Falkland Islands - the archipelago of discord

The Falkland Islands is a small archipelago in the South Atlantic, which today has the status of the overseas territories of the British Crown - in the now distant 1982 year it became a real "apple of discord" between the United Kingdom and Argentina. From April to June of that year, full-scale military operations were conducted there using the latest technology of that time. This was the only military conflict in the last few decades, when a comparable amount of heavy weapons was used on both sides.

The Falkland Islands consist of only two relatively large islands with unusually "original" names - East and West Falkland. They are separated by a narrow strait. In addition, the archipelago includes several hundred small islands. The bulk of the population lives on East Falkland. And nothing would be remarkable in these islands, if not for their geographical location.

The Falkland Islands occupy such an advantageous location that they represent a convenient transit point for the shipping routes of the South Atlantic and a magnificent harbor for parking and repair of dry cargo, trawlers and other sea transport. This is especially true in the light of the active fishing in these waters. In addition, in the area of the archipelago is a fairly lively trade route. But that's not all. The Falkland Islands, which have such an advantageous geographical position, make it possible to control the whole of the South Atlantic in a military-strategic plan .

But the Falklands crisis also had a more serious economic underpinning. In the early eighties, British companies actively developed the island shelf of the archipelago for oil production. And the state of Argentine energy at that time was extremely disturbing ...

So, on April 2, 1982 the contingent of the Argentine armed forces landed on the Falkland Islands. The garrison of Marines of Her Majesty, deployed in the archipelago, had stubborn resistance, inflicting the first casualties on the aggressors. But soon the governor ordered the Marines to lay down their arms. So the Falklands conflict began. Operation of the invasion under the name "Rosario" was carried out successfully. But the most interesting thing was just beginning.

The odious government of the Argentine dictator General Leopoldo Galtieri, beginning the annexation of the Falkland Islands, pursued yet another goal: to unite the Argentine society, torn by internal strife, by such an aggressive foreign policy. The military junta was confident that Britain, due to the remoteness of this archipelago from the metropolis, would prefer to enter into negotiations.

But the cabinet of the "Iron Lady" Margret Thatcher reacted extremely harshly, which was exactly in the spirit of this lady. Having decided to respond by force, the United Kingdom sent an expeditionary corps consisting of 107 combat ships (among them the Sheffield destroyer, which was soon sunk by the Argentine ExoSet missile) and 6 submarines, as well as ocean liners "Queen Elizabeth" and "Canberra", who had on board 6 thousand marines.

A small fleet of the Argentine Navy had no chance to stop such an armada. But the Argentine army had its own argument - in the epicenter of the fighting there were significant forces of aviation and about 12 thousand soldiers. It seemed that such forces could successfully prevent the landing of British units on the islands.

On May 21, English "Marines", supported by the fleet, landed on East Falkland. By creating a beachhead, they began to advance deeper into the direction of the administrative center of the British Falkland Islands - Port Stanley.

Unlike sea and air battles, on land, high technologies do not have such decisive importance. Here everything turned out to be more traditional: the outcome of the battle was often solved by automatic weapons, bayonets, grenades and combat training of soldiers. And in this component, a small professional contingent of British "Marines" had an undoubted advantage over poorly trained Argentine recruits. Even despite the significant numerical superiority of the latter.

The turning point of the short military campaign was May 29, when, during one of the battles, 450 British paratroopers inflicted a crushing defeat on the Argentine unit of 1,450 soldiers. After that, the Argentines still for some time resisted in the mountainous areas of the island, but they were either destroyed or captured.

On June 14, the commander of the Argentine contingent in the Falklands, Major-General Menendez, seeing all the hopelessness of the situation, ordered the troops to lay down their arms. Thus, the flag of Great Britain was again raised in the Falkland Islands , and the legitimate administration was restored.