Between April 2 and June 14, 1982 Great Britain and Argentina fought the first modern war of the missle age in the air, on the sea, and the ground.

The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas) was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands (also known in Spanish as the Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict was considered by Argentina as reoccupation of its own territory, and by Britain as an invasion of a British dependency

The Falkland Islands War was the first combined arms war conducted in the missile age. Both sides were equipped with similar high-tech weapons which produced significant ship and aircraft loses. However, in an age of high performance aircraft, missiles, and nuclear submarines, the decisive battles were determined by intimate hand to hand combat in the between infantrymen in the dark destroying the enemy with rifle and bayonet.

Argentina was in the midst of a devastating economic crisis and the unpopular military junta that was governing the country headed by General Leopoldo Galtieri, decided to avert national attention by launching what it thought would be a quick and easy war to reclaim the Falkland Islands.

On 2 April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, located 300 miles off the mainland. The claim to the islands has been in dispute for 150 years. The islands were easily seized. The British responded by putting together an amphibious task force that had to fight its way past the argentine air force and navy to reach the islands. Lacking helicopter assets, most of the landing force had to go on foot to attack the key mountains to the west of the main Argentinean force in Stanley. After several successful night attacks, through tough terrain and mine fields, the British captured the approaches to Stanley and the Argentines capitulated.

The Argentine loss prompted protests against the military government, which hastened its downfall, while a wave of patriotic sentiment swept through the United Kingdom, and provided support to the government of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, ensuring its victory in the 1983 General election.

CONFLICT TIMELINE

2 April: Argentina invades

5 April: Task force leaves UK

19 April: US diplomatic efforts

Fail

22 April: Royal Navy ships

Arrive in waters off Falklands

25 April: UK forces re-take

Island of South Georgia

3 May: Argentine cruiser

General Belgrano sunk

4 May: HMS Sheffield sunk

21 May: British forces land on

Falklands at San Carlos Harbor

28 May: Battle of Goose Green

13 June: British forces take

Mount Tumbledown outside the

Capital, Stanley

14 June: Argentine garrison

Surrenders

The war lasted 74 days, with 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and three civilian Falklanders killed. More than three thousand on both sides were maimed.

Sources used for the series

Hastings, Max, and Jenkins, Simon. The Battle for the

Falklands. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1983,

Laffin, John. Fight for the Falklands. New York: St.

Martin's Press, 1982

Mcmanners, Hugh. Falklands Commando. London: William

Kimber & Co. Limited, 1984

Middlebrook, Martin. Operation Corporate. London: Penguin

Books Ltd, 1985,

Perrett, Bryan. Weapons of the Falklands Conflict. Poole:

Blandford Press, 1982