I'm the one.
In April, nineteen eighty two.
An invasion by Argentina provoked one of the most ambitious military undertakings in British history.
Britain sent a naval task force and 15000 men to fight for a small group of islands on the edge of the Antarctica.
Britain was at war with Argentina, but the odds were spectacularly uneven.
Look at the challenges that faced the British struggling to fight 8000 miles from home, while the Argentinians were fighting on their own doorstep.
They had to fight up here in freezing conditions, on exposed hilltops and across wide open ground.
All experts have, the British troops use darkness to their advantage against a well defended enemy.
It was one of the most improbable conflicts ever.
More than 30000 men went to war over a group of baron and wind swept islands that were home to envy. 2000 people.
This is the story of the battle for the forklands.
I don't know.
I'm going.
No,
This may look like a sleepy little seaside town somewhere in the British Isles. In fact, the United Kingdom is 8000 miles away.
These are the Forkland islands.
A remote British territory in the south Atlantic, the nearest mainland is Argentina, just 400 miles to the west.
Life for the two and a half thousand people who live here is isolated, hardy and undisturbed.
In April, nineteen eighty two, all that changed when these islands became the setting for the last invasion of British territory.
On April the second, nineteen eighty two, about one hundred Argentinian marines landed here on the forklands.
Objective to capture the capital. Stanley.
They were the advanced party. There were 2000 more men on their way, but the job of these marines was to seize the town and force the British governor of the islands to surrender.
Soon, the extraordinary news of the Argentinian invasion hit bulletins across the world.
Oh,
The Falkland Islands, the British colony in the South Atlantic has fallen, but that's what Argentina is saying.
It claims its marines went ashore as a spearhead this morning to capture key targets, including the capital, port Stanley.
Great.
The islands were offended by just sixty nine royal marines, and the invading Argentinians and their hundreds overwhelmed this tiny force.
They moved up here and surrounded Government House, demanding the surrender of the Forkland Islands.
As Argentinian armoured vehicles rolled towards Government House, a firefight broke out.
Trapped inside the British Governor, rex Hunt broadcast the fine message on the local radio station.
So not as well as truly pinned down, but they not try to attack. I'm not surrendering to the body arches at middle.
The invasion of the forklands transformed a long running dispute between Britain and Argentina into a major international crisis.
Right.
For two centuries, both countries have claimed the Balkans.
The Argentinians did control the islands for nearly a decade, until 1833, when the British expelled them.
Britain has governed the forklands ever since. The Argentinians call the islands the male Venus, and they tried to persuade the British to give them up.
Britain had long considered handing over this small relic of empire to Argentina.
But the Falkland Islanders like their British identity and didn't want to give it up.
It became clear to the British government that overriding the wishes of the islanders was out of the question.
The people here wanted the islands to say British sovereign territory.
This made agreement between Britain and Argentina almost impossible.
Talks gotten nowhere, and the future of the Forton islands remained in an easy deadlock.
But in Nineteen eighty one, a new military government seized power in Argentina.
I
At his head was the army commander, general Leopoldo Galtierri.
His regime was a rule of terror, and the countrys economy was collapsing.
He badly needed to find a cause that would win his government's popularity.
There was one issue, galtier knew his people cared passionately about.
They claimed to the forker violence, galzierri will unite the Argentinian nation by seizing the fork of violence from Britain by force.
It looked like the perfect answer to his problems.
And on April second, nineteen eighty two, galtier's reposession of the Forklands was going exactly to plan.
Within hours of landing, hundreds of Argentinian troops were all over Stanley. They had even seized the radio station.
Just a minute, and if you take the gun out of my back, I'm gonna transmit it, you if you take the gun away,
The governor, rex Hunt had little choice but to surrender.
He broadcast a final message to the islanders from Government House, we've come to the last message I am to give you. I wish you.
Luck, uh and, uh, rest as short the British will be back.
The governor and the royal marines were escorted off the islands and sent back to Britain. The civilians were left wondering what would happen next.
We heard these tremendous bangs on the back door, and there were shouts for us to come out.
