If the Falklands was invaded today, Could the UK without help take it back again

[Ricksta85]

38 minutes ago, joecoolfrog said:

If you read history books instead of comics you wouldn't print such ridiculous garbage.

Its a matter of record , confirmed by released government papers , that the Falklands was a low point in Thatcher and Reagans ( usually close ) relationship.

He tried his hardest to prevent the re occupation of the islands but was told in no uncertain manner to bugger off.

I believe the yanks, gave us access to an island base close to the Falklands, and offered the use of one of their carriers if ours were sunk and also supplied missiles. Just as well, because the missiles Maggie wanted to send would of wiped Argentina out.

[Surasak]

22 hours ago, madusa said:

From Asian country ex-colonial, suffered under the imperialists dictatorship now whole country is a shitty police state thanks to all the imperialists hard work in the past. Love to see Argentine get back its property.

"When the Lion is sick the Laughing Hyenas will appear"

 

All history and most try not to repeat the past by learning from it. Holding a grudge is never a good thing, it only causes problems.

[Ricksta85]

44 minutes ago, billd766 said:

And our glorious French allies meanwhile were helping the Argentinians.

Well, they did give us the codes to the argies exocet missiles, granted Maggie said give me the codes or the Argentine mainland is going to get a surprise from that nuculear sub that's lurking around there.

[Surasak]

20 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Fairly useless without aircraft don't you think? 

Rome wasn't built in a day. The aircraft were available from day one. The delay of supply, is the seller having problems after a major incident just prior to delivery. 

[Pilotman]

59 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

You said no ships, I posted that they are finalizing construction of the two biggest ships ever for the Royal navy, and you responded no aircraft yet - white elephants.

I believe the Queen Elizabeth is currently in the US and the first aircraft are landing on board. I understand it will have up to 40 of a version of F-35s, as well as several helicopters.

When does it cease being a white elephant in your mind?

when we can afford to operate them properly, which is never. They are and will remain highly vulnerable while support vessels are not included in the equation, and they are not. We have learnt nothing from the two World Wars and a few in between. There is nothing more vulnerable than a capital ship and one without the correct escorts around it is asking to be sunk.  

[Psimbo]

22 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Very true but no aircraft yet on them and no support vessels to ensure their safety in hostile waters.  White elephants both. 

Errrrr- wrong- the first aircraft was on there a day after it sailed from Rosyth. It has been off the coast of the US for a number of weeks and there have been over a hundred landings and take-offs. Maybe not OPERATIONAL at present but the planes are online and pilots have been training for years. The escort ships are there- I refer you to the recent doco on HMS Daring. QE and PoW are hardly White Elephants- they are force projection well into the century

 

Typical pilot's response over jealousy that the RN has new big shiny toys and the Air force doesn't (Note that the RAF will, along with US Marines provide a proportion of the pilots).

 

To address the main story if the Argies had waited 6 months in 1982 the Nott Review would have been in effect and the Navy would have had no amphibious warfare capability. patience is a virtue. Could it happen today is a moot point as the Argentinians kit is broke to the point that 4 Typhoons could deal with the current threats. SF raids to take them out are impractical given the state of the Argie sub fleet (at the bottom of the sea). The new AA missile system is shortly being deployed there to take over from the Rapiers.

 

Best time to attack if possible would be on a Friday night when everyone is pissed (allegedly!)

[Baerboxer]

23 hours ago, madusa said:

From Asian country ex-colonial, suffered under the imperialists dictatorship now whole country is a shitty police state thanks to all the imperialists hard work in the past. Love to see Argentine get back its property.

"When the Lion is sick the Laughing Hyenas will appear"

 

 

Typical of Asian mentality - blame someone else! 

 

Gee whiz those wicked Roman dictators screwed up all Europe with their imperialist colonial mentality - only Europeans learnt from it and built democracies. No doubt some ruled colonies more kindly than others but some Asian countries were corrupt shit heaps before they arrived and some have returned to such since they left! Seems slow to learn.

 

Argentina doesn't have a legitimate claim to the Falkland Islands and the Falklanders voted overwhelmingly to remain British. But you support either a fascist regime or corrupt socialist regime - Argentina is usually one or the other, taking them by force against their will? 

 

As for military might - I submarine, I nuke = goodbye Buenos Airies!

 

[Psimbo]

39 minutes ago, Ricksta85 said:

I believe the yanks, gave us access to an island base close to the Falklands, and offered the use of one of their carriers if ours were sunk and also supplied missiles. Just as well, because the missiles Maggie wanted to send would of wiped Argentina out.

Actually it's A Brit base, run by the Americans with a token RAF officer and staff 'in charge'. Ascension Island. On 9/11 the trooping flight had just left the falklands for Ascension when word of the twin Towers attack came in. The US closed all airbases around the world including Ascension (ostensibly a BRITISH base!!) and the trooper had to turn back 3 hours out.

