Page 29 - History of War - Issue 10-14

FALKLANDS: THATCHER’S WAR

n 1982 Britain’s prime minister Margaret
Thatcher and Argentina’s dictator General
ILeopoldo Galtieri had much in common.
Both were fervently anti-Communist, both
presided over nations in economic turmoil, and
both were ruthless gamblers prepared to go to
war in order to cling to power.
On 2 April of that year, after much posturing,
Argentina sent a force of 600 Marines to seize
control of the tiny British-held islands off its
coast. At 4am, two Argentine Navy vessels
crept up on the coast of East Falkland, close
to the capital Port Stanley, and unleashed
an armada of landing craft into the choppy
waters of the South Atlantic. Equipped with
armoured personnel carriers, heavy machine
guns, mortars and 90mm recoilless rifl es,
the 600-strong invasion force swept ashore
unchallenged and rushed towards the capital.
At the time, the 57 Royal Marines garrisoned
there were all that stood in the way of
Argentina realising a dream that dated back
to its birth as independent nation 150 years
earlier. To take back Las Malvinas, the islands

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