Falkland Islands War

HMS Hermes steams south

The Falkland Islands War (Argentinian name: Guerra de las Malvinas) was a 10-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British-dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The result of the war was a British victory.

The conflict began on 2 April, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, followed by the invasion of South Georgia the next day. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with an Argentine surrender on 14 June, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities.

The conflict was a significant episode in the protracted dispute over the territories' sovereignty. Argentina asserted (and maintains) that the islands are Argentine territory, and the Argentine government thus characterized its military action as the reclamation of its territory. The British government regarded the action as an invasion of a territory that had been a Crown colony since 1841. Falkland Islanders, who have inhabited the islands since the early 19th century, are predominantly descendants of British settlers and strongly favor British sovereignty. Neither state officially declared war, although both governments declared the Islands a war zone.

The conflict has strongly affected both countries and has been the subject of various books, articles, films, and songs. Patriotic sentiment ran high in Argentina, but the unfavorable outcome prompted large protests against the ruling military government, hastening its downfall and the country's democratization. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative government, bolstered by the successful outcome, was re-elected with an increased majority the following year. The cultural and political effects of the conflict have been less severe in the UK than in Argentina, where it has remained a common topic for discussion.

Diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Argentina were restored in 1989 following a meeting in Madrid, at which the two governments issued a joint statement. No change in either country's position regarding the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands was made explicit. In 1994, Argentina adopted a new Constitution, which declared the Falkland Islands by law as an Argentine province. However, the islands continue to operate as a self-governing British Overseas Territory.

Sinking of ARA General Belgrano

ARA General Belgrano

ARA General Belgrano (C-4) was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Initially commissioned by the U.S. Navy as USS Phoenix, 'she survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and saw action in the Pacific theatre of World War II before being sold (along with USS Boise) to Argentina in 1951. The cruiser was the second to have been named after the Argentine founding father, Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820). The first vessel was a 7,069-ton armored cruiser completed in 1896.

She was sunk on 2 May 1982 during the Falklands War by the Royal Navy submarine Conqueror, with the loss of 323 lives. Losses aboard General Belgrano totaled just under half of all Argentine military deaths in the war.

She is the only ship to have been sunk during military operations by a nuclear-powered submarine and the second sunk in action by any type of submarine since World War II (the first being the Indian frigate INS Khukri, which was sunk by the Pakistani submarine PNS Hangor during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War).

Sinking of HMS Sheffield

HMS Sheffield

On 4 May 1982, two days after the sinking of General Belgrano, the British lost the Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield to fire following an Exocet missile strike from the Argentine 2nd Naval Air Fighter/Attack Squadron.

Sheffield had been ordered forward with two other Type 42s to provide a long-range radar and medium-high altitude missile picket far from the British carriers. She was struck amidships, with devastating effect, ultimately killing 20 crew members and severely injuring 24 others. The ship was abandoned several hours later, gutted and deformed by the fires that burned for six more days. She finally sank outside the Maritime Exclusion Zone on 10 May.

Admiral Sandy Woodward, a former commanding officer of Sheffield, describes the incident in detail in Chapter One of his book One Hundred Days. The destruction of Sheffield (the first Royal Navy ship sunk in action since the Second World War) had a profound impact on the British public, bringing home the fact that the "Falklands Crisis," as the BBC News put it, was now an actual "shooting war."

More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Falkland_Islands_War ]

A Personal Note from Robin

Several of my friends traveled to The Falklands as part of a US Navy investigation team to gather information about the loss of the HMS Sheffield. It was discovered that the extensive use of aluminum in the ships superstructure led to the ship's loss. The Exocet missile caused the conflagration aboard Sheffield was hot enough to ignite the aluminum superstructure.

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