The First World War TV - Margaret Thatcher - Neil Kinnock - Joge Luis Borges - Newsweek front cover - Brian Hanrahan - John Shirley - Morley Safer - Eric Hobsbawm - Daily Telegraph - The Times - Daily Mail - Daily Mirror - The Sun - Robert Harris - Falklands: How Close to Defeat TV - The Falklands Campaign TV - The Falklands War TV - The Great Falklands Gamble Revealed TV - The Falklands Legacy with Max Hastings TV - Edge of War: Thatcher’s War TV - Richard D Hall TV - Robert Runcie - Peter and Dan Snow TV - Thatcher: The Downing Street Years TV - White Blue & White TV - Panorama TV - Edge of Darkness 1985 - Thatcher: A Very British Revolution TV - Ian Curteis: The Falklands Play TV - Falklands War: The Untold Story TV - Falklands War: The Forgotten Battle TV - Falklands: Island of Secrets TV - Our Falklands War: A Frontline Story TV - Seconds from Disaster: Sinking the Coventry TV - Rob Bell TV -
The Battle of the Falklands heralded the end of Germany’s Cruiser campaign. The First World War: Global War 1914-1916
British sovereign territory has been invaded by a foreign power. The government had now decided that the large task force will sail as soon as all preparations are complete. Margaret Thatcher
Just rejoice at that news and congratulate our armed forces and marines. Rejoice! Margaret Thatcher, outside Downing Street to press
We faced them squarely and we were determined to overcome. That is increasingly the mood of Britain. Now once again Britain is not prepared to be pushed around. We have ceased to be a nation in retreat. Margaret Thatcher, speech Cheltenham race course
Our country found its soul. Margaret Thatcher
It is exciting to have a real crisis on your hands, when you have spent half your political life dealing with humdrum issues like the environment. Margaret Thatcher
We have to see that the spirit of the South Atlantic – the real spirit of Britain – is kindled not only by war but can now be fired by peace. We have the first prerequisite. We know that we can do it – we haven’t lost the ability. That is the Falklands Factor. Margaret Thatcher
It’s a pity others had to leave theirs on the ground at Goose Green to prove it. Neil Kinnock, replying to heckler that Thatcher had guts
The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb. Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinian writer
The Empire Strikes Back. Newsweek front cover
I counted them all out and I counted them all back. Brian Hanrahan, BBC news report 1st May 1982
I think the key difference between reporting in the Falklands and certainly all other war ... is that we – the hacks who were down there – were totally prisoners of the Ministry of Defence. John Shirley, journalist Sunday Times
The great catch-all that they could use to restrict anything that you said was this phrase – Damaging to Moral. John Shirley
The absence of foreign journalists helped to narrow our perspective ... I think that we all to varying degrees had a sort of love affair with the military. We all became Troopy Groupies. John Shirley
The Falklands War was the most managed story in the history of journalism ... total control of communication. Morley Safer, CBS News
This was the kind of war which existed in order to produce victory parades. Eric Hobsbawm, cited Marxism Today January 1983
Argentine Forces Seize Falklands. Marines captured – MPs will meet today. Daily Telegraph
Fleet assembles for Falklands Action. The Times
Shamed! Under the flag of occupation. Falklands fiasco leaves Government facing crisis Commons today. Daily Mail
Maggie’s Shame. Daily Mirror
The Sun Says: Dare call it treason. There are traitors in our midst. Margaret Thatcher talked about them in the House of Commons yesterday. The Sun editorial on myth of free journalists
Stick It Up Your Junta. The Sun 1982
Gotcha. The Sun May 1982, re sinking of Argentine ship Belgrano
The Ministry of Defence lost credibility particularly with foreign correspondents. Robert Harris, author ‘Gotcha: The Media, The Government and the Falklands Crisis’
This is the story of how Argentina could have won the 1982 Falkland’s War. And how Britain very nearly lost it. It’s the story of how a naval task force sailed 8,000 miles to fight a war few thought Britain could win. And how Argentina came within a hair’s breadth of victory. Falklands: How Close to Defeat? 2007
In the early morning of 2nd April 1982 Argentine Special Forces launched a surprise invasion of the Falkland Islands. In just a few hours 800 Argentine commandos backed up by warships and armour forced the surrender of the small British garrison that defended the islands. It looked like a conclusive victory, but the Argentines had just made a crucial mistake: they moved too early. ibid.
In fact the timing couldn’t have been worse. At that moment Britain had a huge naval fleet at sea for exercises. It didn’t take much to convert it to a task force. They sailed so fast they didn’t have time to offload the nuclear weapons they were carrying. A secret guarded for decades after the Falkland’s War. ibid.
The Argentines could have stopped them without firing a shot had they mined the entrance to St Carlos Bay. ibid.
Argentina came far closer to winning than anyone had imagined. ibid.
Deep in the south Atlantic the Falkland Islands had been a source of dispute between Britain and Argentina ever since the British had first settled there in 1833. Known as Islas Malvinas by the Argentines the barren windswept islands are just three hundred miles from the mainland Argentina, and eight thousand from Britain. The Falklands Campaign
On 2nd April over seven hundred Argentine marines landed on the Falkland Islands and overwhelmed the small garrison of sixty-seven British Royal Marines protecting the island. ibid.
Tensions were heightened on 2nd May when the nuclear hunter-killer submarine HMS Conqueror detected the Argentine Cruiser General Belgrano and her escorts just outside the British-imposed 200-mile total exclusion zone. Though the Argentines were just shy of violating the zone the British war cabinet decided their weapons were a potential threat to the task force. The General Belgrano was attacked with torpedoes and sunk. 321 men lost their lives; the war had begun in earnest. ibid.
More than 700 Argentines and 253 British troops have died in the process. ibid.
It was on the morning of 2nd April 1982 that Argentine armed forces suddenly invaded a small group of remote islands in the south Atlantic. The Falklands War
It was made by a military regime desperate to gain popularity among the disillusioned Argentine people. ibid.
There was further trouble on the island of South Georgia. ibid.
On 3rd April 1982 the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 502 calling for Argentina to withdraw her forces from the islands. ibid.
A British task force set sail from Portsmouth. ibid.
The task force first had to retake South Georgia. ibid.
At 5 p.m. the General Belgrano finally rolled over and sank. Some 350 Argentine sailors lost their lives that evening. ibid.
The stricken hulk of Ardent continued to burn into the night ... HMS Coventry was also sunk. ibid.
The Welsh Guards lost thirty-three men that day. ibid.
The Argentine army was now in complete disarray. ibid.
Thirty years ago Britain went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. The Great Falklands Gamble Revealed, Channel 5 2012
What’s been forgotten is how close we came to defeat. ibid.
More than 5,000 troops in 3 Commando Brigade had to be landed on the islands. ibid.
The shortage of helicopter transport meant that the troops’ rations didn’t always reach them. ibid.
The Marines and Paras had to continue their gruelling yomp towards Stanley. ibid.