The Falkland Islands lie in the South Atlantic, 300 miles east of Argentina. They are made up of two principal islands – West Falkland and East Falkland – and over 700 smaller islets. They have a combined land mass around half the size of Wales. In 1982, 1,800 people lived there. These days, around 50,000 tourists visit each year, mainly to see the penguin colonies.
Over the centuries, the Falkland Islands have been home to English, French, Spanish, and Argentine settlements, and continuously British since 1833. Argentina calls the islands “Las Malvinas”, and has long disputed Britain’s sovereignty, claiming that Argentina inherited the islands from Spain.
From late 1981, Argentina was ruled by a military junta led by General Leopoldo Galtieri. Early the following year, Argentina announced during talks with Britain over the Falklands that, if progress was not made, it would find other, speedier means of solving the dispute.
On 19 March 1982, a group of 40 Argentine scrap metal workers docked in Leith Harbour on South Georgia – a dependency of the Falklands – about 850 miles east of the main archipelago. Once ashore, they hoisted the Argentine flag. The British Antarctic survey stationed on the island at Grytviken promptly raised the alarm.
At the time it was not clear whether the flag raising was sanctioned by Galtieri’s government. However, all became clear on 2 April, when Argentine armed forces invaded the Falklands and captured the small garrison of Royal Marines stationed in the capital, Port Stanley.
The following day, Argentine forces overran South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (another dependency of the Falklands). They soon bolstered their presence on the Falklands to around 12,000 occupying troops, vastly outnumbering the islanders.
Argentine soldiers buy postcards from a souvenir shop in Port Stanley
The timing of the invasion was significant. Galtieri’s government was losing popularity over its management of the economy and human rights abuses, and the invasion of the Falklands was intended to bathe his faltering administration in a patriotic glow. He and his advisers assumed it would be a quick win, as they calculated Britain was highly unlikely to respond with force.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 502 demanded Argentina’s immediate withdrawal. European nations and the US gave Britain their support. The EEC placed sanctions on Argentina. South American countries, however, (with the exception of Chile) supported Argentina.
In London, Margaret Thatcher’s government responded quickly, launching Operation Corporate. They mobilised 28,000 troops, deploying them on over 120 naval and civilian ships, including the QE2 and SS Canberra.
The Belgrano was a warship zigzagging on her way to attack the taskforce, and the whole South Atlantic was a legitimate theatre of conflict
The task force rapidly set off on a 3,000-mile journey, bolstered by other British vessels re-routed from elsewhere. A small contingent steamed for South Georgia, where troops swiftly liberated the island on 25 April. Meanwhile, the main task force headed for the Falkland Islands, where it arrived on 22 April. Conflict between Britain and Argentina immediately ensued, at sea and in the air.
A decisive event occurred on 2 May, when a British submarine sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano (originally a US ship that had survived the 1941 Pearl Harbour attack). The Belgrano went down with a loss of 368 lives.
Later claims by some critics that the sinking was unlawful are unfounded. The Belgrano was a warship zigzagging on her way to attack the taskforce, and the whole South Atlantic was a legitimate theatre of conflict. The captain of the Belgrano, Hector Bonzo, later confirmed that his ship was a legitimate military target.
The General Belgrano sinks after being hit by a British torpedo
Concerned by the destruction of the Belgrano, Argentina kept most of her navy away from the Falklands for the rest of conflict, with the notable exception of one submarine – the ARA San Luis – which posed a danger to the task force for much of the campaign.
British forces were unable to gain air superiority, leaving the task force vulnerable to attack from Argentine missiles and aircraft. As a result, Britain lost a number of important ships.
After the bloody sea war, the final phase was inevitably to be a land war. In preparation, Argentinian troops under General Mario Menéndez secured Port Stanley, assuming the initial British attack would come there. Instead, on 21 May, British forces landed 50 miles away, on the other side of the east island, near Port San Carlos. After establishing a beachhead, they fanned out overland, with detachments heading north to Douglas and south to Darwin and Goose Green. Many of the ensuing engagements were intense and violent, with Col “H” Jones, commander of 2 Para, earning a posthumous VC for his actions at Goose Green.
After a succession of British victories, the way was clear for the main army to march the 50 miles east over boggy terrain to Port Stanley.
HMS Invincible returns victorious
At Port Stanley, the Argentine defences eventually folded, and British forces surrounded the capital. Facing a winter siege and the threat of starvation, Menéndez surrendered the town, which was liberated on 14 June. The South Sandwich Islands were retaken six days later. Discredited, Galtieri resigned three days after the fall of Port Stanley.
The “Falklands Conflict” – war was never declared – lasted 10 weeks. When it was over, Britain released around 11,400 captured Argentinian soldiers: many of them young conscripts with little or no military experience. The overall loss of life from the conflict amounted to 649 Argentinians, 255 British, and three islanders. Britain also lost the HMS Antelope, HMS Ardent, SS Atlantic Conveyor, HMS Coventry, HMS Fearless LCU, HMS Sheffield, and RFA Sir Galahad.
Whatever the subsequent political debates over the reasons for the conflict, Britain’s victory was an extraordinary military achievement. The armed forces left England after only a few days of preparation and travelled over 3,000 miles. They conducted a land, sea, and air campaign in the middle of the South Atlantic, in the depth of winter, far from any logistical support, and succeeded in reconquering the captured territories. At the outset of the operation, US naval planners had concluded that a British victory was an impossibility.
The UK and Argentina resumed diplomatic relations in 1990. Four years later, Argentina added its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands to its constitution. Since 1982 there has been a permanent and significant British military establishment of Army, Navy, and Air Force in the Falkland Islands.
