What was the Falkland Islands War all about anyway?

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I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, here's Jerry over there and that friends makes this stuff. You should know. The final studio recording. That's pretty good, Chuck. Maybe not final. That sounded a little final, The temporarily for now final studio recording, the indefinitely suspended recordings in

the studio. Yeah, starting after obviously everyone knows what's going on in this world, say this country, uh coy, but uh, we are getting set up in our homes. Yeah. I set up a system yesterday that I just didn't quite trust for today's. Yeah, it was a little little premature to test the day after, I think so, but um I posted a picture of it on the movie Crush page and I was pretty excited. I was like, guys, after twelve years, I'm finally a dude recording a podcast

in this basement. Right. You went full circle backwards, full circle. That's nice. It was funny. People were saying stuff like just make sure your mom keeps it down upstairs and that kind of thing. Yeah, I saw that picture. I love the quilt tablecloth. It's really homespun. It's beautiful. Yeah, that's my daughter's quilt. I had a gank that, but it's not okay. It all sounds pretty I mean, she's not cold at night. We have other blankets. Um, it

sounds pretty good, though. You know, the band room already had sound baffling, so I just sort of moved some I moved my bass player out of the way and uh, because this is kind of over in his corner, and just kind of positioned it where I'm speaking into this sort of dense corner, and I did a sound check and it sounds pretty good. That's great, man, So look for that coming soon every one. Hopefully you want no difference. Yeah, yeah, well, I mean like we should we should just not even

mention it and see if anybody notices. Well, our aim is to keep bringing everyone shows every week, and uh to not because you know, podcasts are going to be a pretty big deal moving forward for people, you know, Yeah, I guess. So, I mean, like if we can record remotely and still release on time, like that'll hopefully be a source of comfort for people who are just sitting at home board that's getting a little stir crazy. So yeah,

that's the aim. So our two aims are to not come down with coronavirus ourselves and also yeah, and then also keep releasing on time and on schedule. That's number two, all right, so let's do it. Yeah, let's do it, Chuck. Um, So we're talking the Falklands War and you requested this one, right, so this is this is your idea? Yeah, you know why. It was one of those things that happens to us every now and then where we think of something that

we remember but you know nothing about. Like I remember this. I was eleven years old, but I'm like, what was that all about? Where are the Falkland Islands even right? What's going on? Now? I know all about it, yes, but I was wondering if you were, um, if you requested it because of the fact that it's starting to heat up again geo politically down there. No, I had nothing to do with it, Okay, because it is. It turns out it is. We'll talk about it at the

end there. But but I was like, wow, that's that's very prescient. Chuck's got his finger on the pulse of like some real arcane geopolitics right now. No, this was this was all just sort of h yearbook memories, right the Falkland Islands said stay cool this summer, see you next fall. So I was the first one to write on your crack. Um, did people do that to you? Oh? Yeah, that's timeless man. So what we're talking about, though, is

the Falkland Islands War in nine two. Great Britain went to war with Argentina over a little tiny group Well they're not so tiny. We'll get into that. But um, as far as livable thrivable areas, these little rocky islands out in the middle of nowhere in the Atlantic Ocean, and and not to say that they're useless, they're definitely

not useless. There are people who live there and have lived there for hundreds of years now, um, but there's no there's been archaeological studies of the area and they're they've turned up zero evidence of prehistoric people living there. So it's not a highly valuable area. But it is a place that some people call home. And we're in

no position to poo poo anywhere somebody calls home. It's just again geo politically speaking, it's really bizarre that that Great Britain went to war with Argentina over this particular set of islands. Yeah, and we'll get into the the ins and outs of that, but in general, it's fair

to say that um old time. Colonialism had a part in it, but it was also the fact that it's the fog Land Islands are not super far and if you're talking about the size of the world from Antarctica, and you know, anytime there's there's a there are different countries that want to be set up near other places

seemingly unpopular land but can become popular. It is. Yeah, every country wants to stake some sort of outpost near the ancient sleeping ones, the eldritch gods that are asleep beneath Antarctica right now, to worship them, you know, when they wake up. But uh that that can lead to disputes among nations, and in particular Argentina is like, hey man, these are like four miles off of our coast. Surely they belong to us. They're about a thousand miles above Antarctica,

the northernmost outpost of Antarctica. But the British say, no, no, no, these are this is a British territory, even though it is nowhere near Great Britain in any sense that ever something before it really hasn't, but and it does. It has to do with colonialism in the British Empire. But they they have said, no, we've been here for a while.

