The Falklands Conflict - 40 years ago

[cakeorwine]

It's as far from WW2 to the Falklands Conflict as it is from the Conflict to 2022.

Argentinian troops invaded on 2nd April. There was fighting between British troops and Argentinians before they had to surrender.

The islands were recaptured after a heavy loss of life. It was a battle with ships lost at sea, planes shot down and troops having to yomp over rugged terrain to engage a well fortified enemy.

I know it's talked about a bit but there hasn't been many films or TV dramas about it. I remember Tumbledown - about an officer returning from the battle on Mount Tumbledown - that was just 6 years after the conflict. I can't remember much else.

I do wonder what is going to happen this year. Will there be much made of it?

I am sure that people on here know veterans from the conflict. It seemed such a strange time. Fighting many 1000s of miles away. The headlines in the paper. The reporting from the fighting.

255 British forces troops were killed along with 775 wounded.
649 Argentinian troops were killed and 1,657 wounded
3 islanders were killed.

I wonder if anything will be done this anniversary year?

My brother had just joined the navy and was involved in the war. I was only young (under 10) but I remember missing him, and the whole family being glued to the radio for any kind of news.

The relief when he came home was immense, God bless those who didn’t, or those who suffered so much they came back a different person to the one who left

So many ships were damaged and sunk.

I remember when the Sir Galahad was hit by a bomb and the Welsh Guards received a lot of casualties including 48 dead.

The early eighties were strange years ..riots , IRA hunger strikes, rumours of a military coup and martial law , police brutality and shooting , football and maritime disasters ..I remember the atmosphere being electric at times ..and then the Falkands acted almost as a lance to a boil ..the public swung around to old values and patriotism and things stabilised a bit.
Friends went there , all came back but some were very shaken by what happened and friends lost .

My dad was on HMS Sheffield when it was hit. He was asleep. If he had been on duty he would have been killed. This will out me but he suffered for the rest of his life and eventually died from addiction caused by the trauma of this. I can't imagine how awful it was.

Sorry @Juanbablo

I can remember Simon Weston's story, I watched all the documentaries about him & read the books. I know someone who was on HMS Sheffield who was blasted out of bed when they were hit ( I'm from Sheffield) he was about 20. I was only 16 when it happened & can remember being at a disco at the local working men's club when the DJ announced that Argentina had surrendered. I can also remember watching all the British ships being attacked by the Argentine planes & the commentaries from the British journalists & when all the ships were coming back to Southampton & seeing Prince Andrew being met by the Queen with a rose in his mouth.

I was in Spain on a schools exchange in April 82. Everyone was talking about Las Malvinas (Spanish name for the Falklands ). It didn't really mean very much until we were making the sea crossing from Santander to Plymouth and we kept seeing British navy ships heading south.
Some of my classmates back in the UK had brothers and fathers who served and went to the Falklands. One had a brother who was injured.
I also had a couple of friends who were I the navy and posted to the Falklands in the years immediately following the conflict.

DH was there. He was one of the youngest amongst the British troops - he hadn't long turned 18.

I also remember being on holiday at a campsite alongside the main road between Southampton and Plymouth after the conflict. We stood at the roadside and watched the families going to Southampton to meet the QE2 and then clapped and cheered as they returned to Plymouth.

Remembering my neighbour who died in the Falklands, he was in the Royal Navy.

The Falklands War changed both the UK and Argentina

If we had not persuaded the next door neighbours to leave, the UK would be a different place now

The poem, Tommy by Rudyard Kipling says it all really

If you have been to the Brecon Beacons you have been to the Falklands, except more sheep in the Falklands 😳

I'd just had DS and so was at home a lot and watched the report by a Gov rep every afternoon at ?3pm. It was scary but also slightly surreal.
Terrible loss of life over a bit of rock, as if Chile isn't big enough already.

My uncle was on the Sir Galahad, he was (and still is) friends with Simon Weston. He of course suffered mentally for many years afterwards.

My Nan was on the front cover of The Times waving him off when they left.

There a wonderful film about the Argentine invasion, called An Ungentlemanly Act.

I was a student at Portsmouth Polytechnic. I remember days and nights of continuous activity at the dockyard as the ships were provisioned, then watching from Southsea Common as the taskforce left.

@Spookytooth

I'd just had DS and so was at home a lot and watched the report by a Gov rep every afternoon at ?3pm. It was scary but also slightly surreal. Terrible loss of life over a bit of rock, as if Chile isn't big enough already.

What's Chile got to do with it?

My Dad was there with 3 Para. I was about 15 at the time. It was strange because he was always away a lot usually anyway. Then when the news came on it really scared the shit out of me.
He was in the Paras for 22 years. He died in October after a short but brutal fight with cancer, and I was overwhelmed by how many ex comrades tracked me down to send messages or photos.

"I counted them all out and I counted them all back."

Sadly not true for many there. Awful.

It won Thatcher a second term and the majority to be able to kill the coal industry so I’m sure Johnson will want to bang the jingoistic drum to bolster himself if he’s still standing at the anniversary.

I remember no one having heard of the Falklands before this.

Supermarkets removing corned beef from shelves.

I was 10 at the time. I honestly thought the Falklands was somewhere off Scotland, so why would Argentina be invading?

I can't imagine how many of the British Forces ever thought they would be fighting on an island the other side of the world in battles in places that resembled places like The Brecon Beacons. With ships being bombed, guided missiles, artillery and even bayonets and close quarter fighting.

My bloke was there, he went out on the QEll, it’s put him off cruises for ever. He lost a close friend. His Falklands medal with rosette is regarded with great respect in military circles.

I remember the conflict, the jingoism, and the benefit it gave Margaret Thatcher politically.

I also remember the inquiry afterwards (Franks Report?) which was a whitewash.

My brother was on leave from the RAF - he was a pilot then - and my Dad has to take him to the Lyneham so he could be flown back to his unit in the North of Scotland when it all kicked off.

My ExH worked all sort of hours in a factory to get the flight to flight fuel system made. Only time he really worked mind.

We were glued to the news as a family as my parents lived on the nearby Army Base and we knew many who had gone.

My DB has a totally been in every field of conflict from the Falklands to Afghanistan. He was awarded a Queens Medal just before he retired.