Anniversary of the Falkland War
Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the Falkland Island War, an old-fashioned war fought literally at the ends of the Earth. This could be characterized as Britain`s last Imperial gasp, and as the last great naval war ever fought.
In the Beginning
The Roaring Forties they are called; a blistering wind pattern which blows westward across the South Atlantic roughly along the 40 to 50 latitude. Terrible storms travel along this pathway, pushed along by the ever present winds, and ocean swells can rise to monumental levels. It is the stuff of horror for those who sail on the seas, and many brave souls have met their end at at the hands of these demon waves and the jagged rocks of this, the loneliest, most forbidding of passages. They call it the Horn, Cape Horn, and to pass through the strait of Magellan was like threading a needle in a hurricane. Despite the many men who would find a watery grave in these waters, men still tried desperately to make this passage between the Land of Fire (Tierra Del Fuego) and the great rocky mass which lay at the very tip of the southernmost inhabited continent. Many men tried, some of the most skilled sailors (William Blye and the Bounty, for example), and a great many failed. In fact, many, many of them died trying.
Once there was a seafaring nation, an amalgamation of four seperate kingdoms which came together to build the greatest empire ever seen on this Earth. A mixed breed of soldiers and sailors from other lands, these people would come to be called British, and they would spread their culture and civilization to the Seven Seas, building their empire with ships and guns and rum. They would need safe harbor for their ships, places to reprovision and wait out inclement weather, so they would settle and build colonies across the globe. Of course, those colonies would need to be defended, so they would need more ships. The empire was an hungry entity, ever needing to be fed and to grow, and would require Britain to maintain the greatest naval force the world had ever seen to maintain their colonies, needed to maintain their naval force...
Once there was a speck of land deep in the roaring forties, rocky shore and swamp land, overgrown with tussock grass and treeless, eternally buffeted by the endless winds and eternal rains which blasted from deep in the cold Atlantic. Lonely sentinel waiting, ever vigilant, guarding the approach to the land of fire and the terrible passageway which an angry Poseidon must surely have cursed so as to doom the many who dared approach. But God has his mercy, and he placed in the path this forbidding little archipelago just outside of the deadly passage, a place for men to find respite in preparation to their time of distress. A lonely, empty land.
In His Divine mercy He dotted other lands in the great tempest of the South Atlantic and Antarctic as well, and they would be visited, and even settled for a short time, by the brave men of the North, those lusty adventurers seeking after the precious oil which could be gleaned from the blubber of the great beasts of the sea; whales, seals, etc. were prized for the oil they produced, and a great many ships would establish bases on such places as South Georgia, where the Norwegians would build Grytviken, and Stromness. It was here that the great trek of Lord Shakleton would at last end, where he would find deliverance for his men stranded on Elephant Island just off the coast of Antarctica. But nobody ever came to South Georgia, nor the South Sandwhich Isles, to stay permanently (except Shakleton, whose remains find rest on South Georgia); they passed their time killing the great beasts of the sea and faded into the night when they had killed too many of them that it became unprofitable. Not so with the patient sentinel of the Strait of Magellan; men would seek to settle the swamps and ridges of this desolate wilderness so as to hold this critical harbor, to gain mastery over the one place where those in distress on the sea could find safety.
As a passenger with Captain John Davis logged in 1542;
``The 14th wee were driven in among certain Isles never before discovered...lying fifty leagues or better from the shoare, in which place unlesse it had pleased God of His wonderful mercie to have ceased the wind, we must of necessitie have perished.``
So many would lay claim to discovery of these desolate lands; Vespucci, Magellan, Davis, Hawkins, Sebald DeWeert. Many would lay claim to possess these uninteresting rocks-Spanish, Dutch, British. The islands would be called by many names-The Sebalds, the Sansons, Hawkins Land, The Malvinas, the Malouines, the Falklands.
The first man to set foot upon them was a Captain John Strong, an Englishman, who in 1590 landed his ship in safe harbor and charter the sound between the two main islands. He dutifully named it after the first Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Faulkland, and sailed off to more rewarding shores. Thus Britain early staked their claim to sovereignty.
It should not surprise that more than one group of people would cast covetous eyes upon it.
In 1754 the famous French nobleman Antoine de Bougainville landed and claimed the soggy isles for Louis XV and built a fort and settlement he named Port Louis, north of present day Port Stanley. The British, hearing of these trespassing Frenchmen, dispatched ``Foulweather Jack`` Byron, who landed on West Falkland, planted a garden at a place he named Port Egmont, then promptly left, having staked out their claim by virtue of agriculture. The following year, the British Admiralty sent Captain John McBride to take permanent possession and evict any trespassing interlopers. McBride stumbled upon the colony at Port Louis, which had swelled to 250 colonists, and began taking steps to evict them.