This is our place. Yeah. And the Grabster put this together very detailed, Yes, account, Um, but we're gonna talk a little bit about the the origin of these islands and why different countries thought that they were theirs. Yes, starting in about I think, um, well they think possibly Magellan, maybe Americo Vespucci. I love that guy's name. They may

have seen the Falklands. Um. But the first the first British person to have landed on the Falklands was named John Strong, and he showed up in six And the Falkland Islands look kind of if you squint and use you know, eighty percent of your imagination, look a bit like a butterfly. And the body of the butterfly is a channel that runs between the two main islands, East

and West Falklands. And so he named that channel the the Falkland Sound after the guy who was running the show for them, the Admiralty the Navy, I guess of Great Britain at the time. Um, And he got his title from Scotland. So it actually is kind of appropriate that you would name this area after someplace in Scotland, because it is kind of Scottish climate wise, apparently it's a little soggy, it's kind of cold, um, and you kind of have to like that kind of weather to

to survive there and not go crazy. Yeah, and some there. He wasn't the first person. Other people had discovered it before. People came afterward, and it's sort of so removed that people showed up afterward. Uh in seventeen and won the French uh seventeen sixty four more French, and they both said, well, nothing's going on here. This is ours, and they named them French names. Yeah. The the the guy who really made a the first real attempt at settling the place,

Antoine Louis de Bougaonville. He set up a colony and um, the Spanish showed up and they said, hey, you know how we basically owned South America. We owned this too. It's only four dred miles east of us, so so get out of here. And Bougunville said, um, okay, but I set up this legit colony and I want some money for it. So they gave him what would amount today to about one point one million dollars for it. Not bad at all. So the French said, okay, Spanish,

this is yours. We recognize that. Well. At about the same time, some English settlers showed up and they said, we're going to settle this place. Had no idea that the French were even there, had even less of an idea that the French had just sold their claim to it to Spain. And the British kind of made their home there, uh for about a year before they noticed a French settlement there and went over and said, hey, this is our place. You need to get out. Yeah.

It's funny too, because Ed made a very ed joke. Uh he said que yeah, and he said x because that's kind of what it sounded like at first, like Britain settled it. They didn't even notice that there was

a French settlement there until yeah, until a year later. Uh. And then this weird exchange starting in nineteen I'm sorry, seventeen sixty nine started going back and forth where yeah, you can say that every time we went in the year from now, I almost let it slip by, and I was like, last possible second, I'm I'm going for it.

That's pretty good. So this starting in seventeen sixty nine is weird exchange started where British ships and Spanish ships would go back and forth trading letters that got a little more heated, saying no, you leave, no, you leave you And then eventually Spain said, oh, you know what, We're going to send all of our ships and Britain said, fine, it's yours and in a certain way, yeah, in a

certain way. And this is really kind of critical because I guess the the Spanish forced the British out, but I don't know if there was any kind of treaty signed or any kind of like. Okay, so so this the Spanish um, the Spanish forced the British out, and basically I guess took at least possession of the islands. Um.

But this is a big deal. This was um. The Falklands have been a site of international wars for years now, and the first one was called the Falkland Islands Crisis of seventeen seventy, where the French were down there, the English were down there, the Spanish were down there, and all of them wanted this island, mainly because the English and the French didn't want the Spanish to control the entire southwestern hemisphere of the world, which they basically did

by controlling South America for the most part. And Uh, conversely, the Spanish were like, I don't want the French and the English to have even just a little bit of a toe hold here, so they need to get out. But it was a big deal. It was. It was literally called the Falkland Islands Crisis of seventeen seventy and America was like, oh, can we please be a country quickly so we can get down there too. All right, We'll just hang in the background and manipulate everything, all right.

So after that crisis point, England and Spain both had settlements down there for quite a few years, and they were just sort of both down there. It was kind of odd if you look historically, that's usually not how things go. Yeah, apparently the crisis never came to a full head and actually just went to a breaking point. It just continued to simmer. I guess with everybody hanging out on the island. I bet there were some good

times too, though maybe so. Uh. In the eighteen hundreds, Uh, they both left and then that kind of it was like a reboot almost for the Falklands. No one really had a claim. Uh, it fell into I mean, it sounds scary on one hand, but it also sounds like a wild party because pirates and whalers basically uh ed described it as had their way with the island for two decades, so I guess they had sex with the island. They literally humped the island. That's what it was like

down there. But it was it fell into uh lawlessness and uh piracy, like we said, um. And then the Argentinian Revolution came around. Spain lost all the claim, but Argentina it was so rough. Argentina tried to say, hey, this is ours and put governors on the island, but they got rebuffed by the party scene. Yeah, the party people said get out of here, and they actually did

they this. The the Argentinians failed to install any kind of government on the island, and so in eighteen thirty four the British showed up with the governor and they said, we're installing some law around here. And either they were more apt to kill people to get their way, or the people down there already were more down with the

