8. Victory in the Falklands War

The Falklands War of 1982 - or the Falklands Conflict, if you prefer, as war was never formally declared - saw Britain launch a task force to recapture the islands after Argentine forces had invaded. Not only was it a huge effort to simply project force down in the south Atlantic 8,000 miles from the UK mainland, but on top of that, British forces had to launch an amphibious assault on the other side globe, and then defeat Argentine soldiers dug in at Port Stanley (the islands' capital) in battle. But through what was a tremendous, if impromptu, joint endeavour between Britain's three services, the task force was able to recapture the islands within ten weeks after Argentina's initial invasion. 

This episode with Dr Ben Jones (University of Portsmouth) considers how British forces were able to achieve this incredible victory and how important air power was to that success. Tomorrow (14 June 2022) marks 40 years since Argentine forces surrendered at Port Stanley ending a war that took 255 British lives, 649 Argentinians, and 3 Falkland Islanders, and so we felt it appropriate to include an episode to commemorate the occasion.