The 1982 Falkland Islands War
Overview of Three Part Series on the 74 day War Between Britian and Argentina
Jul 28, 2006
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
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