Air superiority would prove to be of vital importance in the Falklands War.

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

On the 23rd of April the Argentines were making sure the airport just 3.2 kilometers east of Port Stanley was being stockpiled with ordnance that they hoped to use to sink the ships of the British Task Force. The airport had a long albeit narrow runway that the Argentines could use to land their full complement of 165 or so warplanes (which included 110 fighter planes and light bombers). Argentina's fighter planes needed to have the Falklands as an airbase, for the distance from Argentina to the Falklands was too great to afford the jets the capability to fly comfortably to the Falklands to do their business and then to return to Argentina without having to ditch in the sea for lack of fuel. This is why there was so much activity at the Port Stanley Airport in the days prior to the expected arrival of the British Task Force. Whoever had control of the air over and around the Falklands would win the impending war. The Harrier fighter aircraft on their way towards the Falklands aboard Task Force ships would be no match for Argentina's air force -- provided that air force could be based in the Falklands. The British would show themselves to be very resourceful. As the time for the Task Force to arrive in the Falklands approached -- and as the Argentines confidently assembled a formidable array of weaponry, men, and equipment in their newly acquired territory -- the British were rushing to prepare a single aircraft to fly all the way down to the Falklands from England and destroy the runway at Stanley Airport. If the British should fail in this effort to destroy that runway, then it was almost certain that Great Britain would have to accept defeat in the Falklands War. And defeat would mean the end of the Falkland Islands! Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.