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    A Damn Close-Run Thing: A Brief History of the Falklands War
    A Damn Close-Run Thing: A Brief History of the Falklands War
    A Damn Close-Run Thing: A Brief History of the Falklands War
    Ebook63 pages51 minutes

    A Damn Close-Run Thing: A Brief History of the Falklands War

    By Russell Phillips

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    About this ebook

    In 1982, the average Briton didn't know the Falkland Islands existed, let alone their status as a disputed British territory just off the coast of Argentina. That changed when the Argentinians invaded the islands and overwhelmed the small defending force. Both nations claimed the islands were theirs, but now Argentina thought the British would give them up without a fight.

    They were wrong.

    Britain sent a task force into the South Atlantic to re-take the islands, and the short, intense war that followed was--in the words of Major-General Sir John Jeremy Moore--"a damn close-run thing."

    This short history sums up the events leading up to the war and its major military actions including details of an Argentinian plan to sink a Royal Navy ship in Gibraltar harbour (foiled at the last minute by Spanish police) and an audacious British plan to land SAS soldiers in Argentina to destroy Exocet-carrying aircraft while they were still on the ground.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherShilka Publishing
    Release dateJan 23, 2015
    ISBN9781507066201
    A Damn Close-Run Thing: A Brief History of the Falklands War
    Author

    Russell Phillips

    Russell Phillips writes books and articles about military technology and history. Born and brought up in a mining village in South Yorkshire, they have lived and worked in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria and Staffordshire. Russell has always had a deep interest in history and conflicts all over the world, and enjoys sharing their knowledge with others through clear, factual accounts which shine a light on events of the past. Their articles have been published in Miniature Wargames, Wargames Illustrated, The Wargames Website, and the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers' Journal. They have been interviewed on BBC Radio Stoke, The WW2 Podcast, Cold War Conversations, and The Voice of Russia. They currently live in Stoke-on-Trent with their wife and two children.

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      A Damn Close-Run Thing - Russell Phillips

      Historical Context

      To properly understand the 1982 Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom, it is useful to have some understanding of the historical context.

      The dispute between the UK and Argentina over sovereignty of the Falkland Islands dates back to 1816, when Argentina declared its independence from Spain, which had previously claimed sovereignty over the islands. In 1945, Argentina brought its claim to the newly-formed United Nations, thus raising international awareness of the issue. The UK offered to take the matter to mediation in the International Court of Justice in the Hague in 1947, 1948, and 1955, but Argentina declined the offers, saying that the court did not have jurisdiction to rule on the matter. The UK unilaterally submitted the case to the court in 1955, but the case was removed from the court's lists the following year, after Argentina stated that they would not accept the court's decision. Also in 1955, Argentina set up a small station named Teniente Esquivel on Thule, one of the South Sandwich Islands, but this was evacuated a year later.

      In 1964, the United Nations passed a resolution calling on the UK and Argentina to find a peaceful resolution to the sovereignty dispute, bearing in mind the interests of the islanders. Argentina has always argued that the islanders are not indigenous and were brought in to replace the Argentinian population that was expelled after the re-establishment of British rule in 1833, and therefore have no right to self-determination.

      In 1966, 20 armed Argentinian revolutionaries hijacked a DC-4 aircraft and forced the pilot to land on the racecourse at Stanley (the capital of the Falkland Islands), where they took four islanders hostage. The Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF) and local Royal Marines detachment kept the aircraft and hijackers contained. The hijackers surrendered with no loss of life, and were returned to Argentina. In November 1968, a light aircraft from Argentina landed on Eliza Cove Road outside Stanley, prompting a similar alert, but the passengers were unarmed Argentinian journalists.

      In 1976, an Argentinian gunboat fired upon a British Antarctic Survey ship. In November of that year, a party from the Argentine Air Force landed on Thule and set up a small military base with barracks, helicopter landing pad, radio station, and flagpole, from which they flew the Argentinian flag. The new base, named Corbeta Uruguay, was not publicly announced, but was discovered by the British a month later. The British government made a number of official protests, but the base remained in Argentinian hands until after the Falklands War.

      In 1977, the Argentinian navy cut off the fuel supply to Port Stanley Airport. The UK government, concerned that Argentina might mount an armed expedition, dispatched a nuclear submarine (HMS Dreadnought) and two frigates (HMS Alacrity and Phoebe). These deployments were discreetly leaked to the Argentinian government, but not made public until some years later.

      Meanwhile, Argentina and the UK had held a series of talks between 1964 and 1981, and some progress was made in establishing links between the islands and Argentina. Regular flights between Argentina and the islands were established, and the Argentinian national oil and gas company started to supply the islands. However, there was no progress on the central issue of sovereignty. The islanders, believing that the greater links to Argentina were the first steps towards Argentinian sovereignty, set up a group to lobby the UK parliament on their behalf. Just as Argentina refused to recognise the islanders' right to self-determination, successive UK governments, under intense lobbying, maintained a position that the wishes of the islanders

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