Now, it must be understood that Spain had settled those southernmost habitable parts of the Earth, and they held claim to all of the regions west of Brazil (which was granted to Portugal by Papal decree in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas which divided the world between those two great maritime powers. Argentina was Spain`s, and the Spanish believed that the dark, windswept isles three hundred miles to the east belonged to them likewise.
The Spanish were furious at what they saw as a violation of the Treaty of Utrech (which had settled the War of the Spanish Succession) by both French and British, and they demanded that both leave post haste. De Bougaineville promptly sold his interest in Port Louis to Spain, which changed the name to Puerto Soledad, but the British refused to budge. In 1769 the royal government in Buenos Aires dispatched Francisco Bucarelli to drive the Brits from the islands. He succeeded, much to the anger of the British Admiralty, After a year of intense negotiation, the Spanish allowed the British to return to Port Egmont as a means of saving face, but they reserved the right of sovereignty to the Spanish Crown.
The British who returned to Port Egmont left a plaque stating;
``Be it known to all nations that Falkland Ysland with this fort, the storehouses, wharfs...are the sole property of His Most Sacred Majesty George III King of Great Britain.``
The Spanish never acquiesced to the British claim to these islands;
this is at the root of the Argentinian claim to the Falklands/Malvinas.
In 1810 Argentina made it`s move towards independence, and Spain evacuated her colony at Puerto Soledad. For a number of years the islands remained uninhabited, home to occasional whaling vessels and ships rounding Cape Horn. This state remained until 1820 when the United Provinces of Rio de La Plata (the forerunner of Argentina) sent ships to assert authority over the islands and the many visitors who were stopping there. In 1823 Argentina installed a permanent governor, and by 1829 trade regulations were established to govern the growing economy.
The new Argentine government appointed a man named Louis Vernet governor, and he was very serious about enforcing Argentine trade laws on the Malvinas. He arrested an American ship, the Harriet, for illegal seal hunting, and proceeded to take the vessel back to Buenos Aires where the captain would be tried-after first confiscating the ship`s cargo. The American Consulate was most displeased by this turn of events, since the United States did not recognize Argentine claims on the Falklands, and they backed up their disagreement with the USS Lexington, a warship under the command of one Silas Duncan, who sailed to Puerto Soledad, sacked the fledgling community, exploded most of their stores of gunpowder, and arrested the inhabitants. When the Lexington left the Falklands there was little that remained of the old Spanish colony.
The British saw their chance. On January 2, 1833 two British warships arrived to take possession from the Argentines. Captain James Onslow, in command of Clio and Tyne, quickly subdued the remaining Argentinian forces on the Islands, driving them into a swift (and undoubtedly welcome) exile back to the mainland.
Britain would rule the Falklands until 1982, when a desperate gambit lead to an invasion and the last war of the 19th century would be fought in the latter part of the 20th.
Setting the Stage for a Conflict
Argentina was a basket case. Blessed with a topography startlingly similar to the world`s great economic power (the United States) and an overabundance of natural resources, most economists and historians had been predicting for decades the emergence of Argentina as one of the world`s great nations, yet that promise never panned out. until 1945 Argentina had a robust, growing economy, thanks in no small part to excellent trade relations with Great Britain despite their never-resolved squabble over the Falklands. But Argentina would squander her many blessings through a failure of politics, and by 1982 would become desperate enough to test the resolve of the once-masters of the sea.
Argentina was a nation almost entirely of European descent, and many had an affinity with Germany and Italy during the Second World War, leading to a generally neutral stand during the war. Argentina would not declare war ont the Axis powers until after D-day; March 27, 1945, being the third to last country to enter the war (only Chile and Mongolia would enter after Argentina). This admiration for Fascism must be understood if one is to grasp the failure of the bright promise that had belonged to Argentina. In 1930 there had been a military coup, removing the government and installing a military dictatorship. Argentina did not have what the United States had; a Constitution which straight-jacketed the military, placed it under civilian control. The separation of powers just didn`t exist in Argentina, and, like so much of Latin America, there had always been an admiration for military strongmen. This natural affinity for a strongman coupled with Fascistic tendencies lead naturally to the rise of Colonel Juan Peron, who would dominate Argentinian politics until his death in 1974-and afterwards with his widow and the remainders of his ``third path`` between communism and capitalism (aka fascism, although Peron didn`t use the discredited term, preferring ``integral nationalism``.) Peron`s quasi-socialist policies would completely wreck the Argentine economy during his tenure, and the constant battle between the military and the Peronistas, the cycle of deposition of the elected government followed by military dictatorship, new elections, and the reinstatement of the Peron Party brought Chaos to this land at the bottom of the world, and times became increasingly desperate as ridiculous rates of inflation, unemployment, etc. squeezed the Argentinian people like a press.
