During the Falklands War, British and Argentine troops finally clashed in the capital Port Stanley. It was several days of fierce fighting with Argentine troops in trenches dug along the ridge of the capital Port Stanley, and the Argentine troops surrendered. Immediately after the surrender, the capital Port Stanley collapsed and was littered with rubble.
After gaining independence from Spain in the early 19th century, Argentina claimed the Falklands, an archipelago 480 kilometers east of the coast with only about 1,800 inhabitants. The British occupied the islands in 1833 and expelled the few Argentine residents. In early 1982, the Argentine military government gave up its long-running negotiations with Britain and launched an invasion of the Falkland Islands. The Argentine military government decided to invade in order to regain criticism for its economic policies and human rights abuses. The plan was to unite the Argentine people behind the military government in its fervor. The invasion force was trained in secrecy, and on March 19, 1982, Argentine rescue workers raised the Argentine flag 1,300 km east of the Falkland Islands. The conflict erupted from the British-controlled island of South Georgia.
Argentine troops invaded the Falkland Islands on April 2, invading a small Royal Navy garrison in the capital Port Stanley. Argentine troops suffered losses but obeyed orders from the British not to take casualties. on April 3, Argentine troops occupied the island of South Georgia. by late April, Argentine troops had stationed about 10,000 or more troops in the Falkland Islands. The majority were inexperienced conscripts and were not provided with adequate food, clothing, or shelter as winter approached. The Argentine masses were favorably enthusiastic and gathered in the Plaza de Mayo to support the military government.
In response to the Argentine invasion, the British government declared war on the Falkland Islands, about 320 kilometers around. British forces quickly organized a naval task force and sailed from Portsmouth on April 5, being reinforced along the way. European countries immediately expressed their support for the British. The Latin American governments agreed with Argentina. Chile was an exception, and remained on alert against Argentina because of the dispute over the Beagle Islands. The military threat from Chile increased, and the Argentine military returned elite troops from the Falkland Islands to the mainland. The United States, which had been neutral, gave full support to Britain, and the NATO allies cooperated militarily.
On April 25, a British task force was dispatched to the disputed territory, some 13,000 kilometers away, to retake South Georgia; on May 2, an old Argentine cruiser was sunk by a British nuclear submarine. Most of the other Argentine naval forces remained in port. The Argentine fighters were out of range of the British fleet from the combat radius with dozens of old fighter-bombers. With the Argentine forces weakened, the British landed on May 12. The Royal Navy landed on the north coast of the Falkland Islands and then attacked the capital, Stanley, by land. From the coastal barrier at Port San Carlos, British infantry forced their way into the south under very bad weather conditions and occupied the settlements of Darwin and Goose Green. after several days of fierce fighting with Argentine troops in trenches dug along the ridge line of the capital Port Stanley from June 11, the British troops After several days of fierce fighting with Argentine troops in trenches dug along the ridge of the capital Port Stanley from June 11, British troops captured the highlands west of Port Stanley. With British forces surrounding and blockading the capital and the main port, the Argentine army surrendered on June 14, effectively ending the conflict. On June 20, British troops withdrew the Argentine garrison from the South Sandwich Islands, about 800 kilometers southeast of South Georgia Island.
British forces captured about 11,400 Argentine prisoners of war during the conflict, all of whom were later released. About 649 Argentine troops were killed in action, and about 1,657 were wounded. About 255 British troops were killed and about 775 wounded. The Argentine military government was badly discredited for failing to prepare and support its own troops in the invasion it ordered, and in 1983 the military government was replaced by a civilian government restored to Argentina. Meanwhile, the British government of Margaret Thatcher won a landslide victory for the Conservative Party in the 1983 parliamentary elections with broad patriotic support.