We had to go out and sit in the yard, and this Argentine was there with a machine gun trained on us. Mom thought we were going to be shot.
8000 miles from Britain, the islanders were left unprotected and isolated.
Bye, bye.
The news of the British surrender hit Weiders Aris that afternoon.
200000 Argentinians poured into the main square wildly applauding the liberation of the Eastlas. Melvina.
Galtier's plan had worked.
As the crowd celebrated, galteria was confident that Britain would not react.
He assumed that because the distant forklands was hardly a vital British interest, britain would not fight for them.
But Galiari was making one crucial era.
He'd seriously underestimated Britain's Prime Minister, margaret Thatcher.
In nineteen eighty two, britains first female Prime minister was governing a country in trouble.
Britain was in recession, unemployment had just passed the three million mark and had been some of the worst rioting of the twentieth century.
But Sancho was a formidable character, she knew that to hesitate could spell doom for her unpopular government.
She summoned Parliament and gave a defiant response to Argentina's invasion.
We are here because for the first time, for many years,
British sovereign territory has been invaded by a foreign power.
The government has now decided that a large task force will sail as soon as all preparations are complete.
HMS Invincible will be in the lead and will leave port on Monday.
Hello,
And so in the spring of Nineteen eighty two, a British task force said, sail.
Ahead lay an eight thousand mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the Forkland Island.
In all, 93 ships would sail to the falcons. A hastily gathered feet of warships.
Fly ships and even cruise liners like the Kiwi, too.
At the heart of a freight were two aircraft carriers. H-M is invincible.
An HMS Hermes, hermes was the flanction and home to the Task force commander Rear Admiral Sandy Woodman.
Woodward's fleet would take three weeks to reach the Forklands.
During that time, britain would try for a diplomatic solution, but if that failed, the task force would have to go to war when it got there.
By April of seventeenth.
The first wave of the task force had sailed right down into the South Atlantic.
And was just off a central island that there is British base to the Forklands.
There were still another 3500 miles to the fork and island themselves.
The ships were in two groups to the south was Woodwood's naval fleet.
This was the advanced party.
Made up of two aircraft carriers and fighting ships that put battle for the control of the air and the sea around the fork and island.
Once they had gained their superiority, then the men carried in the second group of ships put launching amphibious landing.
The only way to win back the falcons would be to have troops fighting on the ground. There.
As the fleet sailed south, united Nations and US diplomats tried for a peaceful settlement.
That's by April the thirtieth, any hope of a diplomatic solution evaporated. Neither side would back down.
Neither Britain nor Argentina had officially declared war, but now war seemed inevitable.
The Argentinian garrison of these islands watched the British military response their invasion with growing concern. The race was now on to get organized and resupplied.
The British arrived.
c a n t e r
The Argentinian army did have some professional soldiers, but the majority of its men were young conscripts.
To strengthen its forces, the army recalled reservists, more experienced men who could stiffen the ranks of those who just begun their military service.
My commanding officer came on the radio at four o'clock in the morning and told me to wake up all the men.
We had to be in a Malvina in thirty six hours. You could see that the soldiers felt very proud.
By the end of April, there were 13000 Argentinian troops on the islands, and with them their new commander.
The man in charge was Brigadier General Mario Menendez.
Benendes was a tough soldier who'd made his name fighting rebels in remote parts of Argentina.
He was quickly sworn in as the new governor of the Forklands. His first task was to prepare his defenses.
Strategically, but then does his position was strong?
As you can see, the forks of islands are about 400 miles from Argentina.
That put the islands just within range of Argentina's Air Force, based on the mainland.
The main two islands are west and east, forkland.
Each around fifty miles from end to end, manende's position, 2000 of his men on West Forkland.
1000 men here at Goose Green and about 10000 in the hills to the west of standing.
These hills were the Argentinian's last line of defense.
But Menendez hoped his grand troops wouldn't have to fight at all.
He planned to neutralize the British task force out at sea before they had a chance to set foot on land.
I can.
The Argentinian Air Force was well trained and could launch high performance fighter bombers from bases on the mainland.
