Britain vs Argentina: Falklands War - Full Animated Documentary

just after 11:00 p.m. on the evening of April 1st 1982 a group of Argentinian Marines stepped out of rubber boats onto the Faulkland Islands an isolated and Windswept archipelago in the South Atlantic controlled by the United Kingdom after Decades of failed negotiations and months of preparation the reconquest of what they called Las malvinas was underway it was the start of a 10-week war that would end with hundreds of casualties controversy and profound effects on both Britain and Argentina the Faulkland War had begun followed later by the main Assa at the the heart of the events of 1982 was a complicated territorial dispute over the faland that went back centuries its intricacies are not the subject of this series or this video but it's worth going over the basics the Falcon Islands were first claimed by the English first settled by the French and first governed by the Spanish when Argentina gained its independence on the Spanish Empire shortly after the turn of the 19th century it considered that L Mal Venus was an integral part of its Colonial inheritance Britain disputed this and ended up sending ships to assert control over the islands in 1833 the Falin became a Crown Colony in 1840 and grew into an important coing station for Royal Navy ships operating in the South Atlantic the dispute over the island sovereignty simmered away until Argentina approached the UN in the 1960s for help with realizing its claim citing the continuing British control of the islands as an example example of colonialism Britain agreed to take part in talks but proved reluctant to allow any transfer of the islands unless the Islanders themselves who considered themselves British consented citing their right to self-determination another key un principle from the mid 1970s the two Nations relationship began to slide downhill after a military Hunter seized control of Argentina in 1976 by the end of that year when Osirus had severed ambassadorial relations with Britain and put 50 military personnel ashore on Southern THU a fantastically isolated area in the South Sandwich Islands which were also controlled by Britain and claimed by Argentina remote as they were this was a clear attack on Britain's sovereignty over its South Atlantic territories and a shot across the boughs on the Faulkland issue it was serious and provoked a response from Britain of nothing nothing nothing other than strongly worded letters the Argentine presence on Southern th was not evicted the British House of Commons would not even find out about the occupation of Southern th for 2 years after it happened efforts to resolve the issue continued after the election of Margaret Thatcher's government in 1979 which had the novel idea of transferring sovereignty to Argentina but leasing the islands back to Britain for 19 9 years afterwards this seemed like a clever solution but fell apart in the face of opposition from first the Faulkland Islanders and then British MPS by 1981 the UK had no clear plan on the folklands other than playing for time and trying to avoid the argentinians doing anything too dramatic the trouble was to Argentina it looked rather a lot like Britain just wasn't that bothered about the islands at all in 1981 the the Thatcher government announced massive defense spending cuts after a review by the defense secretary John knot whiteall cuts to the defense budget were nothing new but this particular round was an absolute Hammer blow to the raw Navy which was to loose both its carriers and amphibious assault ships prime minister Thatcher approved these Cuts because she was Keen that Britain's overall public expenditure had to be slashed perhaps most importantly she agreed with not's desire to with draw the Navy's only presence in the South Atlantic the patrol ship HMS endurance the foreign secretary Lord Carrington had opposed this insisting that the withdrawal of the ship would be taken as a sign of Britain's lack of commitment to the Faulkland but he was overruled Carrington it turned out was broadly right the government in Buenos Iris saw Britain slashing its military and removing its presence on the South Atlantic and interpreted it as a sign that Britain's commitment to the islands was was waning this came on top of London's non-response of the occupation of Southern THU and the total disregard of the Shackleton report in the mid 1970s which had recommended 12 million of government investment in the islands as far as the hunter could make out Britain had no interest in investing economically in the islands no interest in defending it militarily and no interest in responding to breaches of its sovereignty if we're asking why Argentina invested the Falon Islands it might be because the UK government gave them every reason in the world to think that they would get away with it it was against this backdrop of British weakness and apparent disinterest that a new Argentine Hunter took office in December 1981 led by General Leopoldo galtieri at the time Argentina had severe economic problems that the new president needed a distraction from so he planned 1982 to be the year of the Mal venas either Britain would hand the islands over or Argentina would take them to minimize any Prospect of a British response to this the hunter planned to occupy the islands in September 1982 as by this time HMS inurance would be on her way back to Britain and the Argentine Navy would have completed its procurement of 18 french-built superintend strike Fighters complete with modern EXA anti-ip missiles until then deploy would continue between the Nations the Argentine foreign minister nicar Costa Mendes sought to prepare the ground for an invasion issuing a statement in February 1982 warning that Argentina was prepared to use other means to regain the islands if diplomacy failed it was a carefully planned diplomatic offensive calibrated to Peak just at the moment the invasion was scheduled for in September but then out of the blue the entire plan was turned upside down by the most unlikely of sources on March 17th 1982 a group of scrap metal workers landed on the British controlled and Argentinian claimed island of South Georgia about 900 mil Southwest of the Faulkland they were charged with dismantling an old wailing station at leth to which their boss Constantino davidof had bought the rights in 1979 the group traveled in the Argentine Navy transport bahwen successo which had been hired as a private Charter with supposedly no military personnel on board the British authorities had given permission for davidoff's crew to make the journey but requested a permit be picked up from the British base on the island at grit vickon 2 days after landing though no Argentinian had reported the grit Vicon and worse an Argentine flag had been spotted flying at Le now it's possible that this was just an overe exuberant metal worker but it's also very possible as some sources suggest the Argentine government had slipped some Marines aboard the Apparently civilian Charter to try and repeat the trick of Southern THU 6 years before either way the British certainly feared something sinister was going on staff at git Vicken reported to Rex hunt the governor of the Faulkland who ordered that they insist the metal workers lower the flag and report to grit Vicken the flag was removed soon afterwards but still nobody appeared to get the required approvals as a result Governor hunt made a report to London reporting that what he believed to be Argentine military troops had landed on South Georgia and gave his opinion that the whole expedition was probably a cover for a seizure of the island on receipt of Hunt's message the British government ramped things up they demanded that the argentines leave South Georgia and ordered HMS inurance to sail for the island from the Faulkland with 22 Royal Marines on board on March 21st the bahwen successo quickly left South Georgia perhaps because it had been caught out putting troops where they shouldn't have been but did not crucially take the metal workers with it on March 23rd the foreign secretary sent an ultimatum remove the metal workers or the Royal Marines would do so by force this message from the British was a sharp and sudden escalation and put the Argentine hunter in a bit of a difficult position deciding that they could not suffer the Dignity of Argentine workers being arrested and deported at gunpoint from what they saw as rightful Argentinian land the hunter dispatched their own vessel to South Georgia with 14 Marines on board by March 25th there were two rival armed parties on South Georgia 20 mi apart with Britain suddenly and unexpectedly responding forcefully to events in the South Atlantic Argentina now dramatically accelerated its plans worried that the Brits might reinforce the Faulkland amid the crisis The Invasion plans were brought up and the Argentine Navy asked to carry out the landings as quickly as possible just days later on March 28th a large Argentine Fleet put to Sea Under vice admiral Juan Lombardo Bound for the faland task force 20 including the aircraft carrier ventco Deo was present only as a demonstration of Argentina's power with Task Force 40 under Admiral Carlos Busa to carry out operations against the islands this group contained the Argentine Navy's most modern ships including the two type 42 anti-air destroyers that have been bought from Britain in the 1970s as the Argentinian Invasion failla sailed into some bad Autumn weather on the evening of March 28th its movement was picked up by British intelligence Britain was desperate to avoid an Argentine Invasion and pushed the United States who had established themselves as allies of Argentina in the 1970s to warn off the hunter from such a course of action