Falklands War

Falklands War
Date	1982
Location	Falklands/Malvinas
Causes	Argentinian invasion
Result	British victory
Belligerents
UKball, Falklandsball and other dependencies Support: Chileball Franceball Irelandball Japanball USAball Nepalrawr
Argentinaball Support: Libyaball Panamaball Soviet Unionball Peruball Venezuelaball Cubaball

The Falklands War was a 10-week undeclared war between Argentinaball and UKball over control of the two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic Ocean;  Falkland Islands and the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islandsball.

The conflict began on 2 April, when Argentinaball invaded and occupied the  Falkland Islands, followed by the invasion of the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islandsball the next day, 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, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649  Argentine military personnel, 255  British military personnel, and three  Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities.

History

Discovery & Disputes

UKball was probably not the first one to discover the Falklands, but he was the first one to write it down. He found it to be cold, wet, and miserable, just like home. So he created a colony in 1765, unaware that Franceball had also discovered the island, and done the same a year earlier. For a while, the two countryballs were unaware of eachothers existence on the island, until there was an awkward moment where they ran into each other.

Then one day Spanish Empireball showed up, and told Franceball that a couple hundred years ago, the Pope drew a line on a map of the Americas and said that the East belongs to Kingdom of Portugalball, and the West belongs to Spanish Empireball, and that the island was in Spainball's territory, and asked for its settlement. Since they were good friends, and Spainball was willing to pay her, Franceball obliged, but warned its about UKball living on the other side of the island.

Spainball went to UKball's settlement, and explained the Pope. However, UKball refused to leave, and stated the Falkland Islands belonged to him. Since they had more guns, Spainball kicked him off anyway, but then UKball threatened to go to war. With no help from Franceball, Spainball gave him back his settlement, and continued to argue with him about who the island belonged to. Then some  colonies in the new world got a bit rowdy, so UKball had to leave his settlement to go take care of that, but left behind a plaque that said the island was still his.

So the island was in Spainball's hands, until a french guy turned on Spainball, took over most of their country, and captured King Ferdinand VII. In response, many of its children in South America began vying for independence. So Spainball had a little bit on its hands, and had to leave the settlement. For a couple decades, the islands were left uninhabited, except for the penguins, some fishermen, and the argentine Gauchos.

Vernet and the American Ships

A merchant from Hamburg, living in the now-independent United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, heard about the feral cattle roaming the Falklands, and thought it would be a good way to make some money. So he got permission from both Buenos Airesball and UKball to set up trade there as a 'private venture'.

Some of America's ships then came down and started hunting whales and seals around the islands, and Vernet wasn't too happy about it. So he asked Buenos Airesball for some military assistance in defending the island, but Buenos Airesball told him to do it himself, gave him some weapons, and appointed him governor of the island.

Vernet seized the USball ships, and arrested their crews. In response, America came down and destroyed his settlement. UKball also heard about Vernet being appointed governor, meaning the United Provincesball, actually now the Argentine Confederationball, were officially claiming the island as theirs. So UKball went back to the Falkland Islands, told them about their plaque, and kicked them off the island. UKball had complete control over the Falkland Islands, and officially made it a crown colony in 1840.

The War

The Invasion

Now it's the year of 1976, and after a couple civil wars, a new brutal military dictatorship, sponsored by the US fight against communism, has taken control of  Argentinaball, and by 1981, this guy was in power.  Argentinaball's economy had been struggling for a long time, and Galtieri had been unable to improve the situation. Now if you ever find yourself a brutal military dictator of a struggling South American country, and you start getting into hot water, here's a bit of advice that has been tried and tested throughout the centuries: Start a war to distract everyone from their miseries!

Galtieri knew how popular he would be if he could finally take back  Argentinaball's Malvinasball ( Falklandsball in English) from UKball. There had been proposals to cut British military spending, and the ice patrol vessel HMS Endurance had been withdrawn from the area so  Argentinaball assumed that UKball may not even bother doing anything about the invasion. After easily capturing the largely-uninhabited South Georgia Islandball,  Argentinaball sent 600 troops to the Falklandsball. The small number of Royal Marines and other British Forces stationed there put up a small amount of resistance, but in the end, had to surrender to Argentinaball's larger force.