Fascists and military dictators need an enemy, someone to blame for all of their troubles. Peron and those who would come after him would exploit the British and their ``illegal`` occupation of the Malvinas. It was required that all Argentinian school days start with the children reciting ``the Malvinas are Argentine!`` often set to music. Generations of children grew into adulthood believing absolutely that Britain had no claim on the Falkland Islands, and many lusted to take back what had been ``stolen`` by force, if necessary. Generations of politicians fed this South American version of Manifest Destiny, and by the beginning of the 1980`s the dream of conquering the Malvinas was at a fever pitch.
The Videla regime had ruled Argentina since 1976, backed by a military triumvirate of which Leopoldo Galtieri was a member. In 1981, as the United States stabilized her economy, Argentina found hers crumbling away, an unfortunate backlash of a much tighter-fisted monetary policy under Ronald Reagan; Argentina had borrowed and spent while money was loose and Reagan`s efforts to control double-digit inflation in the States meant that Argentina had to pay back money owed with ever-more-valuable American currency. (This is the classic deflationary trap-the debtor is crushed by the growing value of money.) General Galtieri took over shortly after Videla resigned in 1981, and he had no idea of how to solve the brutal economic trap Argentina found itself in. There was, of course, one tried-and-true method known by all military men to distract the public from their plight-launch a foreign war! Galtieri realized that the time had come to fulfill the promises made to passing generations, and to seize the Malvinas from the clutches of Great Britain.
The British, for their part, had dutifully planted a colony on the islands to stake their claim. The Navy had originally pensioned off a score of officers and dispatched them to the South Atlantic to settle the only town of any size-Port Stanley. These pensioners became the nucleus of the British presence there, and by the time of the War the population of Stanley would be a staggering 1500. A Northern English fishing village transplanted to the soggy shores of South America, Stanley would retain an 18th century flavor and devout English tradition which remains to the present day. Insulated from the ebb and flow of Empire, of the decline and modernization of Great Britain, she would remain an old outpost of what had once ruled the waves, a sad reminder of the glory that was Brittania.
Britain did not consider these islands of much value, and their colonization efforts were meager. Outside of Port Stanley lie the ``camp``, with only about 500 people occupying a landmass roughly the size of the State of Connecticut. These settlers were not owners of the property, but mostly employees of the Falkland Island Development Corporation, a trust granted by the Crown and Parliament. Because of the inclement weather and the lack of prospects offered by a lack of opportunity (since all of the land was owned or controlled by the FIDC) few people could be recruited to settle. A number of Scots, observing the similarities between their Moor country and the Falklands, did come and settle the lonely wilderness outside of Stanley, running sheep stations and fishing stops.
The Falklands lie at about the same latitude south as Scotland does north, and the islands don`t get all that cold (about 30* F in winter) but they just don`t warm up much; January temperatures average in the 50* F. range. Couple the endless winds and a rainy season which lasts 260 days of the year, and you have a fine place for a sword and sorcery novel, but not much of a draw otherwise. Most of the settlements are on East Falkland, in the northern part of the island. There you have the mountains, the crystal-clear streams full of trout, the sheltered valleys where a few sparse trees can be coaxed out of the swampy soil. Lafonia lies to the south, connected by a narrow isthmus at Darwin and Goose Green, and it is a much flatter, swampier place, eternally buffeted by the winds. Across Falkland Sound lies the virtually uninhabited West Falkland, with a score of lesser islands such as Weddell, Saunders, Pebble, etc. A vast, largely empty place.
Settlements tend to have less than a dozen people, and life there tended to be fairly simple. Since there are no trees the people were forced to dig peat and burn it in fireplaces. School was conducted for the children on a government-run radio station, and ``flying teachers`` would arrive occasionally to administer tests. This was an unique way of life, a very British culture holding on at the end of the world.
They didn`t want to become part of Argentina, and in referendums made that absolutely plain.
Argentina was absolutely determined to take them.
The Last War of the Empire
Throughout the 1970`s, with the tide of Empire receding, the once rulers of the waves followed a policy of decommissioning her once-mighty navy in favor of airpower. The Royal Navy`s emphasis was on carriers and support vessels, and the old gunships and transports were being retired from service and often sold for scrap metal. Nato and the American presence throughout the world seemed to make the idea of a permanent navy silly, and the Brits, enamoured of the happy life of socialism, turned their backs on what had once been their pride. It really is amazing to think about it; the First World War was caused in part by Britain`s policy of having two ships for every one that the next-largest competitor possessed, and Germany`s construction of a navy started an arms race which ended, more or less for Britain, at Jutland where the German navy retired and never emerged again. Now the United Kingdom no longer cared about her mighty fleet, and was eagerly dismantling it to recycle into lawn chairs, street lamps, and mailboxes. It was a sad, strange tale, but one the Royal Navy`s top brass believed was necessary to modernize their military.