President Reagan would eventually speak with galtieri but with no success the UK government also started to take military action hoping it could do some last minute deterrence three nuclear powered attack submarines were hurridly prepared for dispatch to the South Atlantic but the first would not arrive for 10 days in the meantime HMS endurance steaming on March 31st as fast as it could back towards the Falklands would be very much alone as far as her Captain Nick Barker knew the nearest British Naval unit was at Gibralter 7,000 mil Away by the evening of April 1 Task Force 40 was approaching its Landing points near Port Stanley final preparations were made rear Admiral buer addressed The Landing Force aboard the assault ship Cabo San Antonio we have been chosen by Destiny to carry out one of the dearest Ambitions of the Argentine people to recover the malvinas islands I expect from you bravery in battle respect for your enemy and generosity in Victory I warn you that if there are any excesses against the enemy troops women or private property I will impose the maximum penalty at 9:30 p.m. on April 1st the typ 42 Destroyer Santia Trinidad dropped anchor about a mile off to the coast of Stanley the capital of the faland islands rubber Boats were lowered into the water and just shy of 90 Argentinian Commandos began their Journey to the coast it took an hour and a half for the Marines to pzle to the shore getting stuck amongst Cel beds on the way and ending up making landfall at Lake Point some distance east of their intended landing area up mullet Creek this meant they would have more ground to cover to reach their objectives and would need to get a move on the Commandos divided into two groups most of their strength under the command of Lieutenant Commander Sanchez sabarot headed 6 Mi North West to Moody Brook Barracks where the Royal Marine Garrison of around 70 soldiers was expected to be a smaller party of 16 men led by Lieutenant Commander Pedro jaino began a hike to government house to arrest the governor and seize control of the island sabarot company surrounded the barracks at 5:30 a.m. to leave the Marines with no Escape they were surprised to discover that the barracks were in fact completely deserted but this didn't stop them pouring gunfire and tear gas and other grenades into the building regardless this sudden eruption of fire at Moody Brooks was clearly audible several miles away in Stanley where the raw Marines were actually positioned under major Mike Norman they had manned a variety of locations to the east designed to intercept an Argentine Force landing on the expected beaches west of Cape Pembrook at 6:05 a.m. the sound of gunfire coming from the west of government house rang alarm bells for major Norman most of his troops were facing the wrong way if the attack came from this direction he ordered two sections to relocate and take up positions west and south of government house to bolster its defenses and hurried there himself at 6:15 Lieutenant Commander jakino still sticking to the plan that assume the raw Marines would be asleep in their Barracks approached the rear of the building with four of his men they barely made it into the grounds at the rear of the house before gunfire rang out from the defending Marines mortally wounding Lieutenant Commander jakino and pinning the others down a furious gun battle now began with machine gun fire and stun grenades thrown from the Argentinian Commandos by 620 the attack had stalled and the argentines retreated leaving Zino and two other wounded behind luckily for them reinforcements were on the way at 6:30 the main Landing Force began to arrive west of Cape pemr with 20 am TRS departing from Cabo San Antonio and rolling ashore carrying troops from the Second Marine Battalion pushing South They seized the airport and detached one Army platoon to clear the runway and then pushed across a narrow bit of land known as the neck two Brit sections under liutenant Bill trollop prepared to engage the column just outside Stanley at 7:15 they fired on the lead group with two anti-tank launchers initial shots were Wayward but when one vehicle closed to within 150 M it was hit twice with rockets and began to Billow with smoke the Royal Marines did not have time to cheer this success though fire from the other am tracks intensified and soon forced them to retreat into Stanley they fought a rear guard action back towards government house exchanging Small Arms fire with the oncoming argentines by 8:00 a.m. the situation was deteriorating for the British the commanders from Moody Brooks had pushed East and were now engaged in increasingly heavy fighting around government house while the Royal Marines ultimately did not have the equipment to take on the amas that were rolling their way through Stanley reluctantly at 9:30 Governor hunt agreed to stop fighting an Argentine flag was raised over government house and the battle was over against hopeless odds the Royal Marines had resisted for three hours and suffered no casualties of their own the numbers killed and wounded for Argentina are contested and range from one killed two wounded to perhaps 20 to 30 casualties but there's a number of conflicting accounts within hours of the end of the battle the defeated British Personnel were flown off the islands though not before some propaganda of photos have been taken of them lying face down and distributed widely and repatriated back to the UK via Uruguay in the coming Days by the afternoon of April 2nd more Argentine troops were flying in to take up Garrison Duty and a team of officials were arriving to set up their civil administration of the islands last malvinas had been recaptured and there were scenes of Jubilation on the streets of Buenos Ires the mood was quite the opposite in London news of the Invasion slowly filtered through on April 2nd and it sent shock waves through the British government its attempts at deterrence And Delay over years had failed Margaret Thatcher faced a fiery House of Commons on Saturday April 3rd far from being the acclaimed iron lady she would later be known as Thatcher had to fight for her government's political survival in a chamber angry at both the argentine's and her administration's handling of the crisis the prime minister's attempts to explain the government's actions over the previous days were met with first derisive laughter yesterday morning at 8:33 a.m. we sent a telegram at 8 and then later General outrage I contacted President Reagan that evening and asked him to intervene with the Argentine president directly we promised in the meantime to take no action to escalate the dispute for fear of precipitating the very [Applause] event faced with political Oblivion if the nation allowed this seizure of the folkland to stand Thatcher announced that the government has now decided that a large task force will sail as soon as all preparations are complete HMS Invincible will be in the lead and will leave report on Monday behind this short sentence was the largest and riskiest mobilization of the British armed forces in three decades the islands were 8,000 M away and occupied by a nation with over 300 modern aircraft that could fly from air bases only a few hundred miles away from the islands a British task force would be outnumbered a long way from any help and would need to be supported by a logistical train which didn't exist at the start of April 1982 it would be the riskiest military deployment since the disaster of the Suez Crisis three decades before this didn't stop the Royal Navy under the leadership of Admiral Henry Leech from being convinced it was possible with the defense secretary John KN being pessimistic leech told the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that the first wave of a full task force including two aircraft carriers could be sailed within days and the Navy could take the island back by force if required convinced by Admiral Le's enthusiasm Thatcher gave the green light and Her Majesty's Naval service swung into action in a stroke of Good Fortune the Navy had the core of a large scale deployment already assembled at Gibralter the first failla had been conducting exercises under rear Admiral Sandy Woodward at 2:30 a.m. on April 3rd just hours after the Argentine in invasion of the folkland Woodward departed for the South Atlantic leading a group of five frigs and five destroyers which would make up the core of the carrier group charged with taking the islands back back in England frantic work was just beginning to provide Woodward ships with some aircraft carriers to escort when Argentina invaded both of Britain's carriers were alongside at Portsmouth Hermes was even in the middle of a 6 week maintenance period there was Fury ious activity to get them operational in early April within days anti-submarine sea Kings were being flown up from raw Naval Air Station cauldros joined by transport helicopters and every available sea Harrier from rnas yelton with its vertical takeoff and Landing ability the sea Harrier could land directly onto the carriers whilst they were still in Port saving valuable time as a result on April 5th both Hermes and Invincible left Portsmouth in a blaze of publicity intended as a statement to Argentina of Britain's resolve it had been just 3 days since the Argentine Invasion as well as warships Britain also had to find ground troops capable of landing on and liberating the Faulkland three raw marine and two parachute battalions were quickly earmarked for service in the South Atlantic but the Navy didn't have any way of getting them there to solve this the British government turned to its age-old power to requisition the nation's Merchant ships in time of war the 45,000 ton cruise line of canra which was by coincidence