Qualla: Falklands War

Falklands War: Introduction

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Griffiths, Public domain. It began with scrap metal. In March 1982, a party of Argentine workers landed on remote South Georgia under contract to dismantle an old whaling station, and raised their national flag over the abandoned sheds. Within weeks that small provocation had escalated into the largest naval and air campaign the world had seen since 1945. By 14 June, more than 900 people were dead, a military dictatorship had been mortally wounded, and a cluster of treeless islands 8,000 miles from London had become, briefly, the center of the world.

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Image: Ken Griffiths | Public domain

Falklands War: Two Flags, One Archipelago

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Krazykenny at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Argentina calls them the Malvinas. Britain calls them the Falklands. The dispute reaches back to 1833, when Britain established control over the islands, and Argentina never stopped insisting they were stolen territory. By 1982 the roughly 1,800 islanders were almost all descenda...

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Image: Krazykenny at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Falklands War: The Task Force Sails

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rob Bogaerts, CC0. Margaret Thatcher's government made a decision that stunned military planners: it would retake the islands by force, across the breadth of the Atlantic, with winter closing in. The US Navy privately judged the operation a near-impossibility. On 5 April, a hastily assembled naval ...

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Image: Rob Bogaerts | CC0

Falklands War: War at Sea

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dmgerrard Later version was touched up by Hohum at en.wikipedia., Public domain. The sea war turned brutal fast. On 2 May, the submarine HMS Conqueror torpedoed the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano; she sank within the hour, and 323 sailors died, nearly half of all Argentina's losses in the entire war. After Belgrano, the Argentine fleet retreated to po...

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Image: Dmgerrard Later version was touched up by Hohum at en.wikipedia. | Public domain

Falklands War: The Land Campaign

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Apcbg, Public domain. British troops came ashore at San Carlos on 21 May and began the grinding work of taking the islands back, settlement by settlement, ridge by ridge. At Goose Green, 2 PARA broke the first major Argentine position and lost their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel H. Jones, kil...

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Image: Apcbg | Public domain

Falklands War: What the War Left Behind

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Pearson from Leuchars, Scotland, CC BY 2.0. The reckoning was heavy on both sides. In all, 649 Argentine servicemen, 255 British servicemen, and three Falkland Islanders were killed. Many of the Argentine dead were young conscripts, far from home in a cold they were never equipped for. Many of the British dead were profess...

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Image: Chris Pearson from Leuchars, Scotland | CC BY 2.0