These aircraft could attack the task force once they were within range.
Against this force, the British could only take as many fighters as they could fit on their two aircraft carriers. That was just thirty four planes.
Thirty four against nearly one hundred Argentinian fighters.
This small force was supposed to gain air superiority, protect the British fleet and prepare the way for the amphibious landings. All this.
Fine flight decks of the two carriers as they plowed through the heaving South Atlantic seas. It was an enormous challenge.
On the first of May, nineteen eighty two, the battle for the Forklands began.
The first clash between Britain and Argentina was in the air.
But despite being the underdog, the British immediately showed they were forced to be reckoned with. There was one thing that the Argentinians hadn't expected.
Britain s latest acquisition, the Sea Harry.
What's required to get it off this tiny deck? Whoa?
This aircraft was brand new, untested in combat, when it was sent to the forecast.
Unique in its ability to take off and land vertically and operate from short runways.
Carrier quickly proved it was versatile and extremely reliable.
Carrier had another killer advantage.
It was armed with the latest air to air heat seeking missile called Side Winder.
Four Argentinian aircraft were shot down on the first day by Sinewyder. Another fifteen would follow.
British seemed to be smashing the Argentinian airport.
But they could only maintain their advantage in the air while their ships below remain safe.
The most important ships in any naval task force are the aircraft carriers.
If the carriers are lost, so too are their vital aircraft.
The two aircraft carriers in the forklands had to be protected at all costs.
And although the action continued in the skies, the focus of the battle shifted to the rough seas of the South Atlantic.
On the first of May, woodwood's main task course was one hundred miles northeast of the Portlands.
The British government had declared a two hundred mile exclusion zone around the island and said it would attack anyone entering it.
Up here to the northwest, a custom of Argentinian warships was approaching.
Among them, the Argentinian flagship, the aircraft carrier, begin to sinkko de Mayo.
She carried aircraft that would soon be within close range of the British fleet.
But even more menacing, the British reckoned, was another group of ships to the south of the four.
A cruiser, the General Bill Grano and two destroyers, which the British believe were armed with lethal exosset missiles.
These missiles could sink the British aircraft carriers if they got within range.
The Royal Navy could not afford to risk an exocet attack on its vital carriers, the loss of even one carrier.
And her combat aircraft could mean defeat without both, the British task force would have to withdraw from the fight completely.
The Argentineans appeared to be threatening a pincer movement against the British fleet.
The carrier of the vientisingo de Mayo from the north, and the bell grano group from the south.
The Belgrana group was being tracked by a submerged British submarine, the Conqueror.
Conquerors captain feared that if the Bell Grano turned north, it would move into these shallow waters.
The conqueror would struggle to track the ship in the shallow water and risk losing sight of it.
The bill runner might then head for the British fleet and put the task force in grave danger.
Beneath the waves, conquerors commanding officer saw that the Bill Grano was steering an erratic course just outside the exclusion zone.
The situation was so critical that the Prime minister herself was consulted. She gave the order to attack.
The conqueror launched its torpedoes.
Uh,
There were masses of injured men, most of them had been burned, and there were men covered in oil.
When I got to my life draft, ask a sail to come with me again and look for the people that were missing, including the commander.
We think that.
Within forty five minutes, the Belgrano had sunk.
Immediately, the entire Argentinian navy, fearful of further submarine attacks, turned round and headed.
The British had scored a huge military success, and Galtier's plan seemed to be faltering.
But he was still able to unleash the weapon the British feared most.
The Argentinians had recently bought five air launched Exo sets.
These half ton missiles could seek out and destroy a ship from over thirty miles away.
You.
On the morning of the fourth of May, two Argentinian strike aircraft, each armed the next asset, took off from the mainland.
On that particular day in nineteen eighty two, woodwood posted three ships like this as his front line of effect.
They were destroyers, hms Coventry, HMS Glasgow and Hms Sheffield. They were armed with anti aircraft missiles.
These ships could shoot down aircraft, but they were unreliable against low altitude targets like excess.
That morning, things had been relatively quiet for the British task.