on her way back to the UK from the Mediterranean was quickly targeted UK officials boarded the ship at jalter assessing the modification she would need for service in the South Atlantic a plan for a custombuilt helicopter landing Pat to go over the swimming pool was designed on the back of an envelope telephoned back to the UK and fabricated before the liner even arrived back in England canra docked at Southampton on April 7th disembarked her passengers had extensive modifications and sailed 60 hours later with 2 and a half thousand Royal Marines and paratroopers on board it was a remarkable turnaround absolutely nothing have been allowed to stand in the way of her departure it was a similar story up and down the country as dozens of Civilian ships were pressed into service for all kinds of roles as Britain tried to construct an 8,000 mile long Logistics chain from scratch in a few days by the end of April there were 65 ships at Sea of which 40 were either Royal Fleet auxiliary support ships or civilian ships pressed into service sailing South as fast as their diesel engines would carry them the nent task force headed first for British controlled Ascension Island in the midatlantic arriving their peace meal throughout April and May 1982 this tiny and quiet island in the Atlantic became subject to a frenzy as the ships of the task force arrived and the RAF lifted in everything the task force needed but could not for whatever reason take with it from the UK at its peak the islands airport handled over 400 flights a day making Ascension briefly the busiest airport in the world this huge operation was supported in no small part by the United States though in secret as the Americans were trying to broker a diplomatic solution to the crisis the air base on the island was run by the US to support a NASA satellite tracking station and its Commander Lieutenant Colonel W brighten reportedly said that he had been ordered to help but not to get caught doing it the US kept the fuel tanked Ascension topped up and funneled shipment of the latest type of Sidewinder air-to-air missile into British hands after a brief stop rear Admiral Woodwards carrier battle group departed Ascension Island on April 18th it would take another 2 weeks for the carriers to reach the Faulkland but Britain was not going to wait that long to start military operations sailing ahead of the main force was a task grou Bound for South Georgia a British territory about 900 Mi southeast of the Faulkland that the argentinians had seized on April 3rd HMS ANM Plymouth and the tanker Tides spring had now been dispatched to take it back carrying a company of Royal Marines as well as D squadron from the SAS this force would link up with the Ice Patrol ship HMS in endurance who had remained at Sea monitoring the Argentine occupiers since the start of the month the task group under the command of Captain Brian Young arrived off South Georgia on April 21st wasting no time the British ships immediately began operations against Argentine positions but ran into trouble when two West X5 helicopters crashed whilst recovering an sas reconnaissance Patrol west of leth those involved were eventually rescued without loss by this aircraft HMS W 63 but it was a sharp reminder of the fraud danger that came with operating in this part of the world the situation did not get much better for the British when intelligence arrived the following day that an Argentinian submarine was in the vicinity of South Georgia this was a massive threat if a submarine could pick off one of the British ships that could spell the end of the South Georgia operation and possibly the entire Fulin's campaign if the political and public will to continue collapsed in the face of a military setback Captain young withdrew his Force out to sea for safety where they were reinforced on April 24th by the frigate HMS brilliant who had been detached from the Vanguard of the task force some days earlier and came with two links anti-ub submarine helicopters with this added strength the British Force returned to South Georgia with the exception of RFA tid spring which was carrying the Marine company and was kept out of Harm's Way for the time being on the morning of April 25th the British warships mobilized their helicopters to hunt down the Argentine submarine in the lead again was anims W 63 nicknamed Humphrey and piloted by left tenant Commander Ian Stanley Stanley and his crew searched initially with only the naked eye to avoid detection by their opponent before resorting to a single sweep on the helicopter's radar to see if they could locate the boat almost immediately the AR Santa Fe appeared on Humphrey's radar screen the subur Marine was steaming Northwest on the surface having dropped a platoon of Marines at grit Vicken to reinforce the Argentine Garrison there leftenant Commander Stanley called in its location before dropping two death charges one of which physically bounced off Santa fe's conning Tower before exploding at this the submarine turned back towards grit vicin a small oil slick becoming visible on the surface an indication of damage within a link from HMS brilliant was next on the scene firing off homing torpedo before wafts from endurance and Plymouth opened fire with their as12 rocket missiles the first of these from leftand Commander John elc's aircraft was the first missile ever fired by the Royal Navy in Anger the missiles were not big enough to do serious damage to the submarine but they punched enough holes in the conning Tower to prevent Santa Fe from submerging harried by almost half a dozen helicopters Santa Fe limped her way into git Vicken Harbor where her crew abandoned the sub and made their way to the Garrison's position at King Edward point it was at this stage that the British has started to press their advantage the element of surprise was now gone and it wouldn't do to allow the Argentine reinforcements to settle in it was time as major Cedric delves in command of the SAS at South Georgia puts it to go with Instinct Fast and Furious the Royal Marine company who had been intended to lead the assault on grit vickon were that afternoon still 200 miles away way aboard RFA tidde spring so any quick assault would have to go in without them using the SAS troops and a handful of Royal Marines that were on board the other ships they'd be facing about a 100 defenders in prepared positions but had the crucial advantage of Naval gunfire and helicopters the operation began at 2:30 p.m. with the SAS and Marines being carried ashore by Humphrey and Brilliant lynxes they landed south of grit vickon and pushed up the Brown Mountain Ridge while 4 and 1/2 in Naval Shel bombarded King Edward point though aimed at this stage to land near the Defenders to demoralize them rather than cause casualties the land troops under the command of Royal Marine major guy Sheridan then Advanced to within a, yards of the Garrison before HS ANM steamed right into the bay and threatened to fire directly at the argentines unless they surrendered a voice soon came back on the radio no shoot no shoot the Argentinian Commander lieutenant Commander Lewis Lagos appreciated the overwhelming strength of his opponents and like the British raw Marines 3 weeks earlier wisely decided to surrender with this and the surrender of Lieutenant Alfredo AES at Leaf the following day South Georgia was restored to British control Captain young sent a signal that was passed on to London proclaiming be pleased to inform her majesty that the white ensen flies alongside the Union Jack in south Georgia God save the queen what Happ what had begun as a fraught and almost disastrous operation ended in complete success for the British with an early Victory banked and The credibility of the Navy to carry out operations in the South Atlantic cemented there was just one fatality on South Georgia chief petty officer Felix artuso who was tragically shot dead after the surrender when a raw Marine guard thought he was trying to Scuttle for Santa Fe and so with the first military victory in the B Royal Navy ships departed with Captain Young's ships rejoining the main British task force on April 29th the carriers were now approaching the Faulkland and the prospect of any diplomatic solution was receding fast the Faulkland war was about to begin in Earnest and begin with one of the most controversial military actions since the second world war by the start of May 1982 the folkland crisis had lasted a month since the Argentine Invasion and was without resolution a British task force had spent the second half of April pushing relentlessly South resolved to use Force to recover the islands if diplomacy failed the only diversion had been to recapture South Georgia and the ships involved in that operation returned to the main Task Force Under the local command of rear Admiral Sandy Woodward on April 29th as the Royal Navy made its way South the British government had established a 200m maritime exclusion Zone around the Faulkland designed to limit Argentine reinforcement by prohibiting any ship from entering on pain of being sunk as the task force got closer to the islands and the risk of military confrontation went up at the end of April the UK government increased the strength of its measures the exclusion Zone was expanded to become a total exclusion Zone with aircraft now also prohibited from going near the Faulkland the the British task force crossed into the exclusion Zone on the night of May 1st with diplomatic negotiations at an end and now with the full backing of the United States Britain loudly announced its task Force's arrival launching bombing raids against Stanley and Goose green airfields and bombarding Argentine land positions around the capital Argentina responded in kind launching more