British than the Argentinians. I'm not sure, but either way, the British were successful at installing a government there starting in eighteen thirty four, so here's the thing, um, from that moment on, the British had a government set up and connected to the Government of Great Britain from that moment on, and that is basically the basis of the claim that they make that they say, we have been living on these islands and one one way or another

continuously since eighteen four. Of course this is our territory. Yeah, I mean they built a town Stanley, which is as far as I know, still the sort of biggest thing going there. Oh, by far. They were farmers, are farmers, sheep, cattle, pigs. Uh, they would do a little fishing. It was a place where um boats could stop off and get fixed or fueled up or something or resupplied. Yeah. They make a little money on the side from tourists who come to

see people humping islands. But we're talking less than five thousand people and they are all basically Scottish and Welsh descendants of those settlers. So if you were to go down to the Falkland Islands in the early nineteen eighties and even now, you would think this is a British outpost. Yeah, dude. As recently as two thousand thirteen, Great Britain held a referendum for you know, um self determination among the Falklanders, and all but four four residents, not four percent, four

residents voted to stay a British territory. What do you the four Rossberer they all they want to do is hump the island. They don't want to be bothered to think about politics at all, which they call the rossbero Rossberger. You get it? Get it? Oh boy, maybe we should take a break, take a little cool shower, and uh, we'll come back with more falkland Mania right after this. Okay.

So the British are saying, hey, not only have we had a claim on this since at least eighteen thirty four, the people who lived there consider themselves British, it's ours. But the Argentinians said, no, you know what, the Spanish held this place before the British, and we inherited any any title to it from the Spanish after the revolution. Um, there's a there's a it's closer to us. What else do you want? What do you want to hear? And

the Argentinians claim on the Falklands is actually fairly tenuous. Um, but that has not stopped them from from kind of coveting these islands and making attempts to go after them over the years. Yeah. I mean, you know, Argentina will say, you guys left in seventeen seventy four, Uh, so you abandon it. Britain would say, well, you never established any kind of serenity there. Uh, there were no indigenous people. It's not like we came down here and kicked all

your people out of here and displaced them. Um. So there's really no big moral claims either. And I don't know if I know enough about it even after all this to to really say without making some people mad, But it seems like it was Britain's Yeah right, I'm yeah, No, it's it's still like a point of national soreness in Argentina, and I think there's a little bit of national pride

in in the UK of it. But yes, the fact that the people who lived there and have are descended some people who have lived there since eighteen thirty four considered themselves British, that's I agree with you. That to me says it's it's a British territory, which ostensibly would make Argentina the the the invading force, the bad people. Yes, and that's the thing like we all have to have good guys and bad guys, and there you know, both sides did good and bad things during this conflict. They

were bad people on both sides. But you can you can, oh man, you can make man chuck. You can make the case that, yes, if you have to identify an aggressor in this situation, it was Argentina who who did it, because again the Spanish settled it before the British, but then the Spanish left and the Argentineans overthrew the Spanish. There were no indigenous people that lived on these islands

that were connected to Argentina. Argentina in any way. There's really no legal or moral claim that Argentina had aside from proximity, and that just doesn't really hold up when it comes to teri territorial dispute. So yes, you can really make the case that Argentina was the aggressor. And it doesn't hurt that the proportion of Argentinean listeners to stuff you should know, pales in comparison to the British proportion. So leading up to the war, this is sort of

the scene. You've got the people living on the Falkland Islands, um the economy wasn't great. It's never been booming. Like we said, it's a very small seaside hamlet of farmers. Uh. They were depending on the British government subsidies to to even get by. And this is you know, back in the late seventies, early eighties. Uh. Brittain says, you know what, we would like to start trading with Argentina. We would

like to help these islanders out. Maybe let them move some wool, maybe make it easier to get fuel and supplies. And Margaret Thatcher comes into power and says, maybe it might also be nice to sell them weapons in Argentina. Yeah, they need missiles and we've got them. Yeah. She opened her trench coach. She's like, what do you need? What do you need? I got it? I got it. Never one went whoa lady. I'm not saying she was new to okay, just that she had missiles in her trench. Gotcha.