Then just before two o'clock.
Argentina aircraft were picked up by the radar room on board HLS, glasgow.
The strength.
Girls go immediately, and an urgent warning to all the other ships and went to full action stations herself.
Twenty miles away on board Hms Chefing. The scene couldn't have been more.
Here, the ox room wasn't fully manned, and only part of the message from the Glasgow was picked up.
It was worse than that at that exact moment, HMS Cheffield was using its satellite quickly,
Send a message back to Britain, and that blocked its radar. The Sheffield couldn't see the Argentinian aircraft approaching.
I've got now, I'm turning in behind for Britain.
Back on the girls go two fast moving dots, possible, exosite missiles.
Suddenly appeared on the radar screen and were closing in Its 700 miles an hour.
Right now, and not only stop, five pounds, fifty.
With a mixture of relief and horror, the captain of the Glasgow realized that the missiles were headed not for them.
Straight for the Sheffield.
H, MS, sheffield was the first British ship to be destroyed by enemy action.
Since the Second World War, of the 281 men aboard, twenty were killed and twenty six were wounded.
Blood had now been shed on both sides of the conflict.
Hello,
By mid May, the South Atlantic winter was closing in.
Some harriers had been lost in combat, and now the bad weather was beginning to hinder the pilots.
The success of the British plan relied on having complete control of the air to provide cover for landing the ground troops.
But the British didn't have that cover, and now time was running out.
It was politically unthinkable to abandon the operation. Now.
They would have to take the huge risk of putting in the ground troops without total air cover.
Of the eighteenth of May.
The second wave of ships, including ferries and the cruise liner the Canbron.
Arrived just off the forktons. On board was the Amphibious landing Force.
3000 men were a mixture of Royal Marine commanders and army paratroopers.
And they were led by Brigadier Julian Thompson.
Thompson was an experience commander, he knew that his troops were vulnerable without air superiority.
But the pressure of time meant the landings had to go ahead.
The British had looked at all the landing side options on both West and East Forkland.
Since Stanley over here was their ultimate target, it made sense to land here on East Forkland.
They plumped for this natural harbor here at San Carlos Bay. It will be out of range of enemy artillery.
And was only very likely defended, a great advantage for any amphibious landing.
And here I am, with San Carlos Bay behind me, and that's the entrance over there, that's where the British landing force came in.
These hills also offered Thompson's man and ships some protection against low level air attacks.
But there was one problem with this landing site.
It was a long way from San Carlos, here, across the spot where Thompson knew the decisive battle would be fought.
Here in the strongly defended mountains, just west of standing between the two was fifty miles of difficult country.
Thomson plan to move his landing force right across the island with a shipment of helicopters that were due to arrive any day.
But now the priority was to gateies men on dry land as soon as possible.
In the early hours of the twenty first of May, 3000 British troops headed for the landing beaches.
Each man carried his rifle ammunition and enough rations for two days. This was the moment they'd been waiting for for weeks.
Once ashore, the British troops made their way up into the hills and dug themselves into strong position.
One unit, the second battalion of the Parachute Regiment, known as Two Power, were based up here on the Sussex mountains overlooking the bay.
It was just a question of time before the Argentinians arrived. The men braced themselves for an air attack.
Then at 10:30, all hell broke loose.
The Kenyan Hai kavans sent in wave after wave of their fighter bombers from the mainland.
Five hours, these aircrafts bombed, and the fleet sitting in the bay.
Surrounding hills made it almost impossible for a ship's radars to detect the enemy aircraft.
So the British were unable to get to a fix on the attacking planes until it was too late.
So we're not.
From these positions up here, the Paris had a grandstand view of the action in the bay.
All their supplies for the land campaign were still being unloaded from those ships coming under attack.
The powers had to watch helplessly as their lifeline was under fire.
By the end of the day, five British warships were hit, and one ship, hms Ardent was sinking.
And the attacks continued on the next day.
I
The British had positioned anti aircraft missiles around the bay, but it would be days before these delicate units were operational.
On the water, the men had resorted to strapping machine guns onto the ship's rails in a desperate attempt to hit the low flying Argentinian jet.