than 40 aircraft to engage the British that afternoon and bringing its powerful Naval forces into play from the Northwest in two groups came the bulk of Argentina's Naval strength including the aircraft carrier ventco de mayia with its Skyhawk attack aircraft the British had positioned two of their nuclear submarines in this area to try and find the carrier but had not been able to locate it to the south of the islands a third group was pushing eastwards comprising the old Cruiser General Bel Grano and the Destroyers hippolito bad and Pedra Buena the two destroyers were of greatest concern they were armed with EXA anti-ship missiles which could strike targets with a devastating Warhead from 22 nautical miles away from the morning of May 1st the submarine HMS conqueror was in contact with the belgrano group and reported its progress to the British task force as the day wore on the British became increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of Argentina's aircraft carrier with conqueror reporting the belgrano group heading east the Royal Navy worried that the carrier was doing the same setting up a pinso movement against the British forces these fears went into overdrive when overnight on May 2nd an Argentine tracker reconnaissance aircraft was picked up on British radar a sea Harrier flown by flight leftenant Ian Mortimer was quickly readied and dispatched to investigate it didn't find the aircraft but less than an hour after takeoff it picked up several large radar contacts just 200 miles from HMS Hermes the Harrier also picked up the same kind of radar emissions as those used by Britain's type 42 destroyers these had to have come from one of Argentina's own type 42s and this almost certainly meant the presence of the carrier this was Now The crucial moment for Britain's decision to sink the belgrano the British task force was at midnight about 120 Mi Northeast of the Fons sailing on a Southeast course around the islands 200 mil to its Northwest rear Admiral Woodward now knew there was an Argentinian Carrier Group which would be in position to launch a raid against his ships at dawn in 7 hours time no submarine was in contact with the carrier and so a strike against it was impossible meanwhile to the south of the Faulkland just outside the exclusion Zone HMS conquer continued to be in touch with the general Bel granu and its attendant exet armed Destroyers a position report from conqueror placed it about 230 mi from the task Force's area of operations heading eastwards on this course the belgrano group was not an immediate threat but as Woodward puts it the speed and direction of an enemy ship can be irrelevant because both can change quickly what counts is his position his capability and what I believe to be his intentions the Argentine destroyers could travel at 35 knots so from their last reported position they could potentially Dart into the exclusion Zone and be within exet range of HMS Hermes by the time the sun came up conqueror would struggle to track all three ships at once even if it could pass through the shallow water of the birdwood bank without being detected rear Admiral Woodward might then be faced with the nightmare scenario of having to position his ship to defend against an air attack from the Northwest only for 16 exet missiles to appear here from the south faced with this Dreadful Prospect Woodward decided he needed the belgrano to be sunk and the Southern Group dispersed so that he could at least fully prepare for the expected Air Assault the trouble was even though Britain had publicly made clear that any warship posing a threat could be sunk its internal Rules of Engagement did not allow conqueror to engage a ship outside the exclusion Zone and these could only be changed by the government in London an urgent request for an alteration was quickly sent and luckily back in London both vice admiral John Fieldhouse and rear Admiral Peter Herbert had reached the same conclusion as Woodward and were putting the wheels in motion the issue was taken to that morning's meeting of the British war cabinet an action was taken contrary to depictions in lots of popular media there was no moment where Margaret thater declared sink it but instead a directive was issued that began all vessels posi positively identified as either an Argentine aircraft carrier Cruiser Destroyer frig Corvette or submarine may be attacked now by the time this order was issued belgrano had actually reversed course and was heading westwards this was because the planned Argentinian pinset attack had been cancelled Before Dawn due to wind levels being insufficient for the Skyhawk aircraft to get airborne with the required Munitions and fuel the Argentine Navy had previously been offered an aircraft that would be able to operate in these low wind conditions but had turned it down that aircraft was of course the seah Harrier with their offensive forward by the weather the carrier group under RI admal guelta ajara was ordered to head back near to the mainland to await further developments the British expected the Argentine ship to Simply Be repositioning for another attempted attack that night and the Royal Navy was not about to rely on the weather to prevent it again and so as the sun began to set Commander Chris reord Brown of HMS conqueror began his attack run on the AR General belgrano the submarine ghosted in close to its Target and at 2:57 p.m. fired three marate torpedos these were Old World War II vintage Torpedoes with massive Warheads which would be needed to punch through the belgrano thick World War II era armor plating in quick succession two t tedo found their Mark blowing the bow clean off and causing a sheet of flame to burst through the deck of the stern the cruiser ground to a halt and began to sink fast at 317 Captain Hector Bonzo ordered abandoned ship and minutes later General belgrano was gone 323 Sailors went down with her the rest of the Argentine Navy now firmly aware of the exceptional danger that Britain's nuclear sub submarines posed went straight back to port and stayed there with Argentinian Naval power playing no further meaningful role in the war the sinking of the belgrano made Global headlines as soon as news of it was released on May 3rd the Argentine government announced the loss of the cruiser and called it sinking a treacherous Act of armed aggression as it had occurred outside the exclusion Zone to an international audience the attack on the belgrano came as a brutal shock with hundreds of conscript Sailors killed without warning by a British submarine International support for Britain wavered not helped by its own statement on the sinking being riddled with untruths the defense secretary John not referred on May 3rd to the belgrano closing on elements of our task force which was only hours away when it was sunk this was completely untrue the belgrano had been heading away from Britain ships when she was sunk the British government for years after the sinking was evasive and secretive about the attack on Bel Grano both to the public and to parliamentary inquiries it's frankly bizarre that they acted like this though on the face of the information available to the British at the time of the sinking it's difficult to see what other option they had to allow hostile Naval forces to continually move into threatening positions at will would be to take a colossal risk with their own ships and sailors ultimately Argentina had begun hostilities the previous month and towards the end of April had been warned in a statement that a ship which could amount to a threat to interfere with the mission of the British forces in the South Atlantic will encounter the appropriate response the implication of this was the irrespective of a ship's location in relation to the exclusion Zone if it was deemed a threat it could be Su Argentina's Navy recognized this the commander of Argentina's Carrier Group said later that after that message of 23 April the entire South Atlantic was an operational theater for both sides Hector bonso the captain of the belgrano also spoke up arguing that the sinking of the cruiser was an act of War it was not a crime it was a legal most unfortunate and lamentable action to him and other senior Argentine officers hostilities had commenced the previous day and they could expect to take and receive blows indeed Captain bonso went on to to say that if the submarine should have been before me having emerged for repairs I would have opened fire with the 15 guns until it sunk the sinking of the belgrano was the largest single loss of life of the entire fand's war and its most controversial moment but it was just the beginning while Argentina returned its surface vessels to Port after the loss of the belgrano its land-based aircraft remained every bit as dangerous as before and 2 Days Later they would inflict a shattering loss Argentina in 1982 had a large Fleet of powerful Western Bill aircraft including americanmade Skyhawks and Israeli produced daggers the latest addition to this Armada of more than 300 planes was the French superintend Strike Fighter which was designed to operate exer anti-ip missiles capable of delivering a 165 kg Warhead at over 700 mph the ex set was a modern highly dangerous missile and the British knew it would be the single biggest threat to their ships during the Faulkland War as a key part of their Naval Strike Force Argentina had ordered 14 superintend and 15 exet missiles but only five of each have been received before France suspended deliveries in the wake of the invasion of the Faulkland with such a limited Stock It was decided that the intend would only deploy from their base at Rio Grand in pairs when opportune moments to strike the British carriers arose on the morning of May 4th one such