How the Falklands War was won

How the Falklands War was won By Michael Novak Last Updated: 1:03pm BST 27/03/2007

The opening phases of the Falklands Conflict began in December 1981 when more than 40 Argentine "scrap metal workers" landed on the island of South Georgia, pointedly refusing to report to the British base at Grytviken to have their entry visas stamped.

Project Alpha was a deliberate operation designed by the new military junta of Gen Leopoldo Galtieri to test British will ahead of Project Azul, a full-scale invasion of the Falkland Islands.

The Argentinians eventually left but returned on March 19, 1982 - this time raising the Argentinian flag - and the Royal Navy survey ship Endurance was dispatched to South Georgia with a small detachment of Royal Marines to eject them.

UK media reports of Royal Navy nuclear submarines on their way to the Falklands panicked the junta into ordering a modified invasion force to depart on March 28. It was not in fact until a day later that three British submarines left Gibraltar for the south Atlantic.

The limited Argentine force, which included only 900 ground troops, was bound to be too strong for the 68 Royal Marines stationed in the Falklands capital Port Stanley.

The Argentinians landed on the morning of April 2 and swiftly overcame the British commandos, a situation mirrored in South Georgia, which fell a day later.

The initial feeling among Margaret Thatcher's advisers was that diplomacy was the only way out, sending an expeditionary force 8,000 miles south was a perilous business and one to be avoided at all costs.

But senior figures within the armed forces disagreed. Sir Henry Leach, the First Sea Lord, told Mrs Thatcher that failure to retake the islands would leave the UK impotent on the world stage and she needed little persuasion that he was right.

The popular mood was firmly behind the British prime minister. It seemed to most people that a set of tin-pot south American dictators renowned for their willingness to resort to torture were lording it over British citizens and territory and that something must be done.

Mrs Thatcher announced the dispatch of a task force to the Falklands, with the initial elements, including the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, departing Portsmouth almost immediately.

The speed with which the Task Force got underway was astonishing. By April 8, the rapidly refitted cruise liner Canberra departed Southampton with 2,000 paratroopers and commandos on board, the docksides crowded with well-wishers waving the Union Flag.

Then, as now, the navy was facing extensive cuts and the assault ship Intrepid had to be brought back into commission rapidly to take part in the race south.

With the British task force heading towards the Falklands, there was a flurry of feverish but ultimately pointless diplomatic negotiations led by Alexander Haig, the US Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, British commandos and special forces retook South Georgia; the UK declared a 200-nautical mile exclusion zone around the islands; and President Ronald Reagan threw US military support behind the British.

On May 1, British special forces landed on West and East Falkland to recce landing sites while the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm attacked Port Stanley airfield, destroying four Argentinian aircraft but failing to shut down the runway.

A day later the Royal Navy submarine Conqueror sank the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano, with the loss of 323 lives, leading Admiral Jorge Anaya to order his ships back to port.

The decision to sink the Belgrano - famously welcomed by the Sun with the headline Gotcha - caused much controversy. But there was little doubt her Exocet missiles were a threat to the British task force much of which was already in the region.

The threat from the Exocets was confirmed two days later on May 4, when the British destroyer Sheffield was hit in "bomb alley" south-east of the Falklands with the loss of 20 lives.

She was the first Royal Navy ship lost in action since 1945 and in London the successful Argentinian attack briefly rocked the war cabinet but with little choice it held firm.

Early on May 21, troops from 2 and 3 Bns of the Parachute Regiment, plus marines from 40, 42 and 45 Royal Marine Commandos landed virtually unopposed to form the main bridgehead at San Carlos on the western coast of East Falkland.

Three days later and the Argentinians enjoyed another short-lived success when the destroyer Coventry was hit by three bombs, capsized and sank with the loss of 19 of her crew while the roll-on roll-off ferry the Atlantic Conveyor was sunk by an Exocet, killing 12.

On May 26, 2 Para set off to the south to mount a surprise attack on Darwin and Goose Green and the next day 3 Para and 45 Commando headed east towards Port Stanley.

There was much attention focused back in Britain on the fact that the commandos called their forced march a "yomp" while the paras were "tabbing", making a "tactical advance to battle".

With the BBC World service announcing that a British parachute battalion was poised to take Goose Green, Lt-Col "H" Jones, the CO of 2 Para, realized all hope of a surprise attack was lost and ordered his men to attack that night.

Despite being outnumbered three to one, they won the battle but Jones was killed and was subsequently awarded a posthumous VC.

The last Argentinian success of the conflict came on June 8 when the landing ships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram were attacked by Argentine aircraft at Bluff Cove, killing 48, mainly members of the Welsh Guards who were being landed to join the battle for Stanley.

With the Scots and Welsh Guards now joining the force, having been ferried down on the requisitioned QE2, a substantial British force of 8,000 men was now lined up against the Argentinians.

