WEB SPECIAL - Falklands War
FALKLANDS WAR SPECIAL
Map by Dennis Andrews.
To begin WARSHIPS IFR's Falklands War 20th anniversary series, Syd Goodman and Dennis Andrews chronicle the history of the islands at the centre of the conflict and define the root causes of the 1982 conflict.
In August 1592 Captain John Davis, an Englishman, was blown off course by severe gales and was the first person to sight what we now call the Falkland Islands. In 1690, another Englishman, Captain John Strong, sailed into the stretch of water separating the two main islands. He landed and named the islands the Falklands, in honour of a senior figure in the Admiralty. The French made their first landing on the Falklands in 1701 and followed this up with another by a party from St Malo, in 1711, when the islands were named the Iles Malouines. This means 'the islands of the people of St Malo', and translates into Spanish as Islas Malvinas, the name used by the Argentinians. In 1764 Frenchman Antoine de Bougainville established the first colony on East Falkland. Working alongside 28 settlers, he constructed a small fort and settlement, calling it Port Louis and formally claimed the islands as French possessions.
The following year the British, under Commodore John Byron, landed at Saunders Island off Western Falkland. After naming the place Port Egmont, they sailed away again, unaware of the French presence at Port Louis. Returning within a year, under Captain John McBride, the British built a fort and consolidated the new British territory. They were amazed to find a flourishing French colony on East Falkland. Spain was furious at both countries for ignoring her claim to the islands, considering them part of her 'traditional territories in the Americas'. In 1767, the French sold their interests and rights to Spain for £25,000. Port Louis was renamed Puerto Soledad. In July 1770 Spain ejected the small British garrison from the islands. Britain re-established a garrison on West Falkland in 1771 but 'defence cuts' forced its withdrawal in 1774. A lead plaque left behind claimed all the islands for King George III but a year later the Spanish crossed Falkland Sound and destroyed the empty buildings. They took the plaque to Buenos Aires.
SPAIN maintained the colony on East Falkland for a further 36 years, until her empire collapsed in 1810. A subsequent rebellion in Buenos Aires forced Spain to withdraw from Puerto Soledad. It became a gathering point for the sealing and whaling ships of many nations and law and order was left to the captains of the vessels involved. In 1816, the newly established state of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata (Argentina) declared all of Spain's post-colonial territories its inheritance. That naturally included the Islas Malvinas, and, in 1820, an Argentinean settlement was established at Puerto Soledad. In 1829 the governor, Louis Vernet, imposed severe restrictions on the lucrative seal trade and seized an American ship for 'illegal' sealing. The vessel's captain was put on trial in Buenos Aires. Not recognising Vernet's jurisdiction over the Falklands, America sent the corvette Lexington to recover its confiscated property and exact revenge by attacking and destroying the settlement. The Americans sailed away after declaring the islands free of all government.
Into this power vacuum sailed the British warships Tyne and Clio, swiftly deporting the remaining defenceless Argentinians and reasserting Britain's claim. The British retained an obvious naval presence in the Falklands from that time on and in the early days of WW1, defeated a powerful German heavy cruiser squadron off the islands (the 'First Battle of the Falklands').
The British battle-cruiser HMS Inflexible, a veteran of WW1's Battle of the Falklands.
THE challenge to British rule over the Falklands was repressed via the considerable political and commercial influence Britain enjoyed in Argentina between 1860 and the 1930s. The presence of the White Ensign continued to under-write British influence throughout South America, with the cruiser HMS Exeter a familiar sight around the Falklands in the 1930s. She used the islands as a base in the early days of WW2 and returned there to repair damaged suffered during the Battle of the River Plate. In the 1940s Argentinean nationalists gained ground, finding a charismatic leader in Juan Peron who became Argentina's president. He made strenuous, but ultimately vain, efforts to have Britain's sovereignty over the Falklands declared null and void in international law. In 1964 Argentina began pressuring the United Nations to force Britain to 'decolonise' the Falklands. In 1965 the UN finally called for talks between the two sides, which commenced in 1966, and continued for the next 16 years.
Good progress had been made by 1971, when an all-parties agreement was signed strengthening the islands' communication, and therefore cultural, links with Argentina. The British were required to provide a new ferry link to mainland Argentina and build an airstrip, if Argentina operated a weekly air service. However, the British dragged their heels in both regards. A temporary landing strip was laid using American materials as a compromise. Sovereignty was not on the agenda but the British were beginning to hope that the islands might voluntarily give themselves up to Argentina. It was a vain hope.
IN the early 1970s Argentina was racked by guerrilla warfare and raging inflation. A revival of the campaign for the Malvinas to be 'returned' seemed to provide a good external distraction from internal woes. Britain's announcement of an Economic Survey of the Falklands, in October 1975, provided just the excuse the Argentineans needed.
In January 1976 Lord Shackleton was denied permission to fly through Argentina to the Falklands to conduct his survey. However he reached Port Stanley on the ice patrol ship HMS Endurance and, in response, an infuriated Argentina expelled the British Ambassador to Buenos Aires. The temperature of the simmering dispute rose when, in February 1976, an Argentinean naval vessel, the Admiral Storni, fired a shot across the bows of a British survey ship. The Argentineans were emboldened by news that the only British naval presence in the South Atlantic - the Endurance - was scheduled for withdrawal due to defence cuts.
In December 1976, 50 Argentinean scientists landed on the island of South Thule, which is part of the Falklands dependency. In 1977 Prime Minister James Callaghan ordered two Royal Navy frigates to make speed for the South Atlantic along with a nuclear submarine. This proved sufficient to make the Argentineans withdraw their 'scientists'.
HMS Invincible preparing to leave for the Falklands in 1982, following the Argentinean invasion.
WITH the Islanders determined to remain British, by 1981 a solution to the sovereignty problem was as far away as ever. In December of that year a bloodless coup in Argentina saw General Galtieri come to power. Yet more UK defence cuts, inevitably including the withdrawal of Endurance, seemed to provide ample signs that Britain lacked the will to defence its overseas territories. Galtieri planned an invasion for June 1982. The skipper of HMS Endurance at the time, Captain Nick Barker, would write some years later in his book, 'Beyond Endurance', that: "John Nott, the Secretary of State for Defence, had included the ship in a package of swingeing defence cuts which included the sale of the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible. He had charted a course for maritime diplomacy that was depressingly similar to the one set by government for national industries and services. He was deaf, not only to the advice of the First Sea Lord, Sir Henry Leach, but also to Lord Shackleton, perhaps the most acknowledged expert on the South Atlantic. More surprisingly, perhaps, he had refused to heed the warning delivered by a group of more than 300 peers and MPs (led by Lords Shackleton, Buxton, Callaghan and Hill-Norton) who believed that the withdrawal of HMS Endurance would precipitate military action by Argentina."
- In Part two of this series we cover the Argentinean invasion and the despatch of a Royal Navy task force to the South Atlantic.