opportunity was presented when a Neptune reconnaissance aircraft detected the British task force southeast of the folklands rear Admiral Sandy Woodward had his Flagship HMS Hermes about 75 Mi south of Stanley he was keeping his ships relatively close to the coast in order to support Shore bombardment and reconnaissance operations being mounted against Argentine land positions May 4th was expected Ed to be a relatively quiet day with a single air raid against Goose green the only planned operation 450 Mi away a pair of superintendant had other ideas as they took off from Rio Grand at 8:45 a.m. piloted by Lieutenant Commander Augusto bakarat and sub liutenant Armando mayora the superintend flew East without escort relying on surprise and the long range of their missiles to mount a successful raid they would ordinarily not have have the range to reach the reported British ships but they were able to refuel in midair from a Hercules tanker to massively extend their range 120 M out from the reported contacts the two aircraft descended to flight just 50 ft above the sea so that the curvature of the Earth would hide them from British radar screens flying on in poor visibility at 956 a.m. bakarat and mayora popped up and briefly switched on their Radars looking for the British ship they found nothing so dropped down to sea level once more pressing on at more than 500 knots towards where their target should be less than 50 Mi away the British fleet was sailing southwestwards the ships of the taskforce were strung out in an anti-air formation and had dealt with repeated false alarms over incoming hostile aircraft that morning furthest East were the most important ships the carriers Hermes and Invincible each accompanied by a goalkeeper ship armed with the short-range Seawolf missile positioned as the last line of defense in front of these were layers of protection the most important of which were the three type 42 anti-air destroyers positioned 20 mi ahead of the main task force centry Glasgow and Sheffield were task of intercepting any hostile air attacks before they could reach the carriers and do critical damage there will also SE harriers in the air running combat Air Patrol to the Northeast but due to the low Cloud base on May 4th their ability to quickly respond to threats was limited at 956 and 30 seconds HMS Glasgow picked up the radar emissions from the in tender's first attempt to establish contact with the task force its operations room snapped into gear correctly identifying the sour as a superintend and broadcasting a warning to the rest of the task force but HMS Sheffield who was closer to the approaching aircraft in Glasgow was silent at that moment the southernmost type 42 was using her satellite communication system which blocked out certain radar frequencies and meant that Sheffield could not see the same contacts that Glasgow Could Captain Paul hoder of Glasgow had previously banned the use of this system on his ship during daylight hours but Captain Sam so on Sheffield had not done the same at 958 bakarat and mayora again popped up for a radar sweep now just 20 mi away from the task force this time they could make out two radar contacts one smaller than the other believing the larger ship to be an aircraft carrier they pressed their attack and prepared to launch their missiles by now Glasgow had Direct radar contact with the approaching strike aircraft the ship's anti-air Warfare officer leftenant Commander Nick hawkyard quickly reported the incoming raid but he was frustrated with the response of HMS Invincible which was not convinced that this latest alarm wasn't another false warning as others had been that morning the SE harri is on their patrol route were not diverted to intercept the incoming contacts at 10:00 a.m. now somewhat frantic Glasgow radioed a warning of the incoming attack to Sheffield but again there was no response at this critical juncture both the ships anti-air Warfare officer and one of the radio operators had stepped out of the operations room leaving it r Sheffield had also still not made radar contact with the Argentinian Jets this was now partly because Glasgow had given the bearing of the contacts as being 235° but from Sheffield the aircraft would have shown up on a bearing of around 300 this confusion led to Sheffield radar operators looking in the wrong place and seeing nothing the superintends were now just 12 M out they turned sharply to starboard lining themselves up firmly on HMS Sheffield 10 seconds later Sheffield's antier officer was urgently called back to the Ops room over the ship's intercom this was the first indication to almost all of Sheffield's crew that something was wrong before he could get there though at 10:02 exactly bakarat and mayora launched their exet missiles and turned away hard to begin their Sprint back to Argentina with an ex set traveling at more than 700 mph on its way Britain ships now just had seconds to react glasgo quickly fired chaff clouds of small metal filaments designed to confuse the accet radar into missing the ship on board Sheffield the anti-air officer returned to the Ops room but misidentified the raid as a pair of Mirage 3s as he believed the fleet was beyond the range of the exet carrying superint tendas seconds later the ship's Bridge crew caught sight of the missile Trails heading their way but no message was related to the Ops room the captain or to the crew no chaff was fired aboard Glasgow Captain hoder ordered his ship seaart missile system to engage the on-rushing exet but the system was designed to engage high altitude missiles and struggled to lock on to the low-flying and fast moving projectiles Sheffield SE Dart meanwhile could not even see the exer sets on radar most of her crew was not even aware there was anything to be worried about and then at 10:03 exactly time ran out for HMS Shack the first exet probably fired by bedar rats smashed into the ship starboard side and midships causing a huge fire in the auxiliary machine room the ship immediately lost half its power and its Communications thick black smoke forced the evacuation of the bridge and the Ops room and a ruptured fir man crippled firefighting efforts to make matters worse the computer systems for the ship's missiles failed leaving sheff F defenseless in the face of any suben attacks in the computer room a team of five under liutenant Commander John Woodhead remained at their post trying desperately to restore the ship's defenses even as choking smoke filled the air and the blazing fire crept closer they were eventually successful but all five men perished in the process not long after the exet hit the frigs Yarmouth and arrow arrived to offer assistance providing hoses and pumps to try and beat back the fire rapidly engulfing the center of HMS Sheffield helicopters began to evacuate casualties to HMS Hermes where their arrival was captured by the shocked news cameras of the broadcast media on shefield firefighters battled for 4 hours against the fire in an attempt to save the ship but it was a battle they steadily lost by 1:50 p.m. Captain salt judged that the combat value of the ship was now essentially nil and keeping the crew on board was not worth the risk that the fire might reach and detonate the seaart magazine he ordered a Bandon ship the crew went across to Yarmouth and arrow while Captain Sal and some of his officers were flown by links to Hermes to report to rear Admiral Woodward Woodward grappling with the implications of that morning's events told Captain salt I suspect someone's been bloody careless 20 men had died and Britain had lost onethird of its specialist anti-air ships leaving the task force dangerously exposed until reinforcements in the shape of ships like HMS exitor and HMS Cardiff could arrive as the task force digested a serious blow several hundred miles away bakut and mayora were returning to base having fired 40% of Argentina's exet stocks when news reports of Sheffield sinking emerged it was seen by sum as revenge for the sinking of the Bel Grano 2 days before but that wasn't how sub liutenant May saw it we didn't feel that it was a retaliation for the belgrano the operation was never for that but we felt that we had proved that we had the ability to sink one of theirs too the burning Hulk of HMS Sheffield remained afloat for several days after she was hit once the fire had burnt itself out the ship was taken under toe by Yarmouth she reached the edge of the exclusion Zone but began to take water on through the hole the exet had created eventually Sheffield founded and capsized sinking into the Atlantic where she rests today the loss of Sheffield was a brutal shock to Britain it was the Royal Navy's first warship lost by enemy action since the end of the second world war at a very sudden reminder to the British government and public of the realities of fighting a war militarily it forced the Royal Navy to be more cautious with its task force keeping further east and away from the in tendar base at Rio Grand but it also hardened their resolve to Pro seeed the campaign through to a Victorious conclusion after days of fighting at Sea and in the air attention would now turn to the plans for a full scale amphibious landing on the folklands and some of the most tense days of the entire War but before any Landings could take place the British had to find out what they would be facing at the intended Landing areas on the night of May 10th the frig HMS alacrity was ordered to pass through Faulkland s in a bid to see if the argentines had mined the channel between the two main islands as ality did not sink in this process it was figured that there were no mines present the decision was therefore taken to land Britain's troops at San Carlos Bay on East Faulkland far enough away