Sgt. David S. Nolan, US Air Force, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
It’s difficult for me to believe the Falklands War took place over forty years ago
In April 1981 I was a 30 year old captain in Specialist Forces reserve, at the training school in Grantham studying the logistics of deploying the Sir Galahad in seaborne support of an expeditionary British Army force.
I remember thinking at the time it seemed a tad futile, my mess bill reflected my scepticism as did my grade C pass.
One year later it became all too real.
In April 1982 the most extraordinary chain of events triggered a war at the bottom of the world.
But I get ahead of myself.
In the 1600s the British, Spanish & French discovered The Falkland Islands. The Spanish Empire named it Islas Malvinas, but took no further interest.
Wind swept islands, last stop before Antartica, of no serious value to anyone but colonized by the British whose Empire was growing apace.
The Royal Navy & merchant marine was an integral part of this historical phenomenon.
So since 1833 The Falklands has been governed by Britain in the form of a Crown Colony.
When the age of steam arrived Britain needed a South Atlantic coaling station. It became a global strategic necessity.
It was settled by British farmers & fisher folk.
South Georgia, a major scientific research base for Antartica came with the package.
The islands today are a tiny slice of Great Britain, post offices, Anglican Cathedral, 100% English language heritage 160+ years old.
The South Atlantic & Chilean Patagonian coast has seen much British blood spilled.
A Squadron under Sir Thomas Craddock met a much superior German naval force in 1914 at Coronel, tragically the out gunned British Squadron went to the bottom with all hands.
A few months later at the Battle of the Falklands Sir Doveton Sturdee sent the German ships to the bottom with another tragic loss of young lives.
28 years on at the Battle of the River Plate an engagement took place when a British Squadron bottled up the German cruiser Graf Spee, a South Atlantic merchant raider under the command of Captain Hans Langsdorf.
He limped in to the neutral port Montevideo after a short engagement in which HMS Exeter was badly mauled.
The casualties are buried in Port Stanley.
In late 1970s a villainous fascist junta of General Galtieri invaded The Falklands wth a spurious claim it somehow belonged to the Argentine as it once belonged years ago to the Spanish Empire.
At no time historically has the Argentine had domain in any form over the Falkland Islands.
The war was started to prop up the Argentine junta guilty of murdering thousands of its own citizens
”the disappeared ones” (estimated at 8961)
Now this is where it gets even more interesting.
How did Britain not anticipate a major invasion, given modern satellite technology?
Why was the Royal Naval submarine patrol & HMS Endurance patrol withdrawn before the invasion, a totally fail safe deterrent?
Why was the ‘over the horizon’ airborne radar system scrapped leaving British warships blind? (Gannet)
Why were anti aircraft missiles ineffective? (Rapier & others)
Why were there no courts marshal following the failure to disembark urgently troops on Galahad as per my training ? (Welsh Guards)
Why the Fifth Columnists, still unashamed today ?
Why did Tam Dalyell the labour MP distance himself publicly from a war effort overwhelmingly supported by the islanders & public?
Why did he ludicrously assume the direction of sail of an enemy warship (Belgrano) was relevant when a 180° turn would have brought it just hours from Port Stanley in one day’s sailing?
See Battle of the Coral Sea or the loss of HMS Barhamn for an historic template.
Are contemporary political Old Etonians inherently incapable of detailed military or naval analysis? (Cameron)
Why would left wing MPs & middle class chatterers ally with a well documented fascist junta whose murders were well documented by 1982 ?
Why would some well known radio personalities remain on the fence or hostile to the protection of a Crown Colony? (John Arlott, cricket commentator who was against the liberation yet lived himself in a Crown Colony, Jersey.
He felt a crime wasn’t a crime if it occurred far enough away.
Why did the BBC cover the liberation of the Falklands on a daily basis yet remain virtually editorially silent on the political & constitutional falsehood of the Argentine claim?
Allowing appalling intellectual dishonesty amongst the left wing British appeasers to remain unchallenged ?
The British have fought many wars over the last 250 years, it is the nature of Empire.
I would argue some were quite wrong, unjust or plainly absurd
Classic examples being the Crimean, Zulu, Boer & Great War
I can readily understand dissent.
As an English libertarian I abhor most wars.
But there can be no conceivable argument by any but the clinically deranged to suggest a fascist Junta could invade with impunity a British Crown Colony when the population of which was 100% in favour of remaining British for another 160 years
Forty years on we hand over the Chagos with an accompanying cheque for the privilege.
In Port Stanley there is a statue of Maggie Thatcher.
I am a critic of the several mistakes she made in her term of office,
but here’s the question above all others, WAS SHE OUR LAST POLITICAL PATRIOT ?
© Godfrey Bloom 2025 – Godfrey Bloom Online
