april 2nd 1982

[ray109 (RIP)]

The Falklands War started on Friday, 2 April 1982 with the Argentine invasion and occupation of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982. The war lasted 74 days, and resulted in the deaths of 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and three civilian Falklanders. It is the most recent conflict to be fought by the UK without any allied states and the only external Argentine war since the 1880s.

[Enigma]

I was very young but remember it from the news.

Guess you couldn't do it again on account of the smaller fleet?

[fesm_ndt]

I was very young but remember it from the news.

Guess you couldn't do it again on account of the smaller fleet?

 

I think it depends upon resolve. Although successive governments muck around with defence expenditure it comes down to having the resolve to do it. Thatcher was told point blank that it was impossible to retake the Falklands and she told the defence chiefs unacceptable.

 

"As to the United Nations resolution, the withdrawal by the Argentines was not honoured and our forces had to go there because they would not withdraw. Indeed, they had to recover and recapture British territory. I cannot agree with the right hon. Gentleman that those men risked their lives in any way to have a United Nations trusteeship. They risked their lives to defend British sovereign territory, the British way of life and the rights of British people to determine their own future"

 

I was trying to find the vicyory speech as heard it the other day and was very good. Mind you reading this excerpt highlights the petty back biting that goes on in politics http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=104969

[fesm_ndt]

found it

 

""When we started out, there were the waverers and the fainthearts. The people who thought ... we could no longer do the great things which we once did. Those who believed our decline was irreversible - that we could never again be what we once were ... People who in their heart of hearts had their secret fears that Britain was no longer the nation that had built an Empire and ruled a quarter of the world"

[berna2vm]

God bless Margaret Thatcher. She was the one who made me feel proud to be British. God bless the brave souls who travelled thousands of miles against all the odds who implemented the actions and God bless those who made the ultimate sacrifice for God, Queen and country against a military dictatorship trying to impose their will upon free citizens, who counted themselves as subjects of the British empire.

Whenever I think of this I fill with pride simultaniously as my eyes well with tears. At the same time...

The British blood lost means that they could never become Argentinian territory, unless the good people of the Falklands decided that was their choice.

If a previous government had'nt decomissioned the Ark Royal years previouly, the losses would have been far less with air superiority fighters on hand....

I am sure that with the resolve we could still undertake such a mission, but I would threaten Buenos Aires with nuclear armageddon first....

[griff66]

i was working in the falklands for a while at mount pleasant airfield base ,the police had there headquarters on letsby avenue,:cool2: used to make me chuckle.

[Enigma]

Thanks guys.

I didn't want to be political but indeed resolve overcomes many obstacle.

That kind of mentality makes me proud to consider the UK as a second fatherland to me.

[fesm_ndt]

Thanks guys.

I didn't want to be political but indeed resolve overcomes many obstacle.

That kind of mentality makes me proud to consider the UK as a second fatherland to me.

 

I don't think your other statement political or incorrect and has been written about often. I think the building of the new carriers is part of this as that area of the world is becoming more valuable.

[Bob Grundy]

Officialy it was not a WAR, but a state of hostilities..............

[fesm_ndt]

Officialy it was not a WAR, but a state of hostilities..............

 

yeah it kind of reinforces my thoughts that the Western world is run by policies written by Alfred E. Neuman

 

Korea - police action

Malaysia - confrontation

Vietnam - was also a police action

 

I suppose when the UM, oops I mean UN can't decide on definitions of what a terrorist is or a refugee I guess its a waste of time and money.

 

I think soldiers getting shot at by other soldiers is a war, especially when said soldiers are dying.

[Tony B]

'Falkland's Confilict' was the official description.

Like 'Freindly Fire', no such thing if it's directed at you.

[AlienFTM]

I am sure that with the resolve we could still undertake such a mission, but I would threaten Buenos Aires with nuclear armageddon first....

Are you aware that in a February 1982 debate on the new Trident (two months before the Argies made their move), ISTR it was Lord Carrington stood up and stated that without a credible nuclear deterrent, any tinpot dictatorship could walk into one of our dependencies.

 

With this statement in mind and not believing that dear Maggie II (for Maggie I, Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret was Colonel-in-Chief of 15th/19th The Kinh's Royal Hussars) could pull off a task force outing to the South Atlantic without it ending in another Suez, I really, really expected a bucket of sunshine to be visited upon Buenos Aires.

 

As it happens I now know through a colleague whose brother in law served on a boomer at the time that the Falklands War was the only period in history when our entire nuclear deterrent was tied up alongside at Faslane so that Soviet satellites could see and verify that we were NOT in fact about to bestow many millions of pounds'worth of improvements on Buenos Aires.

[AlienFTM]

Officialy it was not a WAR, but a state of hostilities..............

If you check out (ISTR) UN Resolutions 50-54, an act of war upon a sovereign state is an implicit declaration of war and as such no formal declaration of war is necessary for a state of war to exist.

 

It's political correctness gone mad,

[morris c8 fat]

And we would have to put all Arginentians in the U.K. under arresrt as hostiles and provide detention centers for famous foot ball players still it would have prevented the Sun from match fixing exposes and no one would be going to a Steak House.

[ferretfixer]

Officialy it was not a WAR, but a state of hostilities..............

 

I beleive it was not termed a War Bob, so the Governemnt would NOT have to pay out any War Pensions to our Boys who got injured over there. OR, War Widows pensions! :blush:

 

Bean Counters again! Saving Pennies & wasting Thousands!.....:argh:

Mike.

[ray109 (RIP)]

this one wasnt tied up alongside

 

 

30th March Daily Telegraph reports that a nuclear submarine is sailing south;

Former Prime Minister James Callaghan informs Parliament that in 1977 in response to Argentine pressure Britain secretly sent a nuclear submarine and two warships to the South Atlantic;

Carrington says a diplomatic solution is being pursued