from the main Argentine positions to be confident of a smooth Landing but not so far away as to make it impractical to mount an offensive towards Stanley there was one major problem though an Argent INE base on Pebble Island just off the North Coast of the main islands it housed a small air base which the British thought likely to hold picara ground attack aircraft armed with bombs or rocket pods as well as 20 mm cannons these propeller driven aircraft could do serious damage to British troops as they tried to come ashore and would be based only 4 minutes flying time away from the prospective Landing beaches this made Pebble Island a subst stantial risk and it was not one that rear Admiral Sandy Woodward the local commander of the British carrier group was prepared to tolerate he wanted the base neutralized but there were not a lot of good options to achieve this bombardment by air or sea was ruled out as too impr precise it could not guarantee the destruction of any aircraft and it carried the unacceptable risk of explosives hitting the civilian settlement on the island luckily for Woodward the contingent of Special Forces aboard his flagship had a plan which could solve both these problems under the command of major Cedric delves D Squadron of the Special Air Service have been aboard HMS Hermes since the start of May after their involvement in the recapture of South Georgia was concluded deles and his men had been searching for a way to make themselves useful to the task force and had already settled on Pebble Island as a potentially lucrative Target they proposed Landing SAS troops onto the island by helicopter to disable the Airfield and any aircraft by hand with demolition charges and anti-tank weapons it was a daring plan evoking similar operations that the N SAS had carried out in North Africa during the second world war Woodward was keen on the idea but the potential risks were huge and information about the target was very scarce a reconnaissance team under Captain Timothy BS was immediately dispatched to the area on the evening of May 11th but were delayed by bad we from being able to observe the Argentine positions until dawn on May 13th by then time was running very short rear Admiral Woodward had set a deadline of dawn on May 15th to complete the operation any later and it would overlap with possible dates for the main Landings at San Carlos so as soon as Captain BS was able to report the presence of 11 Argentine aircraft the operation was swiftly greenlit for the early hours of May 15th the SAS troops would be flown to and from their target by SE Kings from HMS Hermes which meant detaching the British Flagship arguably the most important warship in the South Atlantic to sail almost alone several hundred miles away from the main body of the task force only the Destroyer Glamorgan and frigate broadsword would accompany it on a voyage which would leave the carrier highly vulnerable major delves meanwhile had to prepare his men for a deployment about which they knew almost nothing the lack of time to prepare meant that the three remaining troops would Deploy on the island with almost no information about what they'd be facing and would have to rely on those already deployed acting as guides the plan did at least benefit from being brutally simple it was essentially a frontal attack with the entire Squadron with surprise and Chaos as their Chief allies 18 troop would join the already deployed 17 troop in spearheading the attack with 16 and 19 troops play supporting roles aircraft and ground facilities and air crew were all to be targeted if possible and so at 6:00 p.m. on May 14th Hermes detached from the fleet and sped West as quickly as she could it wasn't long before a fearsome Gale blew up and the three ships lost speed battling against huge waves the timetable for the operation began to slip what was supposed to be a 6-hour journey ended up being more like seven and the Sea Kings containing the raiding party did not take off until 2:25 a.m. badly behind schedule as the Special Forces made their way towards the target to the South HMS Glamorgan was taking up position to provide Naval gunfire support to the Troops on the ground as required it was expecting to do so from around 4:00 a.m. but it was only at 3:50 that D Squadron was arriving on Pebble Island to keep their arrival hidden from the argentines they landed some 5 km away from the Target and then had to hike into position which took until 6:10 a.m. it was not long until dawn now for the safety of the carrier the British troops would need to be extracted no later than 7:30 a.m. leaving major delves critically short of time dandron mortar was hurriedly set up and the assault troops were sent forward 18 troop had fallen behind during the hike so they were replaced with 19 troop under Captain Gavin Hamilton the airfield on Pebble Island was defended by a Detachment under Lieutenant MGA from third Marine Battalion as the SAS Force approached most of these were asleep in their beds only a ring Patrol of four men including MGA was on duty as well as two more in the guard her on the air base they would have been somewhat surprised when at around 700 a.m. all hell suddenly broke loose the troops under captains Hamilton and burs charged onto the Airfield opening fire with small arms grenades and anti-tank launchers on anything that looked even remotely hostile HMS Glamorgan also opened fire dropping a curtain of high explosive rounds north of the Airfield to add to the sense of chaos and encourage Argentine Defenders to keep their heads down despite this though several of the guards did return fire on their as salant but it was almost impossible to aim through the smoke and half light of Illumination shells fired by the SAS mortar Lieutenant MGA and his men were powerless to stop the SAS from reaching the main concentration of aircraft on the western side of the Airfield within minutes the SAS set to work destroying these aircraft too before sweeping around to tackle the aircraft to the south of the Argentine guard Hut as the raid progressed Lieutenant MGA began to worry that the attack was a precursor to a larger Landing to seize the Airfield entirely determined to prevent the British from making use of Island he moved to activate a series of explosive charges in the runway to make it unusable this was just as Corporal Armstrong was placing the explosive charge on the sixth and final fukara the massive explosion from the Argentine charges blew him off his feet Landing him with a concussion on the other side of the runway the chers also destroyed a sky van Transport Aircraft meaning every single aircraft on Pebble Island was now a blaze with their mission largely and the sky beginning to lighten it was time for the British to leave major delves gathered his Squadron up and pulled back to the Rond VI with the sea Kings at exactly 7:30 on the dot the four helicopters appeared from the east and set themselves down the SAS men scrambled aboard and were taken off back to HMS Hermes in time for breakfast it was a raid that had lasted for barely half an hour planned and executed at incredible speed in the face of a brutal Atlantic winter all 11 Argentine aircraft present have been destroyed with only three men wounded on the British side and two on the Argentine side the airfield on Pebble Island that was so close to the upcoming Landing beaches had been neutralized and the stage was now set for Britain's very own D-Day in the South Atlantic but despite all the planning preparation and Special Operations The Landings at San Carlos remained a fundamentally risky proposition as all amphibious Landings are under the leadership of commodore Mike clap a large number of Warships dedicated Landing ships and requisitioned Merchant ships would have to sail right up to the Shoreline and remain there exposed to whatever Argentina could throw at them for days on end until the five Royal marine and parachute battalions have been unloaded and a secure Beach head established facing the British or an Argentine Army under the military governor of the fand's Brigadier General Mario Menendez knowing that any British reconquest of the islands could only be successful if they captured the town of Stanley Menendez was content to concentrate the bulk of his forces around the capital smaller garrisons were maintained in outlying areas including at Goose green and at San Carlos settlement itself at Sea the amphibious group of ships carrying the troops joined up with rear Admiral Woodwards carry a task force on May 8th 18th and managed to achieve an undetected approach to San Carlos 2 days later thanks to a helpful blanket of fog commodor clap ships made their Final Approach after dark with special forces operations beginning to take out an Argentine observation post on Fanning head and suppress the Garrison at Goose green to prevent their interference with The Landings with operations to secure their flanks underway the British troops began to come ashore from landing craft at 4:00 a.m. beginning with two par at the southern end of San Carlos water The Landings were largely uncontested with the only Argentine unit in the area being a Detachment under first lieutenant Carlos estban at Port San Carlos which pulled back out of the settlement once the scale of the British Landing became clear After Dawn from a position to the east estban unit fought a fierce rear guard action Downing two gazelle Scout helicopters that strayed too close to their position before being compelled to withdraw by the leading elements of three parah which liberated Port San Carlos and raised a British flag the reconquest of the folklands was underway but the battle for San Carlos was far from over almost as soon as British troops had stepped foot on land