More conventional anti aircraft guns, some operated by sailors as young as seventeen, did score a few successes.
But all these efforts did little to blunt the relentless onslaught of the Argentinian air Force.
Ships unloading vital suppliers for the land campaign made easy targets.
On May, the twenty third Hms Antelope, just out there, was the next vessel to take a fatal hit.
We watched with lumps in our throats until upgrades with fire, and finally sunk.
She was all escort, and everybody felt a great loss, as she was more than just a ship to us.
And we're not.
In four days, eight British ships were damaged and two sunk during these attacks, twenty five men died.
And many more.
Were injured while the British were reeling from the attacks. In San Carlos water. The Argentinians were celebrating their triumphs.
Uh,
On the twenty fifth of May, it was Argentina's national day.
A day of patriotic ceremony.
And after the successes of their air campaign, menendes and his troops in the forklands had even more reason to celebrate.
You are.
But it wasn't over yet.
The Argentinian Air Force was preparing another raid that would hit the British land campaign, where it really hurts.
A massive container ship, the Atlantic Conveyor, had just arrived from Britain.
She was loaded with thousands of tons of supplies, but more importantly, the helicopters needed by the British forces to get them to Stanley.
She was preparing to go into San Carlos that night.
At 3:36 pm on the twenty fifth of May two, argentina aircraft.
Flying from the mainland, picked up the British carrier Group just off East Forkland.
Once in range, they release their excess.
Missiles locked on to two frigates, the ships fired up metal foil to confuse the missiles, radar.
And the exorcets veered away, but then they found another target, the defenseless Atlantic.
Fire ripped through the ship, and all nine helicopters still on board were destroyed.
Thompson was relying on them to carry his men across East Falkland to stand it.
At one stroke, most of his transport had now disappeared.
Margaret Sasha wanted Stanley back in British hands quickly.
But the main British force was still fifty miles away.
With no helicopters, the only way for the troops to get there was to walk.
The Marines called it yumping, and this was to be one of the classic yunks of all time.
Men carried up to 120 pounds of kit on their backs.
Through very uneven ground, and with the rain lashing down.
The men had four days of hard marching ahead of them.
And at the end of this slug, they would have to fight a battle.
The British main force of 2000 men run the move to Stanley.
But one unit of around 500 men was going in a completely different direction.
Two power weren't heading east towards Stanley, they were heading south.
Towards a settlement that was heavily garrisoned by Argentinian troops. They had been ordered to win a quick and morale boosting victory.
But the battle at lay ahead of them wouldn't go as planned. The name of the settlement was Goose Green.
The Argentinians had a base at Goose Screen because of its strategic importance.
It's on a narrow strip of land, just five miles long by a mile wide.
What.
So the Argentinians had stationed an infantry regiment here, centered around a small, grassy airstrip.
This is Goose Green Settlement, and San Carlos is beyond those mountains, way over the distance. There.
Here's Goose Green on the map case.
Aware of the British landing at San Carlos, the Argentinians reinforced their garrison here at Goose Screen, fearing an attack from the North.
Ready for a British assault. Olemaker Dona was wait.
The man in command of two PARA was Colonel H. Jones, known as H to his men.
He was brave but impulsive, and he believed in leading from the front.
Jones knew Goose Green would be a formidable target, and he drew up a detailed battle plan.
The grand at Goose Green was wide open and featureless, offering little protection.
Jones's objectives were the airstrip and the settlement of Goose Green held by the Argentinians.
Two powers fitted to several companies, they would fight their way south in the dark and then close in on the airfield.
Then they would take the settlement in daylight.
But the Argentinians held a strong position on the high ground of Darwin Hill. They were protected by mine fields in front.
And supporting artillery back behind the airfield.
Yeah.
Ten thirty that night, the British began the attack. One company, about one hundred men move rapidly up here, on the left.
Clearing out any enemy positions that came across.
Uh,
Two power, making good progress until they reach this spot from the north side of Darwin Hill.
This was the point at which Colonel H. Jones's plan started to go badly wrong.
