San Carlos Water and the 'rock beats Exocet' plan

Clapp listened to specialists but still made decisive choices when advice conflicted. He restored viable landing areas that Ewen Southby-Tailyour had tried to exclude for environmental reasons and held to San Carlos despite objections. His shorthand that rock would beat Exocet captured the core of the landing-area defense: terrain could mask the amphibious force and disrupt an attacker's approach. Experience planning air strikes as a Fleet Air Arm observer helped him imagine what Argentine pilots would see after cresting the hills. Fearless and Intrepid also served as machine-gun-heavy bastions at the likely entrances to the anchorage, part of an arrangement nicknamed the "Clapp trap." The plan did not eliminate risk, but it made the geography that hindered British missiles work in favor of the landing force.