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A SURPRISE ATTACK - THE FALKLANDS WAR 393
been anxious about the Falklands for some time, and in the
autumn of 1981 had sent 'a very much more acute warning' to
the Foreign Office. However, London was not persuaded: 'They
were by no means convinced that my information was necessarily
better than what they were getting through ... the interception
of Argentina's diplomatic cypher traffic by Government
Communications Headquarters: 19
In fact, Argentinean orders to prepare for the invasion of the
Falklands were given secretly by word of mouth. On the sunny
morning of Tuesday, 15 December 1981, Admiral Anaya flew
into Puerto Belgrano, which served as the main centre of operations
for the Argentine Navy. His presence there was seemingly
ceremonial: he had arrived to oversee the installation of
the new Chief of Naval Operations, Vice Admiral Juan Lombardo.
Bands played, sailors paraded and were inspected, everything
passed off faultlessly. However, a surprise awaited Lombardo. A
few hours after the parade, Anaya asked to speak to him alone.
To his amazement he was ordered to prepare for the invasion
of the Falklands. Absolute secrecy, Anaya emphasised, was paramount.
20 In mid-January 1982 the Army and the Air Force were
told, and by early March the outline planning for invasion was
ready. The target date was mid-September, following the abatement
of the foul South Atlantic winter weather, between April
and August. The 2nd Marine Infantry Battalion, which was to
lead the invasion, began quietly exercising on the coast of
Patagonia, using a beach that resembled that of Port Stanley.
Only a handful of their officers knew the real purpose of the
exercises, and radio silence ensured that it was not picked up
by GCHQ. 21
Bizarrely, the British now triggered an earlier than scheduled
invasion of the Falklands, and so, in a way, inflicted surprise
upon themselves. During March 1982 a minor incident occurred
on South Georgia, which was also claimed by Argentina. A
group of Argentine scrap-metal workers had been contracted
to remove some old machinery from an abandoned whale factory
on the island. During their visit they raised an Argentinean flag,