The Falklands conflict was an interesting episode.
Before the conflict Mrs T was the most unpopular PM anyone could remember, her chances of winning another election were close to zero.
In Dec. 1981 argentinian scrap metal merchants started landing on the island of South Georgia.This was seen as provocative by the British, who formally protested, and many weeks of diplomatic talks ensued.
Strangely around this time, there had been rumours that the Royal Naval vessel,HMS Endurance, which had the task of patrolling the islands was to be scrapped.
On the 2nd of Feb. 82 Mrs T sent a letter of reassurance to a party activist, staing that there was a sufficient force in place to prevent an invasion of the islands.
Exactly a week later she confirmed that HMS Endurance would be retired.
On the 5th of March foreign secretrary refuses requests to send a sub to patrol the area.The next day an Argy Hercules transporter plane claims to have a fuel leak and lands at Stanley airport. Several senior officers are on board and disembark for a tour of port stanley.
Over the next few weeks there are more landings,lots of talks back and forth and preperations are underway for the possibility of sending a task force to the Falklands.
The Argentinians invaded on the 2nd of April. The UN, the EU etc put all their diplomatic efforts into overdrive attempting to talk the Argies into leaving, but they dont seem to be listening.
There have been a few skirmishes but little lose of life.
By the end of April the task force has arrived, a total exclusion zone has been declared in the sea around the islands and British forces land and start fighting the Argies.
On the 2nd of may the position of the Argy ship - General Belgrano - is reported to London as a matter of routine. Many reports have stated that it wwas outside the exclusion zone and heading away from it towards Argentina.
The word came back from London to HMS Conqueror, to sink it it.
It has been alleged ( but not substantiated afaik) that the Commander in charge, asked for the message to be clarified as he didnt believe what he was hearing. The ship was torpedoed, and approx. 350 lives were lost. The war really kicked off after this event, and a diplomatic outcome was no longer a realistic option.
14th June, Argies surrender, Falklands is back under British control. 255 British lives lost,645 Argentinian lives lost.
12th October 1982- Mrs T holds a victory parade in London.
9th June 1983 - she wins a landslide in the General Election.
A cynical person might think that she deliberately engineered the situation so she could have herself a war, fulfilling her wish to be a latter day female version of her hero - Churchill, and rescue her career at the same time.
An interesting footnote to all this is that one of the ships logs from the Conquerer went missing after the war, it was rumoured that it contained info which would prove that the Belgrano was sunk in the full knowledge that it wasnt a threat to British forces.
A chap by the name of Commander Robert Green was suspected of leaking info on this subject to Labour MP Tam Dalyell, it was even rumoured that Green may have been in possesion of the missing log.
Greens aunt - Hilda Murrell was an anti nuclear peace activist, and on the 21st March 1984 her house near Shrewsbury was burgled and she was forcibly driven off in her own car.
Her mutilated body was found by local police 3 days later.
Tam Dalyell stated under parliamentary privilege that British intelligence agents had been sent to her house to search for sensitive material, but she came home unexpectedly and discovered them, so they killed her.
Im not a paranoid conspiricy theorist, and Im sure there is plenty of info which suggests otherwise, but its certainly a very interesting episode in recent British history.
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