Weakness invites attack, and the ruling junta of Galtieri, tired of negotiating for the Malvinas, saw Britain as unwilling to defend a far-flung province. The Galtieri regime came to believe that if it presented the world with a faite accompli international pressure (especially from the United States) would force Britain to back down, and they would take the islands to thunderous applause. What Galtieri didn`t realize was that he wasn`t dealing with a Prime Minister Atlee but with the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, a steel-willed PM with an outlook more in line with Winston Churchill and the old glory of Empire. One must know the enemy if one is to engage them properly, and Galtieri, in a classic case of Latin machismo, thought little of the old lady ruling Britain.
On March 19, 1982 Argentine forces invaded and occupied the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, hoisting their flag in a very public assertion of sovereignty over this fridgid enclave. The weak British response emboldened the ruling junta, and so this was followed by Galtieri giving orders on April 2 to mount a full-scale invasion of the Falklands themselves.
At 4:30 am the Argentinian commandos landed at Mullette Creek, and moved on the governor`s mansion, attempting to seize Rex Hunt, the current occupant. A fierce gun battle ensued, and the commando squadron was forced to wait until the 8:30 arrival of the main invasion force. Reinforced, they moved on Government House with heavy guns and troop carriers, and the Hon. Mr. Hunt was forced to surrender shortly thereafter. The swaggering Argentinians gleefully photographed British Marines face-down on the law, the ultimate symbol of submission. This was a mistake; it would galvanize the British far more than the Argentine people.
The British had been at work preparing for battle from the moment that Argentina had seized South Georgia, and Britain sent forth the Invincible, a carrier sold to the Australians, along with several ships-including the Hermes were awaiting the scrap yard and the Illustrious was not yet complete. This improvised fleet steamed out of Bristol to a cheering crowd on the long and perilous voyage to engage the enemy for Queen and Country, a last shred of the ancient pride that had dominated British life for 200 years.
Of course, the British also used the RAF to it`s full advantage; a special base (Wideawake) was prepared on Ascension Island, and the ``Black Buck`` airraids were launched against the enemy. These would be the longest sorties ever flown up to that time-Avro Vulcan bombers from the 44th Squadron would fly almost 8000 nautical miles, taking almost 16 hours, to complete their missions.
The British would land a contingent of Marines on South Georgia (Operation Paraquat) on April 21, but would withdraw due to bad weather. Several helicopters would crash on the Fortunata Glacier, and the stranded men would have to fight the Argentine forces while awaiting the arrival of the Navy. The Invincible arrived on April 24 and a major naval engagement ensued. By the end of the day a British contingent of 76 men made a forced march on the Argentine troops, who surrendered without a fight.
To show how backward the Argentine military was, one of their major ships was the General Belgrano, formerly the U.S.S. Phoenix, a relic from the Second World War which Argentina purchased from the U.S. A British submarine sunk it on May 2, and this caused a great hue-and-cry over the deaths of the ship hands (shades of things to come in modern warfare.) An inquest cleared the British Captain of wrongdoing, and the Argentine Navy would retire for the remainder of the war.
Two days later Argentina returned the favor, sinking the HMS Sheffield with an exocet missile.
On May 21 the British made an amphibious landing at San Carlos on the northern coast of East Falkland, with over 4000 men hitting the beaches that day. This would be followed by battles at Goose Green, Mount Kent, Bull Cove, and Fitzroy. The noose was tightening around the Argentine neck, and the battle for Port Stanley would commence on June 11 with heavy fighting at Wireless Ridge, Mount Harriet, Mount Longdon, and the appropriately named Mount Tumbledown. The occupation commanders issued orders to shoot any Falklander who resisted as the British continued to press forward.
On June 14 the British marched right through the Argentinian`s mine field (taking no casualties) and Commander Mario Menendez surrendered to Maj. Gen. Jeremy Moore.
In 74 days of fighting the British lost 255 troops and Argentina lost 649. This war, relatively light in casualties, was fought in the old tradition-with civility, decent treatment of prisoners, and with a type of old-school military honor which has been lost in our modern times.
The Falklands remain a land in dispute; Argentina still claims them, and the British refuse to relinquish them. Since the War, the monopoly held by the Falkland Island Development Corporation has been disbanded, and private farms are springing up in the soggy moores. Eco-tourism has become a major factor in the Falkland economy, with animal lovers flocking to the island in numbers comparable to the penguins they come to see. Britain has been considering a ``leaseback`` program similar to what they employed in Hong Cong, so Argentina may get the Malvinas yet. Times are changing in the world`s last frontier; the internet makes this land far more accessible, and one must fear for the unique culture which dominated this cold and lonely place for so long. The time is fast approaching when the Kelper way of life (that`s what they call Falklanders) will disappear forever.