British Reaction

 Argentinaball celebrated the news, but they were wrong to assume that UKball would not do anything, because the person in charge of the UKball at the time was this lady. Thatcher was a somewhat controversial prime minister, but whether you loved its or hated her, there was no denying it was tough like metal, iron for example (The Iron Lady).

UKball immediately declared an exclusion zone around the islands, and organised for a task force of over 100 ships to set sail for the Falklandsball. UNball expressed concern at the Argentine invasion. All South American nations, apart from Chileball, backed Argentinaball, and since USAball propped up the Argentine dictatorship, he asked UKball if they could maybe just give Argentinaball the islands. When UKball denied the idea, USAball decided to just follow UKball and gave him some weapons and military support.

Sea battles

Fighting a war over 8000 miles from home was a logistical challenge for UKball. He requisitioned civilian cruise ships and containers, and used British-owned Ascension Islandball as a forward base. By the time they arrived at Falklandsball in May, Argentinaball had time to entrench themselves. The first task for UKball was to gain control of the sea, which they did easily. During the 2nd of May, UKball sank an argentine cruiser, which was controversial, as it occured outside the British Exclusion Zone. In response, Argentinaball's navy withdrew from the island.

Air superiority

The next task was for UKball to gain air superiority. While Argentinaball's Air force controlled the skies, they were able to inflict considerable damage on the Royal Navy below. Days after the sinking of the General Belgrano, two Argentine Super Étendards carried out a raid on the HMS Sheffield , and sank it with an Exocet missile. For weeks, the Argentine Air Force would continue to carry out raids and inflict heavy casualties on the Royal Navy, with British Sea Harriers doing their best to take out as many of the Argentinaball Aircraft as they could. While the battle in the skies raged on, San Carlos was chosen as the best landing site for UKball's ground forces. An SAS raid took out Argentine defences in Pebble Island, and the HMS Alacrity sailed through Falklandsball down to flush out any Argentine supply ships.

The landings began on May 21st, with Argentine aircraft carrying out full-scale raids on the task force ships taking part in the landing, damaging several, and sinking a few. However, anti aircraft cannons and sea Harriers shot down many of the aircraft in what became a major turning point for air superiority, and the beach head was successfully formed.

Ground battles

The ground troops began their movement out of San Carlos, across the North towards Stanley , and South toward the Argentine Stronghold at Goose Green. In the following battles, a clear trend emerged. Argentina's conscripts put up a good fight, and with the rough, muddy terrain, the war was by no means easy for  UKball. With highly skilled Royal Marine Commanders and Parachute Regiment troops however, Britain would often find himself taking on larger numbers of Argentinaball's soldiers, and would still come out victorious with minimal casualties.

The 14 hour long Battle for Goose Green commenced on the night of May 28th. The battle ended with a decisive British victory, with over 900 of Argentinaball's troops surrendering. Then, with 5000 reinforcements arriving from the 5th infantry brigade, UKball started preparing for his final assult on Stanley. In a series of hard-fought battles, he took control of the hills and mountains surrounding the town. As Argentinaball forces withdrew, with British ships shelling their positions from offshore, utterly surrounded, on the 14th of June, Argentinaball surrendered, and the war was over.

It's known that  UKball attacked the "continental Argentina" in Comodoro Rivadavia with three british commands, but he was defeated by  Argie when two soldiers that saw them before they could do anything attacked them and all the brits (12-14 soldiers) were taken as prisoners when the reinforcements arrived. This isn't very well known because the soldiers were ordered to don't tell anything about it, but with the fall of the junta it was told.

Aftermath

The two month-long war claimed hundreds of lives, and left the islands strewn with minefields that still pose a problem today. Though Argentinaball still claims the islands, a referendum in 2013 was held, and the islanders vote 99.8% in favor of remaining British. Plus, oil was just found near the islands, so Britain probably won't give them up anytime soon.

Sources

• The Falklands - MiniWars 1 - YouTube
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War