Brief undeclared war between Argentina and Great Britain over a group of islands 300 miles east of Argentina; also called the Falklands War, Malvinas War, or the South Atlantic War. (The British call the islands the Falklands and the Argentineans call them the Malvinas.)

 

Conflicting claims to the islands go back to the eighteenth century. Armed conflict between the two broke out following the occupation of the Falklands by Argentine forces on 2 April 1982. The British government, under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, declared a 200-mile war zone around the Falklands and immediately began assembling a naval task force.

 

On 25 April, the British task force was steaming the 8,000 miles to the war zone. During this time the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, just outside the war zone, was torpedoed and sunk by the British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror (the only use of a nuclear weapon since Nagasaki). Further battles led to the downing of a number of the land-based Argentine air force jets and the sinking of several British ships with French Exocet missiles.

 

While the naval-air battles were being fought, the British were utilizing their excellent Special Forces units to gather intelligence on the Argentine troops, reconnoiter for a landing site, and make life difficult for the Argentinean forces. As early as 18 April, members of the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) were in service and by the invasion, about 300 of them would be operating ashore.

 

One such operation was a raid against an airstrip on Pebble Island where several ground-attack aircraft were housed, along with large stores of ammunition, fuel, and a strategically important radar station. On 15 May 48 SAS men flew from HMS Hermes and began the first British land attack since the occupation. The 30-minute attack was a complete success, destroying 11 aircraft, the radar station, and the fuel and ammunition dumps.

 

Landing at San Carlos

The raids were a precursor to the amphibious assault at Port San Carlos. The site was adequate, but not ideal; it was small enough to offer protection from Exocet missiles (though too small to allow ships to maneuver), it possessed a deep anchorage, it had a perimeter of hills for a safe bridgehead, and it provided three possible routes toward the capital of Port Stanley.

 

The British amphibious assault was very successful; except for the loss of 21 SAS personnel who drowned when a Sea King helicopter ferrying troops was struck by a rearing ship during takeoff and fell into the ocean. Other than the Sea King crash, most of the British casualties were a result of the Argentine air attacks on the vulnerable British ships in the confined waters. Over the next week, the British lost three ships, with several others damaged, and the Argentine air force lost more than 40 aircraft.

 

With the bridgehead secure, the focus of the conflict shifted to the army. The British approach to Port Stanley utilized the classic pincer movement, one hook going north and then east, the other going south and then east via Goose Green.

 

Goose Green

The 27 May assault on Goose Green involved 600 members of the 2d Battalion of the Parachute Regiment attacking 1,400 Argentine defenders. The British suffered 17 dead and 31 wounded while the Argentineans lost 250 dead and 121 wounded, with approximately 1,200 taken prisoner. It was a critical victory for the British, demonstrating the effectiveness of highly trained professional troops over a larger force of inadequately trained soldiers.

 

The siege of Port Stanley was short but fierce. Starting on 11 June, various units of British forces pressed the Argentine defenders. On the night of 13–14 June, heavy fighting took place at Mount Longdon (3d Battalion Paratroopers),Mount William (7th Gurkhas), Sapper Hill (Welsh Guards), and Mount Tumbledown (Scots Guards). The 3d Para was involved in what has been described as the heaviest fighting of the campaign against Argentine commandos. By midday, taking heavy casualties and retreating, Argentinean troops started hoisting white flags. By evening on 14 June, General Moore, overall commander of British land forces, was able to report that all Argentine armed forces on the island had surrendered.

 

On 20 June, Britain formally declared an end to hostilities. The British had captured more than 10,000 Argentine prisoners during the war. Argentina sustained 655 men killed, while the British lost 236.

 

Politically, the war helped to rejuvenate the flagging political fortunes of Margaret Thatcher (and led to her reelection) and brought down General Leopoldo Galtieri, who had cold-bloodedly hoped to improve his political situation by starting the war. Galtieri’s quick resignation paved the road to the restoration of civilian rule in 1983.

 

References and further reading: Hastings, Max, and Simon Jenkins. The Battle for the Falklands. New York: W.W. Norton, 1984. Laffin, John. Fight for the Falklands! New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982.