It`s a sad thought.
In the Beginning
The Roaring Forties they are called; a blistering wind pattern which blows westward across the South Atlantic roughly along the 40 to 50 latitude. Terrible storms travel along this pathway, pushed along by the ever present winds, and ocean swells can rise to monumental levels. It is the stuff of horror for those who sail on the seas, and many brave souls have met their end at at the hands of these demon waves and the jagged rocks of this, the loneliest, most forbidding of passages. They call it the Horn, Cape Horn, and to pass through the strait of Magellan was like threading a needle in a hurricane. Despite the many men who would find a watery grave in these waters, men still tried desperately to make this passage between the Land of Fire (Tierra Del Fuego) and the great rocky mass which lay at the very tip of the southernmost inhabited continent. Many men tried, some of the most skilled sailors (William Blye and the Bounty, for example), and a great many failed. In fact, many, many of them died trying.
Once there was a seafaring nation, an amalgamation of four seperate kingdoms which came together to build the greatest empire ever seen on this Earth. A mixed breed of soldiers and sailors from other lands, these people would come to be called British, and they would spread their culture and civilization to the Seven Seas, building their empire with ships and guns and rum. They would need safe harbor for their ships, places to reprovision and wait out inclement weather, so they would settle and build colonies across the globe. Of course, those colonies would need to be defended, so they would need more ships. The empire was an hungry entity, ever needing to be fed and to grow, and would require Britain to maintain the greatest naval force the world had ever seen to maintain their colonies, needed to maintain their naval force...
Once there was a speck of land deep in the roaring forties, rocky shore and swamp land, overgrown with tussock grass and treeless, eternally buffeted by the endless winds and eternal rains which blasted from deep in the cold Atlantic. Lonely sentinel waiting, ever vigilant, guarding the approach to the land of fire and the terrible passageway which an angry Poseidon must surely have cursed so as to doom the many who dared approach. But God has his mercy, and he placed in the path this forbidding little archipelago just outside of the deadly passage, a place for men to find respite in preparation to their time of distress. A lonely, empty land.
In His Divine mercy He dotted other lands in the great tempest of the South Atlantic and Antarctic as well, and they would be visited, and even settled for a short time, by the brave men of the North, those lusty adventurers seeking after the precious oil which could be gleaned from the blubber of the great beasts of the sea; whales, seals, etc. were prized for the oil they produced, and a great many ships would establish bases on such places as South Georgia, where the Norwegians would build Grytviken, and Stromness. It was here that the great trek of Lord Shakleton would at last end, where he would find deliverance for his men stranded on Elephant Island just off the coast of Antarctica. But nobody ever came to South Georgia, nor the South Sandwhich Isles, to stay permanently (except Shakleton, whose remains find rest on South Georgia); they passed their time killing the great beasts of the sea and faded into the night when they had killed too many of them that it became unprofitable. Not so with the patient sentinel of the Strait of Magellan; men would seek to settle the swamps and ridges of this desolate wilderness so as to hold this critical harbor, to gain mastery over the one place where those in distress on the sea could find safety.
As a passenger with Captain John Davis logged in 1542;
``The 14th wee were driven in among certain Isles never before discovered...lying fifty leagues or better from the shoare, in which place unlesse it had pleased God of His wonderful mercie to have ceased the wind, we must of necessitie have perished.``
So many would lay claim to discovery of these desolate lands; Vespucci, Magellan, Davis, Hawkins, Sebald DeWeert. Many would lay claim to possess these uninteresting rocks-Spanish, Dutch, British. The islands would be called by many names-The Sebalds, the Sansons, Hawkins Land, The Malvinas, the Malouines, the Falklands.
The first man to set foot upon them was a Captain John Strong, an Englishman, who in 1590 landed his ship in safe harbor and charter the sound between the two main islands. He dutifully named it after the first Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Faulkland, and sailed off to more rewarding shores. Thus Britain early staked their claim to sovereignty.
It should not surprise that more than one group of people would cast covetous eyes upon it.
In 1754 the famous French nobleman Antoine de Bougainville landed and claimed the soggy isles for Louis XV and built a fort and settlement he named Port Louis, north of present day Port Stanley. The British, hearing of these trespassing Frenchmen, dispatched ``Foulweather Jack`` Byron, who landed on West Falkland, planted a garden at a place he named Port Egmont, then promptly left, having staked out their claim by virtue of agriculture. The following year, the British Admiralty sent Captain John McBride to take permanent possession and evict any trespassing interlopers. McBride stumbled upon the colony at Port Louis, which had swelled to 250 colonists, and began taking steps to evict them.