on the morning of May 21st Argentina's fast Jets launched a determined attack on the beach head they were operating at maximum range from their base with no fighter escort over the next few days they would press home attacks on British ships to Point Blank Range with only seconds to pick a Target once it was in View and in the face of a melstrom of fire from British ship-based missile Systems 4 and a half inch Naval guns sea harriers and landbased Rapier anti-air missiles the Argentine attacks on May 21st focused on British warships outside the main San Carlos Anchorage where they they acted as picket ships to draw attacks away from the ship's unloading troops this stretch of water in Falon sound would soon become known as bomb alley the frigate Argonaut was the first to be hit by two bombs from Skyhawks before hm anrin was struck by a bomb from the dagger in the start of a trend that was to continue throughout the battle for San Carlos none of the bombs exploded having been fused incorrectly for the altitude they were dropped from it was a lucky Escape for the British they were not to get so lucky in the afternoon when two pairs of Skyhawks thundered their way towards HMS ardens one aircraft was down by a seah Harrier but the others got through two 500lb bombs struck the frig with one exploding and Wrecking The Hanger area and the ship secap missile launcher which had failed to engage the low-flying attackers Ardent lost power to her gun so was virtually defenseless when at 2 p.m. five more Skyhawks appeared and made straight for for the stricken frig the ship's crew had little to defend themselves with and could not stop at least two more bombs exploding on board cracking the hole and starting huge fires that soon threatened the torpedo and missile magazines Commander Alan West the ship's Captain was left with little alternative but to abandoned ship with the surviving crew taken off ardan sank overnight the first major surface casualty of the battle of San Carlos it was the end of a bruising day for both sides Britain had lost ardant while both argonut and ANM were out of action until unexploded ordinance they were carrying could be diffused 33 Sailors have been killed mostly on board ardant and 20 injured on the Argentine side 10 fast Jets have been shot down fully a quarter of all launched on that day at the end of May 21st most British troops were now ashore but large amounts of their supplies and heavy equipment was still on board the ships and so after a break for bad weather on May 22nd the attacks resumed the following day at 12:40 four Skyhawks led by Captain Pablo Cabo approached HMS broadsword Yarmouth and Antelope south of Fanning Island one aircraft was driven off by a seap missile and another was shot down by 20 mm cannon fire but the remaining two got through and British made 1,000 bombs struck the newly arrived frig Antelope once again they failed to explode but while attempts to diffuse the ordinance were ongoing that evening one of the bombs detonated the explosion claimed the life of Staff Sergeant James Prescot and started a huge fire which caused the ship to be abandoned and eventually reached the seap magazine the dawn light of May 24th revealed an an utterly broken ship which soon sank hours later the Argentine Air Force came in again this time with more focus on attacking British transports The Landing ships salelot and sag Galahad were hit but with bombs that predictably by this stage did not explode May 25th was Argentina's national day which meant that despite heavy losses of aircraft the Argentine Air Force would summon all of its remaining strength for an allout attack on the British ships at San Carlos it would turn out to probably be their best day of the entire air War the British knowing the importance of the day to their opponents were expecting a big assault to counteract this rear Admiral Woodward moved his Carrier Group closer to San Carlos to reduced the flight time for SE Harrier patrols to and from the combat area he also maintained a pair of Air Defense ships Northwest of folkland sound where a better radar picture could be produced away from the coast and incoming aircraft could be intercepted this tactic started effectively through the morning HMS centry shot down two Skyhawks with it sea dark missiles but that afternoon two pairs approached from different directions simultaneously and it all went wrong first centry seaart failed to Fire and then broadsword Seawolf did likewise nearby seah Harries who had been told to keep their distance to allow the ship's missiles to work as they had done that morning could not intervene the British ships were virtually helpless as first lieutenant Mariano Velasco dropped three bombs into the centry which all exploded cing the type 42 Destroyer to sink rapidly the bad news for the British did not stop there also that afternoon two exet armed super attenders attacked the British Carrier Group hitting the SS Atlantic conveyor and starting a huge fire which quickly destroyed the ship and all but one of its 11 vital shinook and Wessex helicopters the attack on conveyor was the last major action of the battle for San Carlos only small scale raids Around The Bay took place after this point as the exhausted Argentine air force needed time to regroup of 62 aircraft available for combat over San Carlos on May 21st 21 have been lost in the battle for this they had sunk three British warships and Atlantic conveyor as well as hitting six other ships with bombs that did not explode had these detonated correctly the damage to her Landings could have been much more severe as it was the British have managed to establish themselves ashore and now prepared for their offensive eastwards but their immediate troubles were far from over as the loss of the Atlantic conveyor had also meant the loss of its cargo of helicopters meaning most of the British troops would have to walk East towards the Island's capital Stanley despite this setback the British wasted no time in going onto the offensive Elsewhere on May 28th second Battalion the parachute regiment assaulted an outlying Argentine position at Goose green in a tough day of fighting which cost a life of the battalion's commander leftenant Colonel Herbert Jones the parz were able to capture the local Airfield and encircle Argentine forces under Lieutenant Colonel Italo pagi forcing a surrender the following morning yielding more than a thousand Prisoners the victory at Goose green was the first major land victory for the British the reconquest of the islands was well and truly underway the recapture of goose green was a big first step for the British but assaulting the positions of almost 10 times as many argentines around Stanley would need rather a lot more troops fifth infantry Brigade under Brigadier Tony Wilson arrived at San Carlos at the end of May accompanied by Major General Jeremy Moore who would now take overule command of all British troops on the islands tupar which was at Goose green following its successful offensive there was attached to fifth infantry Brigade which was to be tasked with securing the southern approaches to Stanley while Brigadier Julian Thompson's third Commando Brigade Consolidated their position to the north speed was of the essence with winter closing in and Britain's logistical chain stretch to Breaking Point at the start of June Brigadier Wilson vaulted to par fors to Fitz Roy and Bluff Cove settlements by helicopter after cursory reconnaissance revealed no argentinians were present there moving the rest of fifth Brigade forwards was more of a challenge as the continuing shortage of helicopters following the loss of conveyor forced the Welsh and Scots guards to be transported to Bluff Cove by sea instead disaster struck at the end of this operation on June 8th when the landing ship s Galahad was caught at Fitzroy by Argentinian Skyhawks whilst it still had half of the Welsh guards on board three bombs exploded on the landing ship which was crowned with soldiers waiting to disembark 48 people died in the ensuing Fireball twice the number killed in the entire Goose green operation and Britain's worst single loss of life of the entire War the hit on Galahad and the ensuing rescue operation delayed Britain's preparations for the attacks towards Stanley which were drawing nearer despite the setbacks by June 10th Major General Moore had seven battalions ready to advance on the Argentine stronghold around the Island's capital three Commando brigades three par 45 Commando and 42 Commando were on the front line joined by the Scots guards from the newly arrived fifth Brigade at Fitzroy were two parah the first gers and the Welsh guards who have been reinforced by two companies of 40 Commando to make up their losses suffered on to Galahad the plan was for two back-to- back night attacks to seize all of The High Ground west of Stanley making it impossible for the argentines to hold out in the town whatever their numbers were the British command was fully committed to this assault in reserve were only two companies of 40 Commando at San Carlos and a single company of gers at Goose green everything else the British had would go into the attack and it would still be barely enough to match the argentinians in numbers by this stage in the conflict Argentina had around 9,000 troops left in Stanley of which around 5,000 or so were Frontline combat units Brigadier General Menendez the Argentine commander in the Faulkland had positioned his units in naturally strong defensive positions in the Hills West of Stanley with seventh regiment fourth regiment and fifth Marine Battalion in the front line further regimens continued to be retained near the coast to ward off any amphibious Landings close to the capital the Argentine regiments