The first phase of the assault on Stanley began on June 11, with 45 Commando attacking Two Sisters, screaming the company war cry Zulu, Zulu and forcing the Argentinians to flee with the loss of only four British marines.

Meanwhile 42 Commando lost only one man in capturing Mt Harriet and Goat Fudge. The fiercest fighting came in 3 Para's assault on Mt Longdon just five miles west of the Falklands capital. The young Argentinian soldiers stood and fought.

The paras lost 18 men in the battle and when they eventually reached the top of the mountain they found one of their own Sgt Ian McKay surrounded by dead Argentinians. He was the second British soldier to be awarded a posthumous VC for his part in the conflict.

The second phase of the assault followed on June 14 with the Gurkhas taking Mount William and 2 Para attacking Wireless Ridge backed up by heavy shelling from their own artillery and naval guns. They lost only three men and found more than 100 Argentinian bodies.

But the fiercest hand to hand fighting came on Tumbledown, taken by the Scots Guards with the loss of seven men to around 30 Argentinians killed.

With the British troops now poised to take Stanley itself, the Argentinian commander Brig-Gen Mario Menendez surrendered, thoroughly vindicating Mrs Thatcher's courageous decision to ignore her advisers and retake the Falklands.

Nope.
I hade bizzare expirience with UK (along US and other 18 countries) attacked my country Serbia, killing us to establish Islamic state of Kosovo, and I have bad expirience when yesterday US state department stated that it supports independant Kosovo.

But its just me...

"zero pride"

Not exactly true. When visiting in-laws with my English born wife last September, we spent some time with some of her older cousins. I was struck by the fact that the men, from separate houses, had pictures of figurines of planes and ships from WWII in their living rooms. One even quizzed me on my knowledge of WWII planes. They bemoaned the changes that had happened in England since their youth. One night in my sister and brother in-law's house we all watched a giant celebration of Britain held at Hyde Park, and my in-laws sang along to the patriotic songs. I assumed all was not lost.

Britain has never been much into the flags and songs stuff - ever.

This is for internal reasons. Great Britain is an amalgam of three separate nations and as the United Kingdom - four. And yet it still exists, is still proud and is still fighting.

When the nations of the UK have existed for up to 800 years you don't need to convince yourself you exist. You see it everywhere. The only thing is if you delve too deeply you bring up the old animosities and divorce will come.

Like a good marriage - you know the boundaries.

Glad you're here Jack.

My own opinion of UK/falklands is that regardless of their short sighted defense spending (more correctly - not spending) the bottom line is that they did it when others would not have tried. Cobbled together a fleet, drew up plans for a war they were not planning on, used what they had, accepted the losses, and won.

Don't see too much of that from anyone these days.

On the other hand:
It's true that Kronos' posts on this thread are over the top. It's also true that to a fair degree FR posters are not all proud and happy with the Serbia/FRY exploits of our former predator-president. Nor am I impressed with the weird self interest of some very questionable european allies in that still evolving stunt. The fact that Serbs accidentally bagged one of our bombers does not light me up very much when compared to our bombing of trains and bridges in face of near zero opposition.

Again, for my part, our side ripped off a large and potentially valuable section of Serbia/Yugo and is now in the process of formally handing it over to the bad guys...so I'll cut Kronos some slack.

"zero pride"

Not exactly true. ...

I'll ditto that. I was in London on the 50th anniversary of VE day. It was a big event with a HUGE celebration in Hyde Park.

I'll never forget an episode that evening. I was talking to a Brit in a pub. The celebration was on the TV. In the ceremonies, there was moment of silence for the casualties. I was oblivious and kept talking. (Maybe it was all those pints I had drunk.) The Brit told me to be quiet. I didn't take offense; he was right. I was a little surprised at his reaction, but not in a bad way.

The airplane was a VERY large tailless jet flying wing almost delta in shape (but not a straight delta). It had a tricycle gear. The leading edge of the wing was not straight. It was swept back in several straight segments. Naturally, it had British markings. From the pictures I googled of the Vulcan, that was it.

One thing I strongly remember is that where the landing gear was attached to the wing leading edge, there were NOT flush rivets or bolts. There were great big rounded heads sticking out into the airstream. I thought that was particularly crude compared to American airplanes, but it was explained to be by a person on staff that it was an old airplane (and that was back when I was a kid). There was also an article in the newspaper about the British getting it airworthy for the war.

The museum was the Offut Air Force Museum (where the Strategic Air Command was stationed). My memory of the situation is not incorrect. I have no idea if it actually went into combat, but the paper said it was being retrieved and flown out because of the war. Since it was durning the Faulklands war, I believed it and still do.

