| Date | 2 April – 14 June 1982 |
| Location | Falkland Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, South Atlantic Ocean |
| Caused by | Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982, following the breakdown of sovereignty negotiations and domestic political instability within the Argentine military junta |
| Resulted in | British victory; Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982; collapse of the Galtieri junta; sovereignty of the Falkland Islands reaffirmed under British administration |
| Parties | United Kingdom · Argentina |
| Lead figures | Margaret Thatcher, Leopoldo Galtieri, Jeremy Moore, Mario Menéndez, Rex Hunt, Sandy Woodward |
The Falklands War was an armed conflict from 2 April to 14 June 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. The war resulted in the defeat of Argentine forces and the reaffirmation of British administration over the islands, following a ten-week campaign that claimed the lives of 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and 3 Falkland Island civilians.
The sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands — known in Argentina as the Islas Malvinas — had been a subject of diplomatic contention for more than a century and a half prior to 1982. Argentina maintained that it had inherited the islands from the Spanish Crown following independence in 1816, a position consistently rejected by Britain, which had administered the islands continuously since 1833. Negotiations mediated through the United Nations had stalled repeatedly throughout the 1970s, with the most recent round of talks — conducted under the framework of the [South Atlantic Sovereignty Dispute](/wiki/south-atlantic-sovereignty-dispute) — breaking down in February 1982 without agreement.
By early 1982, the Argentine military junta, led by General Leopoldo Galtieri, faced severe domestic pressure stemming from an economic crisis and widespread public opposition to the [Argentine Military Junta 1976–1983](/wiki/argentine-military-junta-1976-1983). Senior junta figures calculated that a successful seizure of the Malvinas would generate a surge of nationalist support sufficient to stabilise the regime. Intelligence assessments presented to Galtieri in March 1982 incorrectly concluded that the United Kingdom, under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, would not mount a significant military response to the occupation of a remote and sparsely populated territory some 8,000 miles from the British mainland. Those assessments proved to be among the most consequential intelligence failures of the late twentieth century.
### Friday, 2 April
Argentine special forces and marines landed at Mullet Creek and Stanley Harbour in the early hours of 2 April 1982 in an operation designated *Operación Rosario*. A small garrison of Royal Marines from Naval Party 8901, numbering 68 men, engaged the attacking force at Government House in Stanley under the command of Major Mike Norman. The Royal Marines inflicted disproportionate casualties before Governor Rex Hunt ordered a ceasefire and formal surrender at approximately 09:15 local time. The [Falkland Islands Government](/wiki/falkland-islands-government) was dissolved by Argentine decree the same day.
### 3 April
Argentine forces simultaneously seized South Georgia Island on 3 April following a brief engagement at Grytviken in which a detachment of Royal Marines damaged or destroyed the Argentine corvette ARA *Guerrico* before themselves surrendering. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 502 on the same date, demanding an immediate Argentine withdrawal — a resolution Argentina publicly acknowledged and privately disregarded.
### Task Force and Exclusion Zone
The British government announced the formation of a naval Task Force on 2 April, which departed from Portsmouth and Devonport over the following days. On 7 April, the United Kingdom declared a 200-nautical-mile Maritime Exclusion Zone around the Falkland Islands. This was subsequently expanded to a Total Exclusion Zone on 30 April, within which any Argentine vessel or aircraft was liable to be engaged without further warning. On 25 April, British forces retook South Georgia in Operation Paraquet, suffering no fatalities.
### 2 May — Sinking of the ARA General Belgrano
The Argentine cruiser ARA *General Belgrano* was sunk by the submarine HMS *Conqueror* on 2 May 1982, with the loss of 323 Argentine lives. The decision to sink the *Belgrano* — taken personally by Prime Minister Thatcher and her War Cabinet — remained the most contested single act of the conflict in subsequent decades. At the time of the attack the *Belgrano* was sailing outside the Total Exclusion Zone, a fact confirmed in the House of Commons by Secretary of State John Nott on 4 May, though the vessel had been shadowed by HMS *Conqueror* for some 30 hours and was assessed as posing a credible threat to the Task Force. A full account of the engagement is recorded at [Sinking of the ARA General Belgrano](/wiki/uss-general-belgrano).