So there was one other thing. It wasn't just that the British were being patrimonious and really wanted to help the Falklanders out by opening up trade between them and

the Argentinians. They also wanted to potentially offload responsibility for the Falklands to Argentina, kind of like how you would consider selling a car that you knew maybe had fifty miles left in it, but you could sink some money into repairing it to whatever, or you can sell it to some schmo And Great Britain identified that this would

be a great bargaining chip. The Argentinians really want this thing, so maybe we can sell them this used car in addition to selling them some missiles for a few billion pounds. Argentina said, can I take it for a spin? And Britain went, I can't find the keys right now, but we go ahead and make the deal. I'll see if I can find them. It runs great though, yeah exactly, so just trust me. But but imagine you just said in a British accent, Yeah, I thought about doing it,

but so. Um. The thing is is this didn't go over very well with Great Britain. Um. They were like, well, well, whoa, you can't just these are British subjects in some form or another. You can't just abandon them to the Argentinas. You can't sell them out. And the people on the island of the Falklands were not very happy with this either. Um, supposedly they used to call themselves kelpers, and I think I get the impression that's one of those things that

they can still call themselves kelpers. But if you're from Argentina and you call them kelpers, then that's that's fighting words. But um, they did not, uh, they did not like the idea of being sold off to the Argentinians in a as a pawn in a larger trade negotiation to sell missiles. That that just didn't sit well with them. And you get why. I totally get why. And the other problem is is this is this is just so

neo lib too. The Thatchery administration went in, it was like, this is really what we want to do is sell missiles, but we're not going to give one way or another. There's no compromise on the Falklands. He's either all or nothing. And um, they they, I guess, wanted to open trade to Argentinians, but didn't want to give them to the Argentinians, but Argentinians wanted them. And rather than find a compromise, like I said, it was just all or nothing and

they just left it as this. They basically scared the pants off of the Falkland Islanders, saying we're willing to basically leave you guys hanging um. But at the same time they weren't willing to to pull the trigger and go all the way and and let Argentina have the

Falklands and maybe administer them correctly who knows. So instead the Falkland Islands were left in this weird geopolitical limbo in starting about nineteen seventy nine, I believe, um to where no one quite knew exactly how interested Great Britain was in holding these islands. Our Argentina was very interested in getting these islands, and the Falkland island As were

caught in the middle of this. Yeah. And on the Argentinian side, they were sort of in the midst of a right wing military dictatorship that after a seventy six coup um. They were not nice people. They terrorized people, they murdered their opponents, they imprisoned people. It was called the Dirty War um. Within that or a few years after that n one there was in an internal coup within that same party where a General Leopoldo Galtieri m good, sure,

all right, um, he went into power. But still that same right wing faction and they wanted not only the Falklands. They wanted the South. Uh, they wanted South Georgia Island and South Sandwich Islands and basically wanted that whole sort of South Atlantic area because of Antarctica. Yeah yeah, so they um. The other thing is and a lot of people point to this. Did you mention the name of that the tatorship? Oh the uh the NPR. Now it's the opposite of the NPR. It's yeah, it's not the

opposite National reorganization process. Oh it is. I guess, I guess, although they're both into re education for sure. So um, Argentina basically was saying like, okay, we're a military junta. We don't know what to do with the economy. We're super oppressive, especially against our opposition, will like make you disappear and murder your family and all this stuff. This is a bad jam at home. We need something to

make everybody feel good about being Argentinean again. Maybe maybe if we go get these Falkland islands, this little adventurism that we go on will restore patriotism in Argentina and will make everybody look the other way on this what's called the dirty war that we've been fighting for the last few years since we've come to power, and that

was kind of like the big impetus toward Argentina. They had like these military aspirations because it was after all, the merit military coup that took over as a military dictatorship. To what else are they gonna do? Military stuff? But at the same time, Britain was widely viewed around the world is not really caring much about what happened to the Falklands, And I think that they gave Argentina an overblown sense of how easy it would be to just go ahead and take these islands once and for all

is their own. Yeah, they needed this for nationalism. They couldn't count on Diego Maradonna to come in and save the day for another four or five years. You have no idea what I'm talking about. He was a a soccer player, Yeah, he must have been a contemporary place. Then the Hand of God, that was very famous soccer goal that he scored. I think in the hand of you can't use your hands in soccer exactly, huh, look it up. So I think that's kind of sets the

table for what's what's about to happen here. Um, It's not like England or I'm sorry, che's always do that. Let's just say Britain to be safe, that's what I've been doing. Britain wasn't really planning for this UM. Even though there had been a lot of back and forth about the Falklands. I don't think they expected uh, ultimately a surprise attack. They weren't really prepared UM. Like you mentioned, the Argentines thought it would kind of go pretty easily