One company were pinned down there by fire from well placed machine guns up on the hill.
It was rapidly becoming clear there were more Argentinians than they had thought, and what's more Their will to fight were strong.
Then the sun began to rise, and light flooded across Goose Green, illuminating the men on the wide open battlefield.
The men of two power on the low ground were completely exposed to Argentinian fire and couldn't advance. Somebody had to do something.
It was time for Colonel H. Jones to do what he thought he did best, lead from the front.
He identified an isolated Argentinian position just up there. He thought he could take out on his own.
Clutching his sub machine gun, he charged up the hill, but immediately, withering fire broke out from this hill up there, other Argentinian positions.
He was seen to fall over, but he got back up and kept charging. Then he was shot in the back and collapsed, mortally wounded, only meters away from his target.
This memorial marks where Jones fell.
As their commanding officer lay dying, it now fell to the second in command, major Chris Keyboard, to lead the men.
Two powers were pinned down out in the open, and they were still a mile short of their objective, the airstrip at Goose Green.
This was two parallels positions.
This is where they were pinned up by heavy fire coming from the Argentinians dug in along this ridge.
People decided that rather than risk more losses, he'd bring heavy fire down on the Argentinian defenses on the ridge.
While this was happening, two of his other companies moved around to the west to bring pressure on the Argentinians flank.
Slowly, two PARA pushed forward as Argentinian fighter bombers hit them from the air.
Then their luck turned, and they got their first air support of the fight.
Two harriers swept over the battle and dropped cluster bombs on the Argentinian artillery position.
After fourteen hours of intense fighting, the pair's steady progress saw them closing in on the Argentinean.
But they take it a lot of casualties, and they were utterly exhausted.
That night, cable decided on a cunning ploy to try and bluff the Argentinians into an early surrender.
He sent a letter to the Argentinian commander.
In a highly confident tone, he demanded an Argentarian surrender.
And warned them that he would bombard them heavily and hold them responsible for any civilian casualties. If they went on fighting.
Amazingly, the gamble worked. The Argentinians agreed to surrender.
The next day, the powers were astonished to see over 900 Argentinians.
Nearly twice their own number, and nearly three times more than they had expected. Lay down their weapons.
Singer.
After six weeks on the Argentinian occupation,
Goose Green was back in British hands, and the soldiers of two power were heroes.
But the battle for this tiny place had come at a huge cost.
The Senate internal job. Captain good.
Captain James, the second party.
Come from a heart. Mother.
More than seventy soldiers were dead, sixteen British and over fifty Argentinians.
One problem.
What had begun as a quick raid to seize back the airstrip and liberate the community had turned into a bloody battle in the struggle for the Forkland Island.
The British had won the first round of their land campaign against all the odds.
But ahead of them still was the battle to regain standing.
While two Para had been fighting at Goose Screen.
The main British force had crossed the island and was now just twelve miles from the capital.
But the soldiers knew they faced a tough fight between them and Stanley, you've got taste, stanley, and most of us know, with the rain,
Got to get it done fast, so the only way to do it get in there, do you have any feelings of apprehension, them, oh yes,
Sure,
Everything seemed to be going to plan, but then the British campaign suffered a massive blow.
What followed was the largest, single British loss of life in the war.
Just a few miles away from the troops, two landing ships, sir Galahad and Sir Tristram were anchored just off this bay.
They were packed with nearly 500 troops, reinforcements for the assault, understanding.
These ships should have been offloaded under cover of darkness, but a series of delays and misunderstandings meant they were still here when the sun came up.
The Argentinians spotted the ships and called in their air force from the mainland.
Two Argentinian fighter bombers swept in on a deadly bombing run.
They caught both ships in broad daylight packed with troops and ammunition.
Forty nine men were killed and a further 115 injured in the disaster.
Oh my god,
But this British tragedy was a significant barral boost for the Argentarians.
Menendez was told that 900 British had died, and he now expected a slackening in the British momentum.
But he was in for a rude shock.
Nine days after the landings of San Carlos, a senior commander, major General Jeremy More took overall control of the British land campaign.