Now, it must be understood that Spain had settled those southernmost habitable parts of the Earth, and they held claim to all of the regions west of Brazil (which was granted to Portugal by Papal decree in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas which divided the world between those two great maritime powers. Argentina was Spain`s, and the Spanish believed that the dark, windswept isles three hundred miles to the east belonged to them likewise.
The Spanish were furious at what they saw as a violation of the Treaty of Utrech (which had settled the War of the Spanish Succession) by both French and British, and they demanded that both leave post haste. De Bougaineville promptly sold his interest in Port Louis to Spain, which changed the name to Puerto Soledad, but the British refused to budge. In 1769 the royal government in Buenos Aires dispatched Francisco Bucarelli to drive the Brits from the islands. He succeeded, much to the anger of the British Admiralty, After a year of intense negotiation, the Spanish allowed the British to return to Port Egmont as a means of saving face, but they reserved the right of sovereignty to the Spanish Crown.
The British who returned to Port Egmont left a plaque stating;
``Be it known to all nations that Falkland Ysland with this fort, the storehouses, wharfs...are the sole property of His Most Sacred Majesty George III King of Great Britain.``
The Spanish never acquiesced to the British claim to these islands;
this is at the root of the Argentinian claim to the Falklands/Malvinas.
In 1810 Argentina made it`s move towards independence, and Spain evacuated her colony at Puerto Soledad. For a number of years the islands remained uninhabited, home to occasional whaling vessels and ships rounding Cape Horn. This state remained until 1820 when the United Provinces of Rio de La Plata (the forerunner of Argentina) sent ships to assert authority over the islands and the many visitors who were stopping there. In 1823 Argentina installed a permanent governor, and by 1829 trade regulations were established to govern the growing economy.
The new Argentine government appointed a man named Louis Vernet governor, and he was very serious about enforcing Argentine trade laws on the Malvinas. He arrested an American ship, the Harriet, for illegal seal hunting, and proceeded to take the vessel back to Buenos Aires where the captain would be tried-after first confiscating the ship`s cargo. The American Consulate was most displeased by this turn of events, since the United States did not recognize Argentine claims on the Falklands, and they backed up their disagreement with the USS Lexington, a warship under the command of one Silas Duncan, who sailed to Puerto Soledad, sacked the fledgling community, exploded most of their stores of gunpowder, and arrested the inhabitants. When the Lexington left the Falklands there was little that remained of the old Spanish colony.
The British saw their chance. On January 2, 1833 two British warships arrived to take possession from the Argentines. Captain James Onslow, in command of Clio and Tyne, quickly subdued the remaining Argentinian forces on the Islands, driving them into a swift (and undoubtedly welcome) exile back to the mainland.
Britain would rule the Falklands until 1982, when a desperate gambit lead to an invasion and the last war of the 19th century would be fought in the latter part of the 20th.
Setting the Stage for a Conflict
Argentina was a basket case. Blessed with a topography startlingly similar to the world`s great economic power (the United States) and an overabundance of natural resources, most economists and historians had been predicting for decades the emergence of Argentina as one of the world`s great nations, yet that promise never panned out. until 1945 Argentina had a robust, growing economy, thanks in no small part to excellent trade relations with Great Britain despite their never-resolved squabble over the Falklands. But Argentina would squander her many blessings through a failure of politics, and by 1982 would become desperate enough to test the resolve of the once-masters of the sea.
Argentina was a nation almost entirely of European descent, and many had an affinity with Germany and Italy during the Second World War, leading to a generally neutral stand during the war. Argentina would not declare war ont the Axis powers until after D-day; March 27, 1945, being the third to last country to enter the war (only Chile and Mongolia would enter after Argentina). This admiration for Fascism must be understood if one is to grasp the failure of the bright promise that had belonged to Argentina. In 1930 there had been a military coup, removing the government and installing a military dictatorship. Argentina did not have what the United States had; a Constitution which straight-jacketed the military, placed it under civilian control. The separation of powers just didn`t exist in Argentina, and, like so much of Latin America, there had always been an admiration for military strongmen. This natural affinity for a strongman coupled with Fascistic tendencies lead naturally to the rise of Colonel Juan Peron, who would dominate Argentinian politics until his death in 1974-and afterwards with his widow and the remainders of his ``third path`` between communism and capitalism (aka fascism, although Peron didn`t use the discredited term, preferring ``integral nationalism``.) Peron`s quasi-socialist policies would completely wreck the Argentine economy during his tenure, and the constant battle between the military and the Peronistas, the cycle of deposition of the elected government followed by military dictatorship, new elections, and the reinstatement of the Peron Party brought Chaos to this land at the bottom of the world, and times became increasingly desperate as ridiculous rates of inflation, unemployment, etc. squeezed the Argentinian people like a press.
