Argentine forces conditionally surrender

[Asid]

Falklands War: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley conditionally surrender to British forces.
June 14 1982


Falklands War timeline map

The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), also known as the Falklands Conflict, Falklands Crisis, and the Guerra del Atlántico Sur (Spanish for "South Atlantic War"), was a ten-week war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over two British overseas territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It began on Friday, 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands (and, the following day, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) in an attempt to establish the sovereignty it had claimed over them. 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 the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War


Date: 2 April  – 14 June 1982 (2 months, 1 week and 5 days)
Location: Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and surrounding sea and airspace
Result: British victory
•   Status quo ante bellum in South Georgia and the Falklands.
•   Argentine occupation of Southern Thule ended.
•   Relations severed until 1989.
•   Argentine military government replaced with democratic government in October 1983.


Casualties and losses

United Kingdom
    255 killed
    775 wounded
    115 PoWs
    2 destroyers
    2 frigates
    1 LSL ship
    1 LCU craft
    1 container ship
    24 helicopters
    10 fighters
    1 bomber (interned in Brazil)


Argentina
    649 killed
    1,657 wounded
    11,313 PoWs
    1 cruiser
    1 submarine
    4 cargo vessels
    2 patrol boats
    1 spy trawler
    25 helicopters
    35 fighters
    2 bombers
    4 cargo aircraft
    25 COIN aircraft
    9 armed trainers

3 civilians killed by British shelling

[Durham]

We cleaned their clock and it was so close - one Exocet hits one of our carriers and game over.  Well done Margaret Thatcher and all the boys (no girls in UKAF at this time) and fu General Galtieri - how dare you.

In a recent referendum of the Falkland Island population, 99% voted to stay British, which means there are probably a couple (2) of Argentinians who live on the Islands.

This victory gave Thatcher a big election win in 1983 and set the stage for the UK to come out of the doldrums it had suffered economically in the 1970's, when the various governments faced Trade Union militancy resulting from the decline in heavy industry (coal mining, ship building, steel making, auto manufacturing) as well as the latter stages of the loss of empire.

A real turning point for the UK - and all because of luck that an Exocet didn't hit one of the two aircraft carriers and massive competence and indeed bravery of the RN Harrier pilots (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharkey_Ward and of the soldiers of the Parachute Regiment, the Guards Division and the Gurkhas along with Special Forces (SAS/SBS) and attached units.

The British military does not get enough credit for this accomplishment.

[jhay]

I read the news daily as this conflict unfolded.  One of the most striking vignettes:  An Argentine (Mirage or Skyhawk) jet was shot down over Stanley Harbor, the pilot ejected using the Martin-Baker ejection seat.  Upon being fished out of the water, his first words were, "How do I get my necktie?"  Martin-Baker sends a commemorative necktie to every pilot who ejects with one of their seats.