because they didn't seem like they cared about it. The Britain, the Brits, and they're like, we're gonna go get all these islands. But then this weird sort of start to the war, to the start of a very weird war happened, which is it was an incident at South Georgia Island with a with a scrap metal dealer of all things. Yeah yeah, so I mean at this at that time, remember the Argentinian dictatorship was like just looking for any

opportunity to take these islands. And that scrap metal dealer got a UM contract to dismantle the whaling station in South Georgia Island, and so we chartered a an Argentinian naval navy vessel to carry him and his salvage crew over there, and Argentina actually thought this would be a good opportunity for us to secretly invade South Georgia Island of just sort of parking their car there and saying, hey,

this is exactly exactly And they didn't. Even as they were backing in, somebody else was coming in front ways Seinfeld, Yes, and they just had to stand there and argue for a while. But finally the Argentinians won. And when they got this is the weird thing. When they got to South Georgia Island, the first thing they did the salvage crew was raised the Argentinian flag. They replaced the Union

jack with the Argentinian flag. As dude, you could be a second grade cub scout and recognize that you are not supposed to do something like that, not even as a joke, which is what Argentina ultimately claimed that was just getting around, just joking, was their international diplomatic response. Yeah, and Britain does not take kindly to that, no, because

they knew that Argentina wanted these islands. But here's the thing that it was a really stupid thing to do, because right when British diplomats pointed out that they had done this and demanded that it be removed in the Union Jack be put up. The Argentina's were like, just kidding, just kidding, and put the flag back up. But it immediately put the British on high alert. Like the diplomatic

tensions were raised. Um, it was it was a dumb thing to do and if they were planning on really um tactically invading and holding the Falklands, because it got the British, the British the British's attention. Yeah, it didn't seem like any of this is very well thought out. Um, they work closer, so like they both start sending ships. Um, Argentina is going to get there quicker. Obviously. Um, they

sent clear indication that they were gonna invade the Falklands. Uh. The Endurance was a British ship, and Captain Barker of the Endurance brought this news to London. There were only sixty eight marines on the islands. Royal marines, British marines didn't have great weapons were really under they were under weapons, under artillery, under staff. They they were just it was sort of those deals where they're like, what are we doing down here? Guys for a long time, I think

until this happened. UM. So I mean imagine being that there was like sixty eight of them, I guess, just hanging out like sixty knowing that the Argentineans were coming right or thinking that they probably were. They knew it was on the way. Well, here's the thing. So back in London, UM, Margaret Thatcher and her Tory government were um not convinced like they she said later on UM, I think she her diaries got published about this or whatever.

But in the days leading up to it, she was like she could not believe that Argentina would actually go through with an invasion because it was such a stupid thing to do that she just couldn't believe it. UM. And so that was combined with um eventually with some of her um like military advisers saying, if they take these islands, there's no guarantee we're going to get them back. And she realized that if she lost the Falkland Islands

to Argentina, that was it. She was never going to be re elected and her government would basically just limp along until the next election. It would be a really bad look for her. UM. So she had to win these back. But at the same time, she couldn't just send the Royal Navy down there for nothing. So she had to make this decision about what to do, whether to be proactive or reactive, and she ultimately waited and was reactive, and by the time she reacted, she was

she was kind of um. She was working with the knowledge that it wasn't guaranteed that that now that they have invaded, that Great Britain would be able to take it back. That's right, And you say take it back, we haven't even mentioned the fact that Argentina took it to begin with. Yeah, I think that was implied. April two, about three o'clock in the morning, their tactical dive team

came aboard the island. They approached the capitol. They under cover of darkness fired on the barracks, which they because the Royal Marines knew this was coming, so they had abandoned the barracks and we're sort of falling back, essentially toward the Government House, which is where they were going

to hold up on their final stand. Argentineans had a lot more people, they had amphibious assault vehicles, and eventually the Brits retired to the Government House and said we give up, We surrender uh ten a m. The Union jack was replaced by the Argentinean flag and Argentina broke their arms, patting themselves on the back. They lost five people, they killed one I'm sorry, zero British soldiers and we're like, all right, we did it. That was super easy, just

like we thought. And so the Argentineans were thinking, well, you know, that was very easy. The British are clearly disinterested in the Falklands. They're probably just gonna say, well, you guys captured at fair and Square, we'll get our people out of there. There your islands now. But this is not at all what happened. In fact um, the British did not take very kindly to this, and I propose we'd take a break and talk about the actual

