A History of War in 100 Battles

by Richard Overy

  A Royal Navy Sea Harrier jet flies into action during the campaign to recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentine occupation. In the background can be seen the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible. The small number of aircraft available represented a narrow margin between victory and defeat.

  By early June, the 5th Infantry Brigade had arrived and command of the whole of Operation Sutton was taken over by Major General Jeremy Moore of the Royal Marines. The new units were shipped to the south coast of East Falkland, where Argentine aircraft hit two vessels loaded with men, Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, leaving fifty dead. The infantry were to march across the south of the island to attack Port Stanley from the southwest. On the night of 11 June, the 3 Commando Brigade moved forward to take the high ground around Stanley at Mount Longdon, Two Sisters and Mount Harriet. The defence was fierce, if brief. By the end, the Argentine garrison of around 5,000 fighting troops was encircled. At 4 p.m. on 13 June, in a snow storm, the British assault began. The Argentine marines dug in at Mount Tumbledown proved difficult to dislodge, but they were withdrawn by the following morning. British advance was methodical and by the morning had reached the outskirts of Port Stanley. The one remaining stronghold on Mount Sapper was about to be assaulted by 5th Brigade when a ceasefire was announced.

  The options had become increasingly narrow for Menendez. Galtieri ordered him to continue to fight with everything he could, but his troops had already taken high casualties and the conscripts were now of poor fighting quality. In the afternoon of 14 June, Menendez met British officers to discuss surrender terms. After agreeing to remove the term ‘unconditional surrender’, the British insisted that Menendez accept their conditions. The surrender was finally signed at 9.15 p.m. Three days later Galtieri resigned as Argentina’s president. Against all expectations, and in the face of almost universal pressure to accept further negotiations, the British task force had succeeded in overturning the Argentine occupation before the crisis of resupply or the weather undermined the whole operation. Timing had been critical on all fronts, military and international, and despite victory, the factors that might have turned Operation Sutton into a disaster were never far away.

  The cost was high to both sides: 649 Argentine dead, 1,657 wounded; 255 British dead and 775 wounded. A total of 11,313 Argentine soldiers, airmen, sailors and support troops were taken prisoner. The Argentine air force and army lost twenty-five helicopters and seventy-four other aircraft, the British twenty-four helicopters and ten fighters. The British were compelled to keep a substantial garrison in the islands thereafter. Despite a United Nations resolution passed on 4 November 1982 calling on the two sides to resume negotiations, the Falkland Islands have remained under British sovereignty to the present day, while Argentina has never abrogated its claim for the return of the Malvinas to Argentine rule.

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