The intended casualty chain depended on Canberra serving as a dressing station connected to Uganda, but the intensity of Argentine air attacks forced vulnerable merchant ships out of the anchorage. Canberra departed with much of the force's rations and medical personnel still aboard, so the dressing station had to be flown ashore to the Ajax Bay meat-packing plant. Roughly 3,000 men ashore then depended on a logistics regiment that was still unloading supplies. With helicopters and landing craft committed to that work for several days, the amphibious force lacked transport to move troops beyond the beachhead, showing how air pressure reshaped both medicine and maneuver.
Notable Point · 12:09-13:16
Air attack reshapes San Carlos logistics
Falklands oral history explains how air attacks drove merchant ships away, forcing medical facilities and supplies ashore while landing craft remained tied to unloading.