Falkland War after this. Let's do it, okay. So where we left off was Argentina had taken the Falklands with very little effort, and then Margaret Thatcher realized what was going on in a big way and she went not old, my watch, that was dead on. So once Britain said, you know what, we're gonna fight back here and we're gonna take these islands back. It became the real deal thing. Uh,

and we'll talk about in the end there. You know, casualties numbered at about a thousand on both sides, so it still wasn't the biggest conflict, but it was a real conflict. No, it really was. And Britain was in

this weird position. Argentina was in a weird position, and that they were fighting a pretty substantial military but Britain was in a weird position, and that they knew that if they overshowed force, if they just pounded the Argentineans into dust, other countries might actually enter the war on the on the side of Argentina. So they had to get these islands back with with without just using all of their might against Argentina. Yeah, and with also saying

we're not going to come after you Argentina. In Argentina supposedly they explicitly said that, huh, yeah, I mean, it's such a weird war in a weird time. It really was. It was a weird war. But yeah, a lot of people just kind of joke like, oh, you know, the British invaded the Falklands, what a what a over overblown move. But at the same time it was like you know Thatcher's Prime ministry was on the line. And also, um, the the idea that these were British subjects who were

being occupied. Like like, make no mistake about it, if you were if you were living on the Falklands and you left your house, you were living under Argentinian occupation. They changed what side of the roads you're supposed to drive on, which is crazy a little bit you had to um, oh, either way, one of these days we're gonna have to do with short stuff on dogg and h. It was in either Sweden or I think Sweden. It was the day that they changed from one side of

the road to the other for driving around the country. Yes, it was just a big mess, so we'll talk about this sometimes. But um you also had to carry like a white flag around with you to basically let them know you were noncombatant. And even still even under those conditions, um, I think at least three Falkland Islanders were killed during this war. So like this was you know, it was it was a big deal and there was there were

reasons for the British to invade. Um. And again you can really make the case of the Argentineans where the aggressors in this situation. Yeah, So April six, the Great Britain finally um puts together a war cabinet. They name their operation Operation Corporate, and they send down a couple of aircraft carriers, about a hundred and twenty seven ships.

They send down fighter jets. There's helicopters um while they're doing this, because like you mentioned it, it takes a long time to get down there on an aircraft carrier. They were still hoping to work this out. Like France got involved and they said, you know what, we're not gonna sell arms to Argentina anymore. Uh, they're flying our fighter jets, by the way, So here's some help in

defeating them. If you want a little inside scoop, there's a little button on the back as long as you push it, and they won't be able to drop bombings will fold in. Reagan got involved. He called up Galtieri specifically, said let's try and work it out peacefully. I'm gonna send al Haig down there, and they said, nope, we don't want your help, Reagan. So British Britain said, oh, you don't want Ronald Reagan's help, then screw you, it's on. Yeah,

and so it was on. From that point on. The British were like, all right, well then it's just war is what we're going to do. So there UM two aircraft carriers showed up and since they only had two, had a limited number of UM jets. But it turns out that their jets were mostly useful in keeping the Argentinean fighter jets away from bombing and missile attacks on

the ships, but weren't successful in every case. Like as funny as it seems, you know, like the British were fighting the Argentineans are did the Argentina had some some successes definitely in this war too. It wasn't just totally lopsided. Yeah, I mean Britain. Uh. It all really really started on April and kind of one of the first things that Britain did was go after one of their submarines, the

Santa Fe. Damaged that one pretty heavily. That that submarine made it to the South Georgia Island, but the crew jumped off and basically retired that submarine on the spot. UM Royal Marines were getting reinforced the whole time, and this was really what made the biggest difference is Britain had complete control of the the naval side of things, right, yeah, just immediately the Argentinians figured out like, oh, we're we we aren't going to be able to do much with

our navy. But again, we've got some fighter jets and you know, their French, and they worked pretty good as long as you don't press that one button. Um. And they used them to good effect in that they would fly decoy flights to get the British jets to come chase them, and then the real um attack jets would come in and actually attack like a ship or maybe

the mainland or something like that. Yeah, that worked. They also had some They also had surface to air missiles that they used fairly well, although they apparently accidentally shot down one of their planes at least once. Um. The point of all this, the upshot, is that despite you know, the British superiority and just about every single way um, Argentina did did have some success and they managed to stave off the British retaking the Falklands, which spoiler alert,

the British retook the Falklands. Um. For you know, this whole conflict lasted seventy four days. Yeah, they sunk a destroyer. I think they sunk some other ships. The big one of the big turning points was when on May two, uh the General Bell Grano, which was an Argentinian cruiser, was destroyed by the HMS Conqueror. And that was like three and twenty three men were killed basically in that attack.

