Argentina surrenders Port stanley and 74-day Falklandswar is over
Britain’s war with Argentina came to an end on this day when General Mario Menendez, commander of the Argentine garrison in the islands’ capital Port Stanley, surrendered to Major General Jeremy Moore.
The conflict – on land, sea, and in the air – had begun on April 2 when Argentina invaded and occupied two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic,
The Falkland Islands and South Georgia.
On April 5, the British Government sent a naval task force to tackle the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands.
By the time the conflict ended 74 days later, 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen, as well as three civilian Falkland Islanders, were dead.
The surrender came after British troops fought their way into the outskirts of the capital. The then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, told the House of Commons that white flags were flying over the town, and that the Argentinian defenders had thrown down their weapons.
She told jubilant MPS: “After successful attacks General Jeremy Moore decided to press forward and the Argentines retreated.
“As our forces reached the outskirts of Port Stanley large numbers of Argentine soldiers threw down their weapons. They are reported to be flying the white flag over Port Stanley.”
The Prime Minister’s statement was followed by loud cheers and waving of order papers, while the then Defence Secretary, John Nott, said he expected the Union Jack to be flying over Port Stanley within a few hours.
The assault on Stanley began before dawn on June 12, when a first push carried British forces up on to the Two Sisters ridge, on to
Mount Harriet and Mount Longdon. It was the last of these that saw the heaviest fighting, and accounted for most of the estimated 50 Argentinian dead.
Fatal British casualties in this first phase of the attack were less than half that number, although many more were wounded.
By the next day, hundreds of Argentinian prisoners had been taken.
High command’s communiqués emphasised Argentina’s troops defending Port Stanley faced an enemy superior in numbers and weaponry. In Argentina, people began to know that the situation was serious when the communiqués interrupted television coverage of the World Cup.
The war was a result of a long-running dispute over the territories sovereignty. Argentina to this day maintains the islands belong to it, and the military action was to reclaim its own territory. Meanwhile, Britain maintains the islands have been British since 1841. Falkland Islanders are mainly descended from British settlers. And though neither state declared war, they did declare the islands a war zone.
Diplomatic relations between the UK and Argentina were restored in 1989.