Falkland Islands War

Falklands War
Map outlining the British recapture of the islands
Date 2 April  – 14 June 1982 (2 months, 1 week and 5 days) Location Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and surrounding sea and airspace Result British victory Status quo ante bellum in South Georgia and the Falklands. Argentine occupation of Southern Thule ended. Relations severed until 1989. Argentine military government replaced with democratic government in October 1983.
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Argentina
Commanders and leaders
War Cabinet Margaret Thatcher Sir Terence Lewin Sir John Fieldhouse Sandy Woodward Jeremy Moore Julian Thompson Tony Wilson	Military Junta Leopoldo Galtieri Jorge Anaya Basilio Lami Dozo Juan Lombardo Ernesto Crespo Mario Menéndez
Casualties and losses
255 killed 775 wounded 115 PoWs 2 destroyers 2 frigates 1 LSL ship 1 LCU craft 1 container ship 24 helicopters 10 fighters 1 bomber (interned in Brazil)	649 killed 1,657 wounded 11,313 PoWs 1 cruiser 1 submarine 4 cargo vessels 2 patrol boats 1 spy trawler 25 helicopters 35 fighters 2 bombers 4 cargo aircraft 25 COIN aircraft 9 armed trainers
3 civilians killed by British shelling

British victory

The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), also known as the Falklands Conflict, Falklands Crisis, and the Guerra del Atlántico Sur (Spanish for "South Atlantic War"), was a ten-week war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over two British overseas territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It began on Friday, 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands (and, the following day, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) in an attempt to establish the sovereignty it had claimed over them. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities.

The conflict was a major episode in the protracted confrontation over the territories' sovereignty. Argentina asserted (and maintains) that the islands are Argentine territory, and the Argentine government thus characterised its military action as the reclamation of its own territory. The British government regarded the action as an invasion of a territory that had been a Crown colony since 1841. Falkland Islanders, who have inhabited the islands since the early 19th century, are predominantly descendants of British settlers, and favour British sovereignty. Neither state, however, officially declared war (both sides did declare the Islands areas a war zone and officially recognised that a state of war existed between them) and hostilities were almost exclusively limited to the territories under dispute and the area of the South Atlantic where they lie.

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