And that was you know, not half but the losses of the whole war, right, and most of most of Argentina's losses came from the sinking of that one ship. And that was viewed as fairly grotesque by a lot of people, by the international community really because remember England needed to sorry, Great Britain needed to um to basically show themselves as showing restraint. This was not necessarily a

show of restraint. The UM the Argentinians said that this was not inside of the no go zone where their their ship wasn't supposed to be um, that it had been tracked down by the British and sunk. That they could have just disabled it, but they purposefully sunk it. And that you know, it killed three d and twenty three Argentineans in one shot, which is just bad press

for anybody. It makes England look like an over overblown bully. Um. And you know, they died in pretty terrible ways, like a lot of them drowned, but a lot of them frozen lifeboats because again we're not that far away from Antarctica, and it took twenty four hours I think for them to be rescued, So a lot of people froze to death in lifeboats waiting to be rescued because they were sunk by this British ship rather than just having their ship disabled. Yeah. Ed made a nice little Jaws reference

in this, Dude, did you catch that? I didn't? Uh made a second thousand nine five men went into the water seven seventy two come out the sea took the rest. I got it now. Uh? Then the other big yeah yeah, um, the other big turning point came. Of course, you know this is all like sinking of ships and naval battles. Uh. What they needed to do was take the main town

and on MA one. The British gained a very good foothold when they made a landing on East Falkland and started advancing towards Stanley, which was not Stanley the guy that was just they're cleaning up. But Stanley, the town Stanley, the measuring tape, that's right. Uh. And they basically, you know, Argentinea would would fight untill they ran out of AMMO, then they would get captured and the Brits would just

move slowly, I think from one to June eleven. They finally assaulted Stanley and on June fourteen, Port Stay on June fourteenth, so just three days after they finally got to Stanley they surrendered. Argentina did yeah, but but no here that It was May twenty one that the British finally landed on East Falkland and June thirteen that they managed to take control of um Stanley weeks. It was three weeks and the Argentinians managed to um hold them

off for that long. But this is almost like you know, um those movies, like the huge, sweeping epic comedies like It's a Mad, Mad Mad Mad World, where there's like ten different things going on at once in the scene just kind of visits, you know, each person. In one scene, there was a Brigadier general named Tony Wilson who was I guess on hiatus from running factory records at the time.

He was trying to get to fitz Roy, which was a smaller town, not as big as Stanley, but it was a town, and he decided to get some intel where the Argentinians would He just he just looked up the number from one of the fitz Roy residents, put went to a phone booth and called and said, Hey, are the Argentinians around today? And residents said, no, they're not. Maybe today would be a good day for you guys

to come. And that's how they overtook fitz Roy, and so little by little they started taking like the East Falklands, until like you said, they finally took Stanley. And one other thing. One of the over overlooked, unsung groups of soldiers who helped really retake Stanley are um the Gurkhas. Have you heard about them? Holy cow, dude, there's They're widely considered to be the toughest um soldiers in the world. Mother is on the plan exactly. Um. They are from Nepal.

They're the Nepalese like basically Nepalese special forces and they're known for carrying these uh cou cree knives k u k r I knives. I'm sure I said that incorrectly. And by the way, apparently everyone else in the world except for you and I knows how to pronounce the national language of the Philippines correctly. Yeah, we did a listener mail about that, but they're just still pouring in. Yeah.

So the these knives are just really fierce looking and they're like, these guys are basically just going from like outlooks or observation stationed observation station, I guess, just taking out Argentinean guys with their knives and and helping re established this British foothold on the East Falklands. Check them out the because you're you'll you'll like him, I think, like the sou In the end, they like we said,

they surrendered on June four. Um, we should point out that there was a neutral c zone that had hospital ships on both sides and throughout this whole thing, which got really acrimonious. You know, it sounds silly to say about a war, but it was one of the more acrimonious wars because it was it was small, and they were really mad at each other, you know, but these

hospital ships helped each other out. They cooperated, they transferred patients, um, which says a lot about how things were you know, yeah, it was still civil even though acrimonious. Right, that's right. Argentina in the end suffered sixty nine deaths, which was, like we said, about half of those actually almost exactly half came from that ship sinking. Yeah, Britain lost to fifty five and those three three poor kelpers. And I'm sorry if that's offensive, I think I think, yeah, I don't.

