to keep up with the timeline. There are plenty of maps throughout the book that help the reader understand what is going on. Overall it is a great, well put together book. 

One of the maps in the book.

Cons

The book has a few cons though virtually all can be easily overlooked. As I said before there are a lot of details and that can be off putting to some readers but it is easy to recognize and skip over the parts that are too deep. The biggest issue for me was that sometimes the author would be explaining something and then say that he would talk more on the subject later, which he always did, but many times I didn’t understand why he didn’t just go ahead and finish the explanation. Sometimes it made sense because it would break up the flow but often it just wasn’t called for in my opinion. 

Additional Comments and Recommendation

There are two things I wanted to address that doesn’t go in either the pro or con sections. First the book really only covers the British perspective as at the time the author was unable to acquire much information from the Argentinian side. However he is very up front about this and he did later on write a book from the Argentinian perspective, though I have not yet read it. Secondly he does not go deep into the politics of the war, there is just surface level knowledge on just what is needed to understand it. This is a book about the military story, not the politics. 

The Falklands War by Martin Middlebrook is a book I highly recommend to anyone that wants to learn more about this small, fascinating war. It is full of information and I learned a lot by reading it. For overall information I believe I would recommend it over any other book on the market, it is thorough and concise, an excellent read. 

If you would like to pick up a copy of this book or his other book from the Argentinian perspective then please consider using my Amazon Affiliate links below: