A Military History of the Falklands War Part 1: Air-Sea Battle in the South Atlantic

For the student of military history, the Falklands War is an endlessly fascinating conflict. This reasonably minor and limited conflict is a true microcosm of modern warfare. Special forces operations, missile armed jet combat, aircraft carrier battle, strategic bomber raids, nuclear submarines, Anti-Ship Cruise Missile strikes, amphibious assaults and set piece infantry battles; the Falklands has it all. One of the few conventional, high intensity peer conflicts of the modern era, the Falklands provides an almost unique window through which to understand modern warfare, especially in the naval sphere. But despite how interesting the conflict is from a miliary history perspective, the Falklands was still a war, one which took the lives of hundreds of people and demanded countless acts of gallantry. After all, a limited war is, nonetheless, still a war, and thus the Falklands should not be underestimated. It was, at times, every bit as brutal as its far larger historical analogues.

This video is the first in a two part military history of the Falklands War, which primarily focuses on the air and sea battle which took place during April and May of 1982. It covers the Argentine invasion of the Falklands, the wider strategic background, diplomacy, and then the major air and naval battles, including the sinking of the cruiser Belgrano, the loss of HMS Sheffield, the Black Buck raids, Operation Paraquet and finally the Battle of San Carlos, including the landing of the amphibious force and the week long air battle which would give the area the name "bomb alley". Part 2 of this series covers the following land campaign, through the breakout from San Carlos to the battle of Goose Green, then through to the final engagements around Stanley. The primary source material utilized in this series is the British Official History, which has been supplemented with numerous other sources, many of which were Argentine.

0:00 The Argentine Invasion: Operation Rosario
17:56 Strategic Background: Argentine Nationalism, British Imperialism and a Historic Period of Decline
46:22 Gathering the Task Force
1:09:57 Preliminary Intelligence Assessments
1:23:44 Diplomacy and Washington
1:35:34 Operation Paraquet: The Battle of South Georgia
1:56:07 Operation Black Buck and the Opening of the Air War
2:09:15 Belgrano and Sheffield
2:40:51 Shaping the Battlespace: MI6, Special Forces Raids and the Sea Dart Missile Trap
3:02:35 Operation Sutton: D-Day at San Carlos
3:24:08 Bomb Alley: The Battle of San Carlos