I don't know if it is. Let's just call them Falkland civilians. They were killed Stanley, It's yes, Stanley and the Antonians. So it did not work out well for Argentina. It really backfired. That was pretty humiliating defeat. Uh, the n RP was defeated in nineteen eighty three and free election started, So that's a good thing. Yeah, that is that was this was actually huge impetus for them. Losing control of power was the you know, the Argentina was

was defeated and kind of humiliated. Actually, um and this military government since this was like ed put it like Hail Mary, elastic effort to kind of retain power. They lost the Falklands, so they lost their power in Argentina. It's always good anytime a military dictatorship loses control of a nation. Yeah. So Um. One of the things Chuck is still to this day, the Falklands are in dispute

by Argentina. And I was asking you if if you, um, you came up with this idea because the stuff that's been going on lately, but ever since I think two thousand nine, Argentina made a claim at the u N to extend its territorial waters from two hundred nautical miles off shore to three fifty well three nautical miles off of. Argentina completely envelops the Falkland Islands, the South Georgia Island,

and the Sandwich Islands. Okay, this is not something that the British are okay with um, so much so that that one of the revelations from the Snowden Um whistleblower files was that the British had engaged in disinformation campaigns and propaganda campaign secret ones to change public opinion and Argentina about the Falklands sovereignty and them being part of a British you know, them being just thoroughly British and

Argentina has no claim on it. And the reason why, and I was looking into this, I'm like, is another war there possible. Who knows. The reason why is because in two thousand ten they found a massive oil deposit that is in the territorial waters of the Falklands. So if Argentina's waters extend to envelope the Falklands, that's their oil deposit. In the UK said, no, now, that's our

oil deposit because that's in the Falkland waters. And I think in two thousands sixteen the u N Commission ruled in favor of Argentina um even though they said, well, we don't really have any teeth, it's just our opinion that Argentina has a legitimate claim on us, and the UK said, we're not going to be paying attention to that. Yeah, So it's still continuing today and even more than just being like a source of national pride, now it's a source of national oil. So who knows what will happen

in the coming years over that. Jeez. Plus, when the eldritch gods wake up, you know, yeah, well then we're all doomed. So you got anything else about the Falklands, got nothing else? And now I now I get it. Yep, me to chuck me too. So thanks for that. If you want to know more about the Falklands. Well, you can start reading up on it. There's plenty of stuff

to be read. And since I said that, it's time for listener mail, I'm gonna call this from a teacher who was grounded right now because of the coronavirus and wants a little help from us. Hey guys, my name is Marissa Stratton. I'm a sixth grade teacher from Springfield, Illinois. Like most of the country, our school is currently shut down. I'm wondering if you could help me with a suggestion for my students. I'm fairly new to the podcast world.

I listened to and love your podcast. I would love to recommend it to my students, but I know some topics would be inappropriate for eleven year olds. You got that right, It's like pumping the island. I was about to say any of our history shows. Uh. Here's where your help would be greatly appreciated. You have any specific episodes in mine it would be great for eleven and twelve year old er. Do you have suggestions of other podcasts that middle schoolers might enjoy. Read a lot of articles,

but I'm just overwhelmed. Being out of the classroom is very stressful and I want to make sure I'm recommending popularity and quality to my students, not just popularity. That is from Marissa Stratton. So I thought about this. I didn't make a specific list, but um, I was just about to say, most of our history shows are pretty pretty appropriate, wouldn't you agree? Yeah, I would like to think that all of our stuff is in the wheelhouse of eleven and twelve year olds, at least at the

same level of humor I think. So, I mean, it's pretty easy when you look through the twelve hundred plus episodes. There's a lot of science in his tree and uh stuff like that. Like it's I think it's pretty clear the ones to avoid. Like if you see things on like magic mushrooms or marijuana grow farms, uh, murder stories and stuff like that, you may want to avoid. But

you know, aside from that, it's pretty self explanatory. A few dumb blue jokes aside from us, they're pretty pretty clean for sure, and a lot of them probably fly over in eleven year old's head. Yeah, but you know that's that's for her to decide. They may want to learn about the Mendel brought set. So so no, no, no, I mean our jokes are jokes, might play over the even year old thing. Gotcha, it's true. So yeah, I guess I would recommend maybe listening to them once before

sharing them. But yeah, like we pride ourselves and being a pretty family family agreed. Okay, that was Mrs Stratton correct. Well, thanks a lot of Ms Stratton and hello to your class who are being taught virtually I'm guessing right now we're the teachers now, yeah, exactly. Just leave it to us, America and world. We got this. If you want to get in touch with us, like Mrs Stratton did, please feel free to. You can send us an email, wrap it up, spank it on the bottom, and send it

off to Stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Ye. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeart Radios. How stuff works for more podcasts for my heart radio because at the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H