Fascists and military dictators need an enemy, someone to blame for all of their troubles. Peron and those who would come after him would exploit the British and their ``illegal`` occupation of the Malvinas. It was required that all Argentinian school days start with the children reciting ``the Malvinas are Argentine!`` often set to music. Generations of children grew into adulthood believing absolutely that Britain had no claim on the Falkland Islands, and many lusted to take back what had been ``stolen`` by force, if necessary. Generations of politicians fed this South American version of Manifest Destiny, and by the beginning of the 1980`s the dream of conquering the Malvinas was at a fever pitch.
The Videla regime had ruled Argentina since 1976, backed by a military triumvirate of which Leopoldo Galtieri was a member. In 1981, as the United States stabilized her economy, Argentina found hers crumbling away, an unfortunate backlash of a much tighter-fisted monetary policy under Ronald Reagan; Argentina had borrowed and spent while money was loose and Reagan`s efforts to control double-digit inflation in the States meant that Argentina had to pay back money owed with ever-more-valuable American currency. (This is the classic deflationary trap-the debtor is crushed by the growing value of money.) General Galtieri took over shortly after Videla resigned in 1981, and he had no idea of how to solve the brutal economic trap Argentina found itself in. There was, of course, one tried-and-true method known by all military men to distract the public from their plight-launch a foreign war! Galtieri realized that the time had come to fulfill the promises made to passing generations, and to seize the Malvinas from the clutches of Great Britain.
The British, for their part, had dutifully planted a colony on the islands to stake their claim. The Navy had originally pensioned off a score of officers and dispatched them to the South Atlantic to settle the only town of any size-Port Stanley. These pensioners became the nucleus of the British presence there, and by the time of the War the population of Stanley would be a staggering 1500. A Northern English fishing village transplanted to the soggy shores of South America, Stanley would retain an 18th century flavor and devout English tradition which remains to the present day. Insulated from the ebb and flow of Empire, of the decline and modernization of Great Britain, she would remain an old outpost of what had once ruled the waves, a sad reminder of the glory that was Brittania.
Britain did not consider these islands of much value, and their colonization efforts were meager. Outside of Port Stanley lie the ``camp``, with only about 500 people occupying a landmass roughly the size of the State of Connecticut. These settlers were not owners of the property, but mostly employees of the Falkland Island Development Corporation, a trust granted by the Crown and Parliament. Because of the inclement weather and the lack of prospects offered by a lack of opportunity (since all of the land was owned or controlled by the FIDC) few people could be recruited to settle. A number of Scots, observing the similarities between their Moor country and the Falklands, did come and settle the lonely wilderness outside of Stanley, running sheep stations and fishing stops.
The Falklands lie at about the same latitude south as Scotland does north, and the islands don`t get all that cold (about 30* F in winter) but they just don`t warm up much; January temperatures average in the 50* F. range. Couple the endless winds and a rainy season which lasts 260 days of the year, and you have a fine place for a sword and sorcery novel, but not much of a draw otherwise. Most of the settlements are on East Falkland, in the northern part of the island. There you have the mountains, the crystal-clear streams full of trout, the sheltered valleys where a few sparse trees can be coaxed out of the swampy soil. Lafonia lies to the south, connected by a narrow isthmus at Darwin and Goose Green, and it is a much flatter, swampier place, eternally buffeted by the winds. Across Falkland Sound lies the virtually uninhabited West Falkland, with a score of lesser islands such as Weddell, Saunders, Pebble, etc. A vast, largely empty place.
Settlements tend to have less than a dozen people, and life there tended to be fairly simple. Since there are no trees the people were forced to dig peat and burn it in fireplaces. School was conducted for the children on a government-run radio station, and ``flying teachers`` would arrive occasionally to administer tests. This was an unique way of life, a very British culture holding on at the end of the world.
They didn`t want to become part of Argentina, and in referendums made that absolutely plain.
Argentina was absolutely determined to take them.
The Last War of the Empire
Throughout the 1970`s, with the tide of Empire receding, the once rulers of the waves followed a policy of decommissioning her once-mighty navy in favor of airpower. The Royal Navy`s emphasis was on carriers and support vessels, and the old gunships and transports were being retired from service and often sold for scrap metal. Nato and the American presence throughout the world seemed to make the idea of a permanent navy silly, and the Brits, enamoured of the happy life of socialism, turned their backs on what had once been their pride. It really is amazing to think about it; the First World War was caused in part by Britain`s policy of having two ships for every one that the next-largest competitor possessed, and Germany`s construction of a navy started an arms race which ended, more or less for Britain, at Jutland where the German navy retired and never emerged again. Now the United Kingdom no longer cared about her mighty fleet, and was eagerly dismantling it to recycle into lawn chairs, street lamps, and mailboxes. It was a sad, strange tale, but one the Royal Navy`s top brass believed was necessary to modernize their military.