Britain sent many mercenaries, Muslim and non-Muslim, to fight with the Muslims and Croats against the Serbs. Of course when the Croats and Muslims were slaughtering each other, Brits were involved in this too.

They also sent military men to train the Bosnian army within and during the war, but at least two of them ended up being killed by Muslims (foreign Muslims) because they were believed to be spies.

Britain pushed some of the most lying demonizing propaganda ever in the war against Serbs and for the killer Muslims.

And for Kosovo, despite the fact that it's Albanians who are involved in violent crime against Brits and running a large share white slavery operations in Britain, it remains one of the big pushers of Albanians in the Balkans.

I just did a search and found the following:

http://www.vectorsite.net/avvulcan_2.html

"The Vulcan performed its last flight in bomber service in December 1982, when Number 44 Squadron stood down. The remote facility at Offutt AFB had been shut down in 1982 as well. That wasn't quite the end of the story, however. The Falklands conflict had strained tanker resources, and though the RAF was acquiring old Vickers VC10 airliner airframes for conversion into tankers, the lead times on the effort were too far out to deal with the immediate shortfall. In 1982, the decision was made to hastily convert six Vulcan B.2s to an interim tanker configuration, using Flight Refueling Limited Mark 17B hose-drum units (HDUs) intended for the VC10 tanker program. The original idea had been to fit an HDU into the bombbay of each aircraft, but hose didn't have the reach, and so the actual fit involved cleaning out the ECM gear from the tailcone and shoe-horning the HDU underneath. The effort took seven weeks from startup to redelivery of the first "Vulcan K.2". initially designated the "Vulcan B.2(K)", to the operator, Number 50 Squadron, the only Vulcan squadron to survive the 1982 phaseout."

I suggest that the Vulcan that was at Offutt was one of the ones talked about here. It was not airworthy when they arrived, but it evidently did not take much to put it into ferrying shape.

You'll have to do a lot of explaining. The Vulcan on display at Offut didn't arrive there until June 1982.

http://www.strategicairandspace.com/collections/Vulcan.html

'About our Mk. II Vulcan: This Vulcan (S/N XM573) was the 101st aircraft produced, it was delivered to the Royal Air Force Strike Command in March, 1963. It was presented to the Strategic Air & Space Musuem as a token of cooperation between the Royal Air Force and the Strategic Air Command, and made it's last flight into Offutt AFB, Nebraska in June, 1982. This Vulcan is one of three Vulcans on display in the United States.'

This is the Vulcan at Offut. XM573

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1002559/

Here is the very same aircraft landing at RAF Waddington during 1981

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1046502/

I serve in the RAF. No Vulcan was retrieved from any museum, anywhere, for service. ALL Vulcans that took part in the conflict were airframes still in service with the RAF.

Britain sent many mercenaries...

I wasn't going to read further because I think the above shows you aren't going to be fair. I'm sure a mercenary is a mercenary is a mercenary. They come from all nations. You could equally say "America sent Mercenaries" too.

Britain pushed some of the most lying demonizing propaganda ever in the war against Serbs and for the killer Muslims.

It never fails to amaze how some people can completely forget how their own country was involved in a much larger way and blame someone else. Psychologists call it "projection".

Wikipedia says:

"In psychology, psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes ("projects") to others, one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions."

Go here if you are interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection

Thanks for your post I really enjoyed it. :)

All I can say is that the original Vulcan was flown out during the Faulkland war. The one you mention here was flown in some time later to replace it. To the best of my knowledge it was not the same Vulcan (it looked different in several respects). I have been to the Offutt museum dozens of times both before and after it moved. One was there before the Faulklands war and it was flown out during the Faulklands war, whether YOU believe it or not.

I hate it when someone reading books or on the Internet tells me that something I have seen with my own eyes never happened. Not everything is in books or on the Internet. When you grow up, you may realize that.

Jim,

There was no Vulcan B.2 in the museum at Offutt before XM573.

It isn't some sort of state secret. There was no Vulcan returned to service from any musuem in the U.S. during the Falklands campaign.

ALL Vulcans that took part in the Falklands were those that were already in squadron service.

If there was a Vulcan B.2 at Offutt in the museum then it would be recorded not only in Offutts records, but also by every Vulcan and aviation enthusiast worldwide. It isn't any state secret.

There are two ways that I can prove this. One is by posting on PPRUNE website. This forum contains ex-Vulcan pilots and crews. The other one is to contact Offutt.

If Offutt had a Vulcan before XM573 then its serial would have been well known. Can you provide the serial of this mysterious Vulcan? I bet even Offutt can't provide it? Why would that be?

>>>>>>>As well as Israel and Australia, there is no other nation on God's Earth that puts it's young people alongside Americans to die if necessary for what it believes in.

You are right about the Brits and Aussies, but when have Israelis ever fought alongside Americans?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.