Undeterred by the Argentinian air attacks, more moved around 9000 troops into position near the hills surrounding Stanley.
The battle of Stanley was about to begin. Here's Mount Kent where we are now.
Heavy Argentinian forces lay between more here and the capital.
He will attack in two stages on two separate nights.
On the first night, his offensive would sweep from north to south, a three pronged attack on the Argentinians.
More planned to take this outer ring of hills, the largest of which was Mount Longden in the north. Here.
On the second night, the British will assault another ring of hills nearer Stanley, sent it here on Mount Tumble down.
Success would leave them just two miles from Stanley.
The first targets were the Argentinian troops dug in all over Mount London. Mount London is a natural fortress.
Over 500 feet at its highest point, it dominates the surrounding, more land. For the British forces, this was a dangerous place to a.
After their experiences at Goose Green, they didn't want their troops court advancing in the open terrain in daylight.
So they made a key decision. All the battles to retake Stanley would be fought at night.
Night fighting is a highly effective strategy.
Every soldier in the British forces has to be as good at fighting in the dark as in daylight.
I joined the British Army on a training exercise, and to experience what it's like.
The attack began with flares and machine gunfire, once we've crept as close as we could in the pitch dark.
It's incredibly easy, and it's actually quite beliildering, just.
Moving around in these positions very difficult, you're way down by your equipment, those people tripping over, falling in the frozen stream.
Turning ankles this, the enemy is not the only challenge in this dark and difficult to rein.
Despite how hard it is to operate in the dark, it's imperative that the attacking troops don't get pinned down.
At the moment the most important, we've got to keep up the momentum, keep up speed, I guess keep the enemy off balance.
Yeah.
Jack.
We're about to go over this, this rise now and interesting. The commander here.
Constantly telling everyone what's going on in the rest of the battlefield, even though it's only fifty or one hundred meters away.
It's very confusing, and we can just hear firing and lots of shouting, so he's constantly going now and telling everyone what stage you're at, trying to keep everything going to play.
For the British troops on the forkland, keep into the plan, and maintaining momentum would be the key to their success when fighting at night.
At eight PM on the eleventh of June.
The British forces began their attack on Mount Longden.
But three power, who were spearheading the advance, found themselves trapped in a bewildering maze of steep sided alleyways.
These narrow galleys here.
Channel for men into the killing grounds, the Argentinian machine gunners and snipers up above. Then grenades were rolled down in amongst them, one officer.
Compared it to, like being stuck in a bowling alley.
The grenades, they were just bouncing down the side of the rock face. We thought there were rocks falling till the first one exploded.
Despite mounting casualties, the men pushed forward.
One sergeant in Makai dashed off a slope and knocked out a stubborn Argentinian position. He was killed, but later awarded the Victoria Cross.
For seven hours, the British forces battled their way up Mount London.
Their assault was just too forceful for the Argentinians to hold off.
So desperate were the Argentinians to smash the British attack, that Manendes risked his own men's lives.
By ordering his own artillery to bring down fire on their own positions here on Mount London,
But it didn't do any good. By six thirty a M, the British had captured the mountain.
As day broke, the British brought in the dead and injured from both sides.
Most of the Argentinian casualties and prisoners were conscript soldiers, young men drafted into the army.
While these soldiers had fought well, many of them were worn down by the conditions before the battle had begun.
Some of them were even captured in their positions like this one, huddled up in their sleeping bags trying to escape the battle.
Cold.
I am tired, cold, unhappy.
I swear that I can't take it any more, even though this is my duty as a man and a soldier of the fatherland.
Although this had been a bloody battle for both sides, the British attacks had taken all the high ground they'd planned to on the first night.
But another night's fighting still lay ahead.
Of the remaining mountains that had to be captured on the second night. By far the most vital.
That one over there, let's tumble down the last major obstacle between the British and standard.
The men charged with recapturing, tumble down with a second battalion of the Scots Guards just eight weeks earlier.
They've been on ceremonial duties, like guarding Buckingham Palace.