Weakness invites attack, and the ruling junta of Galtieri, tired of negotiating for the Malvinas, saw Britain as unwilling to defend a far-flung province. The Galtieri regime came to believe that if it presented the world with a faite accompli international pressure (especially from the United States) would force Britain to back down, and they would take the islands to thunderous applause. What Galtieri didn`t realize was that he wasn`t dealing with a Prime Minister Atlee but with the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, a steel-willed PM with an outlook more in line with Winston Churchill and the old glory of Empire. One must know the enemy if one is to engage them properly, and Galtieri, in a classic case of Latin machismo, thought little of the old lady ruling Britain.
On March 19, 1982 Argentine forces invaded and occupied the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, hoisting their flag in a very public assertion of sovereignty over this fridgid enclave. The weak British response emboldened the ruling junta, and so this was followed by Galtieri giving orders on April 2 to mount a full-scale invasion of the Falklands themselves.
At 4:30 am the Argentinian commandos landed at Mullette Creek, and moved on the governor`s mansion, attempting to seize Rex Hunt, the current occupant. A fierce gun battle ensued, and the commando squadron was forced to wait until the 8:30 arrival of the main invasion force. Reinforced, they moved on Government House with heavy guns and troop carriers, and the Hon. Mr. Hunt was forced to surrender shortly thereafter. The swaggering Argentinians gleefully photographed British Marines face-down on the law, the ultimate symbol of submission. This was a mistake; it would galvanize the British far more than the Argentine people.
The British had been at work preparing for battle from the moment that Argentina had seized South Georgia, and Britain sent forth the Invincible, a carrier sold to the Australians, along with several ships-including the Hermes were awaiting the scrap yard and the Illustrious was not yet complete. This improvised fleet steamed out of Bristol to a cheering crowd on the long and perilous voyage to engage the enemy for Queen and Country, a last shred of the ancient pride that had dominated British life for 200 years.
Of course, the British also used the RAF to it`s full advantage; a special base (Wideawake) was prepared on Ascension Island, and the ``Black Buck`` airraids were launched against the enemy. These would be the longest sorties ever flown up to that time-Avro Vulcan bombers from the 44th Squadron would fly almost 8000 nautical miles, taking almost 16 hours, to complete their missions.
The British would land a contingent of Marines on South Georgia (Operation Paraquat) on April 21, but would withdraw due to bad weather. Several helicopters would crash on the Fortunata Glacier, and the stranded men would have to fight the Argentine forces while awaiting the arrival of the Navy. The Invincible arrived on April 24 and a major naval engagement ensued. By the end of the day a British contingent of 76 men made a forced march on the Argentine troops, who surrendered without a fight.
To show how backward the Argentine military was, one of their major ships was the General Belgrano, formerly the U.S.S. Phoenix, a relic from the Second World War which Argentina purchased from the U.S. A British submarine sunk it on May 2, and this caused a great hue-and-cry over the deaths of the ship hands (shades of things to come in modern warfare.) An inquest cleared the British Captain of wrongdoing, and the Argentine Navy would retire for the remainder of the war.
Two days later Argentina returned the favor, sinking the HMS Sheffield with an exocet missile.
On May 21 the British made an amphibious landing at San Carlos on the northern coast of East Falkland, with over 4000 men hitting the beaches that day. This would be followed by battles at Goose Green, Mount Kent, Bull Cove, and Fitzroy. The noose was tightening around the Argentine neck, and the battle for Port Stanley would commence on June 11 with heavy fighting at Wireless Ridge, Mount Harriet, Mount Longdon, and the appropriately named Mount Tumbledown. The occupation commanders issued orders to shoot any Falklander who resisted as the British continued to press forward.
On June 14 the British marched right through the Argentinian`s mine field (taking no casualties) and Commander Mario Menendez surrendered to Maj. Gen. Jeremy Moore.
In 74 days of fighting the British lost 255 troops and Argentina lost 649. This war, relatively light in casualties, was fought in the old tradition-with civility, decent treatment of prisoners, and with a type of old-school military honor which has been lost in our modern times.
The Falklands remain a land in dispute; Argentina still claims them, and the British refuse to relinquish them. Since the War, the monopoly held by the Falkland Island Development Corporation has been disbanded, and private farms are springing up in the soggy moores. Eco-tourism has become a major factor in the Falkland economy, with animal lovers flocking to the island in numbers comparable to the penguins they come to see. Britain has been considering a ``leaseback`` program similar to what they employed in Hong Cong, so Argentina may get the Malvinas yet. Times are changing in the world`s last frontier; the internet makes this land far more accessible, and one must fear for the unique culture which dominated this cold and lonely place for so long. The time is fast approaching when the Kelper way of life (that`s what they call Falklanders) will disappear forever.
It`s a sad thought.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 6:05 AM
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