### Air Campaign and the San Carlos Landing
Argentine air forces, principally A-4 Skyhawks and Super Étendards operating from the mainland, mounted sustained attacks against British naval vessels throughout May, sinking HMS *Sheffield* on 4 May following an Exocet missile strike — the first Royal Navy ship lost in combat since the Second World War. [Operation Black Buck](/wiki/operation-black-buck), a series of long-range Vulcan bomber sorties from RAF Ascension Island, struck the runway at Stanley Airport on 1 May in the longest-range bombing raid in history to that date. British forces landed at San Carlos Water on the night of 20–21 May in Operation Sutton, establishing a beachhead at a cost of several ships damaged and sunk during subsequent Argentine air attacks in what naval crews came to call "Bomb Alley."
News of the Argentine surrender was received in London in the early hours of 15 June. Prime Minister Thatcher announced the result to the House of Commons to prolonged applause. In Argentina, the surrender precipitated the immediate collapse of the Galtieri junta; Galtieri resigned on 17 June 1982, and the broader process of democratic transition accelerated markedly. The [Trial of the Juntas 1985](/wiki/trial-of-the-juntas-1985) subsequently held senior junta members accountable for crimes committed during the [Dirty War Argentina](/wiki/dirty-war-argentina), a process partly enabled by the junta's political disintegration following the Falklands defeat.
In Britain, the war produced a significant rise in the government's poll ratings. A general election held in June 1983 returned the Conservative Party under Thatcher with a landslide majority, though subsequent analysts have debated the relative weight of the "Falklands factor" against concurrent domestic economic indicators.
The war produced substantive changes in military doctrine and procurement on both sides. The Royal Navy's experience of sustained air attack accelerated the development of point-defence missile systems and contributed directly to revisions in the [British Army Doctrine](/wiki/british-army-doctrine) regarding combined arms operations in expeditionary environments. The conflict demonstrated the continued operational relevance of conventional amphibious warfare at a moment when NATO strategic planning had been focused almost exclusively on a Central European land confrontation with Warsaw Pact forces.
The sovereignty dispute itself was not resolved by the outcome of the war. Argentina has maintained its claim to the Malvinas as a matter of constitutional law — the claim was enshrined in the Argentine constitution in 1994 — and the question remains a standing item on the agenda of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization. The Falkland Islands Government, reconstituted following liberation, was granted a new constitution in 1985 and a further revised constitution in 2009, granting the islands greater internal self-governance within the framework of the [British Overseas Territories](/wiki/british-overseas-territories).
The Falklands War has been the subject of extensive literary, cinematic, and journalistic treatment. Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins published *The Battle for the Falklands* in 1983, a work that remained the standard popular account for more than two decades. The BBC's coverage of the conflict — constrained by the Ministry of Defence's restrictive press access policy — generated considerable controversy and was the subject of a parliamentary inquiry in 1983. Jorge Luis Borges, commenting on the conflict shortly after its conclusion, described it as "two bald men fighting over a comb," a remark that has been cited in Argentine political discourse ever since. The [Nunca Más Report](/wiki/nunca-mas-report) of 1984, though principally concerned with the Dirty War, addressed the junta's use of the Malvinas campaign as a distraction from domestic human rights abuses, contextualising the war within the broader arc of Argentine authoritarian governance.
### Land Campaign and Surrender
Following the San Carlos landing, British ground forces — comprising units of the 3rd Commando Brigade and 5th Infantry Brigade — advanced across East Falkland in a series of engagements through May and early June. Key battles were fought at Goose Green (28–29 May), Mount Longdon, Wireless Ridge, and Tumbledown Mountain. Argentine forces surrendered formally at Stanley on 14 June 1982. Brigadier General Mario Menéndez signed the instrument of surrender before Major General Jeremy Moore, ending 74 days of Argentine occupation.