On this day in 1982, Argentinean troops occupied the Falkland Islands, asserting that they rightfully belonged to Argentina and that possession was nine tenths of the law anyway.
Margaret Thatcher begged to differ.
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Pretty much the last gasp of pride in being English, too - it was all the sort of sodden, wet-fart Interventions after that.
*sighs*
Remember when wars were things where you killed the enemy, broke his stuff, then went home? That was great.
Better still, to quote the great philosopher,
"To crush your enemies. To see them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women."
Not to mention it was the Great FAL-on-FAL conflict, too.
It also was the proving grounds for Exocet missles technology.
Regards,
Rabbit.
For me it was the beginning of the end for newspapers. I followed the entire conflict over the AP wire, via the Source network (pre internet) that my local high shool had an account on. Getting news bulletins every 15min-hour was amazing. Real blow by blow.
(first time comment, great blog BTW)
Nick (not Felice)
If I'm not mistaken, the Harrier (from your post yesterday), got a bit of a workout in that conflict, did it not?
Kind of a birthday present for the old girl, of sorts.
82, that does not seem that long ago.
The thing I remember is the exocet and the Sheffield. Everyone was really shocked that a two bit country with a cheap off the shelf rocket could take out a capital ship like that.
I remember we discussed it a lot in college.
It was a big shock when a shaped-charge warhead that wouldn't have done much more than scorch the paint on an old school battlewagon burned a modern aluminum ship to the waterline.
I recall that conflict with interest in the innovations used like jury rigging a fighter radar onto a helicopter for a home made AEW.
Of course not to forget the Royal Marine who nearly sank a Patrol craft/corvette with an antitank weapon.
That's thinking outside the box.
The Argies fighters had a real shock when they attempted to take on those Harriers. Doing anything other than a standoff missile attack against a fighter with directed-thrust is a quick method of suicide. The main drawback of the Harrier in air superiority is its sub-sonic speed range. But only another swivel exhaust fighter can survive if it gets to yanking and banking distance.
The Argentine politicians haven't learned anything, or they realized that Great Britain doesn't have a navy now.
Argentine president lays 'inalienable' claim to Falklands
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080402/wl_afp/argentinabritainfalklandsdiplomacy_080402201109
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