were Battalion siiz units roughly equivalent in size to the British units they would be facing but stretched much more thinly across a wide area to make matters worse fifth Marine Battalion was the only Argentine unit that had proper cold weather gear and experience fourth regiment to their West had been drawn from the subtropical province of corantes near the Brazilian border and so were profoundly unused to the conditions of a Fulin's winter worried at how isolated and outgunned his troops were General Menendez requested reinforcements on June 10th but was refused General galtieri and the rest of the hunter were not prepared to risk further Naval or Air Force assets so Menendez was ordered to fight to the end with what he had the British attack began on the evening of June 11th with three battalions moving forward to assault the three strong points of the outer ring of Argentine defenses Mount Harriet two sisters and mount Longden to the West the offensive began smoothly with both 4-2 Commando on Mount Harrier and 45 Commando on two sisters managing to overcome their opponents from fourth regimen in a few hours of determined assault with relatively low casualties only a single man dead at Mount Harriet and four at two sisters this was not the case at Mount Longden which was being assaulted by three par Mount Longton was smaller than the other Hills attacked that night but it was extremely Rocky with outc crops creating narrow channels dominated by Argentine machine guns that the parat Troopers would have to advance through sure enough not long into the attack B company became badly stuck on the western slopes four platoon was in particular danger pinned down in the open by withering fire from the Rocks above the platoon's commanding officer was soon lost to injury and its dire position was only alleviated when Sergeant Ian Makai led a mad nearly singlehanded assault on two key Argentine positions both were put out of action but Makai was cut down in the process he would receive a postumus Victoria Cross for his gallantry makai's sacrifice allowed his platoon to get into a better position on the hill and B company was able to steadily push the Argentine Defenders under major Carlos Salvador's back eventually enabling a company to sweep through their positions and clear the rest of Mount Longden it had been a brutal fight 23 Paras had been killed two of them just 17 years old and 35 wounded at the end of this long hard night of fighting Argentina's defensive ring around Stanley had been severely dented all three key Hills had fallen with severe casualties for the Defenders particularly on Mount Longden where the brutal Close Quarters fight had caused heavy losses the only consolation for Brigadier Menendez was that the fighting had taken longer than expected delaying and dis disrupting the British enough that an additional day to regroup and prepare for the second phase of the offensive would be required to carry it out these Scots guards and gers were brought up to prepare for their assault on Mount tumbled down and William and artillery attacks on Argentine positions were stepped up aided by spotting from newly captured Vantage points the final British offensive of the Falkland War Began not long after sunset on June 13th with these Scots guards ing Force to begin the assault of Mount tumbledown there was some anxiety over this attack tumbled down had an almost sheer Northern face and its Southern slopes were overlooked by Argentinian positions on Mount William forcing the British into a direct assault from the West to make matters worse The Defenders of tumbled down were drawn from the fifth Marine infantry battalion probably the best equipped and trained Argentine unit on the islands leftenant Colonel Mike Scott tried to mitigate these Risk by launching a diversionary assault south of Mount William prior to the main offensive to try and draw the defender's attention away this worked well G company was able to capture the first third of Tumbl down without being detected this easy success did not last for long though when the Left Flank company took over the attack it became pinned down by heavy Argentine fire in open ground on top of the ridge it took several hours to get going again eventually aided by a large artillery bombardment Tumbl down was steadily secured but the delay meant there was no time for the gerus to attack Mount William Before Dawn they would have to do it in daylight at the same time as these Scots guards were fighting their way up tumbled down to the north two power were closing the ring around Stanley with an assault on wireless Ridge unlike the other British Battalion commanders leftenant Colonel David charler decided on a noisy attack for this operation with a large artillery bombardment beforehand and then overwhelming Firepower used to secure his objectives the Paris were supported by a troop of Scorpion and simitar light tanks as well as extensive artillery mortar and Naval gunfire support all this Firepower soon told driving the Argentine Defenders off the Ridge and enabling the British to rain down a curtain of fire on an attempted Counterattack under major Roberto ber with the loss of Wireless Ridge the Argentine defense of Stanley had collapsed hundreds of troops streamed East into the town pursued by British artillery the gers were spared or perhaps denied in their view their uphill Mountain assault in broad daylight when it was found that the trenches on Mount William were empty sensing that their opponents were routed Brigadier Thompson ordered his battalions to keep advancing two Paris straight on the road into Stanley and four five Commando up to sappa Hill the last remaining bit of High Ground still in Argentinian hands the Welsh guards were also moved forwards helicoptered onto the summit of sappa Hill just as 45 Commando was arriving as a result Brigadier General Mendez realized on the morning of June 14th that the game was up the British had him surrounded by land and sea they had The High Ground and his troops were low on ammunition organization and morale he concluded that the only course of action was to surrender and despite General gautier's objections from buenos that's exactly what he decided to do contact was made a British negotiating team arrived that afternoon terms were thrashed out and then General Moore flew in that evening to sign an instrument of surrender with General Mendez Moore then reported to London in the early hours informing the British government that General Menendez surrendered to me all the Argentine armed forces in east and west Faulkland the Faulkland Islands are once more under the government desired by their inhabitants God Save the Queen in the 10 weeks between Invasion and Liberation both sides suffered greatly Britain lost 255 dead and 775 wounded Argentina 649 killed and 1,657 wounded that's before you count the total of PTSD and other mental health issues which many veterans on both sides have lived with for four decades thousands of entire prisoners of War were returned home just a few days after surrendering and they found a nation in turmoil General garyi had been deposed the conclusion of seven months of leadership during which he had got almost everything wrong there was public anguish over the nation's defeat attempts by the military to find scapegoats and ultimately the beginning of a journey back towards democracy for Argentina in the UK the end of the Falcons War also had a profound effect on the government but in the opposite direction the task force returned home over the summer of 1982 in Triumph HMS Hermes and canra were met by huge cheering crowds on their arrival in Port Margaret Thatcher's conservative government which had been dreadfully unpopular only a year before so to new heights of popularity on the back of a quick successful War victory in the fauland contributed heavily to her Landslide reelection in the 1983 general election and paved the way for the continued thatcherite reshaping of Britain's economic and political institutions in the years to come for the Falon Islanders themselves their belief in their britishness and separateness from Argentina was if anything strengthened by the war the islands remain as they always have a colony ultimately dependent on Britain for its economy and security but they are a colony under a government of their own choosing thanks to a short but dramatic war in the South Atlantic 40 years ago hi everyone thanks for watching this featurelength cut of the folkland series that we produced last year for the 40th anniversary of the conflict I think overall this is one of the best series that we have ever produced so I wanted to make it available in this long of format and all the sponsorships from each episode cut out to give you the best viewing experience I also want to say a really big thank you to all the patrons who supported the creation of these videos all the videos this year and videos now going all the way back to 2018 there 6 years of histograph content now and I do not think I would be in the position I am today if not for the support of those patrons who's joined right back in 2018 and all those that have joined since I'm eternally grateful to all of them for their support if you want to sign up and help support creation of videos next year and get adree early access to all of them as they come out please do consider signing up on patreon at the links in the description thank you very much again for watching and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Historigraph

Views: 1,615,720

Keywords: falklands war, historigraph, histography, historiograph, historiography, falkands documentary, las malvinas

Id: reVZtG68Wq8

Length: 85min 7sec (5107 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 07 2023