With their flank secure, the main British force at San Carlos Bay set out for Teal Inlet, located 40 kilometers northwest from Port Stanley. In early June 1982, a brigade of 3,000 British soldiers also was landed at Bluff Cove and Fitzroy, 30 kilometers east from Port Stanley. The Argentineans tried to stop the landings, sending planes that attacked and hit two British transport ships at Port Pleasant, near Fitzroy. British casualties from these attacks were 56 killed and 150 wounded. The British, however, successfully secured and completed the landing. By then, the total number of British ground troops in the Falklands were 10,000 soldiers, which set out for the re-conquest of Port Stanley.
The Argentinean forces defending the capital also consisted of about 10,000 troops, mostly new conscripts but reinforced with the arrival of more experienced soldiers. The Argentineans set up the defense of the capital in and around two rings of hills on the western approach outside the city.
On May 31, 1982, British forces captured Mount Kent. The attack on the main Argentine positions was now set. On June 11, British artillery units shelled the first, outer ring of hills. Then under cover of darkness, British ground troops fought their way up the heights. Before dawn of the following day, June 12, Mount Harriet, Mount Two Sisters, and strongly defended Mount Longdon, had been captured by the British.
On the night of June 13, 1982 British forces attacked the second ring of hills, Mount Tumbleweed, Mount William, and Wireless Ridge. By morning of the following day, Argentine forces had abandoned their positions in the heights and were making a full retreat toward Port Stanley.
The British then advanced and surrounded Port Stanley from the land and sea, forcing the Argentinean commander of the city to ask for a ceasefire, which was granted. Soon thereafter, the British regained control of the islands and allowed the Argentinean forces to leave. On June 20, the Argentinean presence in Southern Thule ended with the arrival of a British naval force that forced the surrender of the Argentine garrison.
Aftermath The war had dramatic, contrasting repercussions in Britain and Argentina. In Britain where elections were scheduled for the following year, Prime Minister Thatcher’s government trailed badly in the polls and seemed headed for defeat. However, the war, and certainly its outcome, generated a surge of nationalism that swept the incumbents to a decisive victory in the elections.
In Argentina, the military government also received massive public support when the Argentine Army gained control of the Falklands early in the war. However, after the Argentine forces were defeated and expelled from the islands, protests and riots broke out in Buenos Aires. General Galtieri resigned and the military government collapsed. Argentina then began its transition back to democracy. General elections were held in October 1983, which led to a civilian government taking office. Despite its defeat in the war, to this day, Argentina continues to claim ownership of the Falkland Islands.
The war took place during the Cold War period and was viewed by communist countries as a conflict between two “capitalist” countries. Much of the world followed the war with great interest. Western European countries diplomatically supported Britain, while the Non-Aligned Movement and most Latin American countries backed Argentina. At the time of the war, Argentina and Chile were locked in a border dispute, and the two sides deployed troops in their border in anticipation for an invasion by the other side. Chile officially was neutral in the Falklands War but provided intelligence information to the British and tied down Argentine forces.
The United States, the region’s most dominant force, endeavored to stay neutral as it was an ally of both countries, i.e. with Britain in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and with Argentina in their common war against communism in South America. The U.S. government, led by President Ronald Reagan, tried to bring the two sides to negotiate a peaceful settlement. When the effort failed, the United States leaned on the side of the British, providing them with material and technological support during the war.
(Taken from Falklands War – Wars of the 20th Century –Vol. 3)
Background In early 1982, Argentina’s ruling military junta, led by General Leopoldo Galtieri, was facing a crisis of confidence. Government corruption, human rights violations, and an economic recession had turned initial public support for the country’s military regime into widespread opposition. The pro-U.S. junta had come to power through a coup in 1976, and had crushed a leftist insurgency in the “Dirty War” by using conventional warfare, as well as “dirty” methods, including summary executions and forced disappearances. As reports of military atrocities became known, the international community exerted pressure on General Galtieri to implement reforms.
In its desire to regain the Argentinean people’s moral support and to continue in power, the military government conceived of a plan to invade the Falkland Islands, a British territory located about 700 kilometers east of the Argentine mainland. Argentina had a long-standing historical claim to the Falklands, which generated nationalistic sentiment among Argentineans. The Argentine government was determined to exploit that sentiment. Furthermore, after weighing its chances for success, the junta concluded that the British government would not likely take action to protect the Falklands, as the islands were small, barren, and too distant, being located three-quarters down the globe from Britain.
The Argentineans’ reasoning was not without merit. Britain under current Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was experiencing an economic recession, and in 1981, had made military cutbacks that would have seen the withdrawal from the Falklands of the HMS Endurance, an ice patrol vessel and the British Navy’s only permanent ship in the southern Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, Britain had not resisted when in 1976, Argentinean forces occupied the uninhabited Southern Thule, a group of small islands that forms a part of the British-owned South Sandwich Archipelago, located 1,500 kilometers east of the Falkland Islands.
In 1982, Argentina and Britain went to war for possession of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
In the sixteenth century, the Falkland Islands first came to European attention when they were signed by Portuguese ships. For three and a half centuries thereafter, the islands became settled and controlled at various times by France, Spain, Britain, the United States, and Argentina. In 1833, Britain gained uninterrupted control of the islands, establishing a permanent presence there with settlers coming mainly from Wales and Scotland.
In 1816, Argentina gained its independence and, advancing its claim to being the successor state of the former Spanish Argentinean colony that had included “Islas Malvinas” (Argentina’s name for the Falkland Islands), the Argentinean government declared that the islands were part of Argentina’s territory. Argentina also challenged Britain’s account of the events of 1833, stating that the British Navy gained control of the islands by expelling the Argentinean civilian authority and residents already present in the Falklands. Over time, Argentineans perceived the British control of the Falklands as a misplaced vestige of the colonial past, producing successive generations of Argentineans instilled with anti-imperialist sentiments. For much of the twentieth century, however, Britain and Argentina maintained a normal, even a healthy, relationship, although the Falklands issue remained a thorn on both sides.
After World War II, Britain pursued a policy of decolonization that saw it end colonial rule in its vast territories in Asia and Africa, and the emergence of many new countries in their places. With regards to the Falklands, under United Nations (UN) encouragement, Britain and Argentina met a number of times to decide the future of the islands. Nothing substantial emerged on the issue of sovereignty, but the two sides agreed on a number of commercial ventures, including establishing air and sea links between the islands and the Argentinean mainland, and for Argentinean power firms to supply energy to the islands. Subsequently, Falklanders (Falkland residents) made it known to Britain that they wished to remain under British rule. As a result, Britain reversed its policy of decolonization in the Falklands and promised to respect the wishes of the Falklanders.