This would be the first experience of war for many of them, and they now had to confront perhaps the toughest target of the campaign.
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The Argentinians lost, tumble down. They lost Stanley.
So they put their best men up here, the elite Fifth Marines.
700 heavily armed crack troops were dug into the protected positions in the caves and rocks high in the mountains.
These Argentinian marines had been trained to fight at night, and they outnumbered the attacking British forces by almost two to one.
The Argentinians were confident they could hold the British off as soon as darkness fell, the fighting began.
I was murdered.
We were coming under water fire, machine gun fire, sniper fire, you name it was coming towards us. Well, it's what was the scene unexpected?
And I was unexpected. You cannot really describe it. Nobody could describe enough of not being no.
Three hours into the battle, things were going badly for the British. The Scots Guards attack had come to a complete halt.
They were taunting us, the old word in English, calling us to come on, and I think they mentioned surrender.
The combination of cold uncertainty and the general awareness that we were stuck, like to the grip, eago, shrinking and shrinking and shrinking.
At that stage, I thought we had blown it.
Edsman tumbled down behind me up there, and here it is on the map case.
The scudskards had approached, tumble down from the west and made their way up this slope here, unappposed.
But now one company, about 120 men, were pinned down here.
By stiff opposition from the Argentinians positioned in the rocks and craigs up above, on top of the ridge. Here.
Then thirty Scots guards climbed up onto higher ground to the north, undetected by the Argentinians down below.
While they were able to bring sustained fire down on the Argentinians exposed.
The rest of the company stormed the Argentinian strong point. The Scots had made the breakthrough.
As dawn broke, the battle was still raging, tumbled down, and the British forces prepared to throw everything they had into the fight for Stanley.
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They hammered the remaining enemy positions in a final all out bombard.
Soon, argentinian troops could be seen fleeing.
The British troops that effectively destroyed their enemies will to fight, and the Argentinians retreated, flooding back into Stanley in their hundreds.
The Argentinian resistance was crumbling.
As the demoralized defenders poured into Stanley.
The men were heard arguing with their superiors. Discipline among the Argentinian troops was breaking down.
It wasn't long before they were surrounded.
And on the fourteenth of June, the British demanded the Argentinian surrender.
Realizing that he had little choice, manendez accepted.
After two and a half months, the battle for the forklands was over.
Gentlemen, I've just heard that the white flag is flying overstanding.
The Argentinians had occupied Stanley for 74 days.
But now as two para marshton to the capital, it was back in British hand.
A month later, the first British true.
Back home to jubilant celebrations.
This victory had given people a renewed sense of pride in their country and a feeling that Britain could lift itself out of its recent decline.
And riding on the crest of his success was Margaret Sack.
Within a year, she won the general election with a resounding majority. The IM made in had cemented her position as a major world leader.
In Argentina, the news of the surrender was taken very badly.
Far from uniting the people, the war had left the Argentinians furious at the army and the government.
Just three days after Argentina's defeat, galtiary was forced from power, and military rule collapsed in Argentina.
Over in the Falklands, the legacy of this better conflict lives on.
Nearly a thousand people died in the war.
British servicemen, three forkland islanders and almost Argentinians.
After the war, the British government offered to return the bodies of the Argentinian deads to Argentina for burial.
But their government refused. They said that these islands were part of Argentina, and that the bodies would remain here.
For the Forkland islanders, these graves are a daily reminder that Argentinas refuses to drop its claim to their homeland.
After the war ended, britain greatly increased its permanent military presence on the island.
Now there's one serviceman for every two civilians living here.
Today, the islanders are still determined. The Falklands remain British.
As long as Britain continues to respect their wishes, there will be no early end to this bitter territorial dispute.
I'm going.
Next time in nineteen ninety one, kuwait was at the center of the last major war of the twentieth century.
Saddam Husseins, iraq had invaded, leading to a battle unlike anything seen before.
I'll be get into groups with some of the challenges faced by the men and women on the front line.
And I'm going to be explaining the tactics of a war dominated by cutting edge technology. It was called Operation Desert Storm.
Battle for Kuwait.