 

The carrier tale was mooted but would not have been practical to to a lack of interoperability between Brit and US systems on all levels. Advanced sidewinders for aircraft and Stingers for SF were they types of missiles supplied.

 

Ascension remains an important link for the trooping flights to this day.

[madusa]

1 hour ago, maxcorrigan said:

Why don't you just say outright which country you are talking about, or are you ashamed, so leave us to guess, India maybe?

Looking at the ant on my table I wonder does it knows how big the world is。Do we know how big the universe is. Watching an open cremation in the countryside, you see the corpse burst open after the intense heat and all the guts spilled out . You contemplate on your ego, everything you fought for, your worry, your selfishness all  will finally end up like this.

British should negotiate to return the island and share what they could with the Argentine. The Anglo-saxon have been genocidal for too long. The Pitcarn Island is an example, all the natives who accompanied Fletcher Christian after the mutiny on The Bounty were slaugther on Pitcarn Island.

[madusa]

6 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Typical of Asian mentality - blame someone else! 

 

Gee whiz those wicked Roman dictators screwed up all Europe with their imperialist colonial mentality - only Europeans learnt from it and built democracies. No doubt some ruled colonies more kindly than others but some Asian countries were corrupt shit heaps before they arrived and some have returned to such since they left! Seems slow to learn.

 

Argentina doesn't have a legitimate claim to the Falkland Islands and the Falklanders voted overwhelmingly to remain British. But you support either a fascist regime or corrupt socialist regime - Argentina is usually one or the other, taking them by force against their will? 

 

As for military might - I submarine, I nuke = goodbye Buenos Airies!

 

yes of course the Asians are the bad guys and have always been, corrupted, slit eyed, shitty, what else? . Well, the Anglo-saxons are the good guys do we need to say more?

[alien365]

41 minutes ago, transam said:

But that's from an "Aliens" point of view....????

As an alien I will sit back and wait for the world leaders to finish their job of ruining the world ???? 

[transam]

5 minutes ago, alien365 said:

As an alien I will sit back and wait for the world leaders to finish their job of ruining the world ???? 

Whilst you do what...?

[vogie]

8 minutes ago, madusa said:

yes of course the Asians are the bad guys and have always been, corrupted, slit eyed, shitty, what else? . Well, the Anglo-saxons are the good guys do we need to say more?

I'll think you'll find that the Anglo Saxons finished in 1066, but don't let history get in the way of your beliefs will you.

Maybe you should start another thread as you are not contributing anything at all to with this topic.

[alien365]

4 minutes ago, transam said:

Whilst you do what...?

Drink a Chang or two from my spaceship. ????

On a serious note though I think the UK would defend the Falklands but would probably require some help from our allies across the pond to do so. I'm a stern believer that the Falklands should stay under British control as long as that is what the islanders choose. 

[faraday]

57 minutes ago, madusa said:

Looking at the ant on my table I wonder does it knows how big the world is。Do we know how big the universe is. Watching an open cremation in the countryside, you see the corpse burst open after the intense heat and all the guts spilled out . You contemplate on your ego, everything you fought for, your worry, your selfishness all  will finally end up like this.

British should negotiate to return the island and share what they could with the Argentine. The Anglo-saxon have been genocidal for too long. The Pitcarn Island is an example, all the natives who accompanied Fletcher Christian after the mutiny on The Bounty were slaugther on Pitcarn Island.

Oh my golly gosh, your first paragraph is just sooo intelligent. ????

 

The rest, sadly not.

 

Peace be upon you my son.

 

 

[transam]

1 hour ago, madusa said:

Looking at the ant on my table I wonder does it knows how big the world is。Do we know how big the universe is. Watching an open cremation in the countryside, you see the corpse burst open after the intense heat and all the guts spilled out . You contemplate on your ego, everything you fought for, your worry, your selfishness all  will finally end up like this.

British should negotiate to return the island and share what they could with the Argentine. The Anglo-saxon have been genocidal for too long. The Pitcarn Island is an example, all the natives who accompanied Fletcher Christian after the mutiny on The Bounty were slaugther on Pitcarn Island.

Try Chang.....I get hangovers with Leo...????

[mercman24]

what a load of crap, the Argentinian soldiers were conscripts,  no stomach for a fight, only their airforce pilots showed loyalty to commands,

[sawadee1947]

Who put this to TV? 

Does this has anything to do with expats in Thailand?

DELETE it immediately!!!! 

[transam]

8 minutes ago, mercman24 said:

what a load of crap, the Argentinian soldiers were conscripts,  no stomach for a fight, only their airforce pilots showed loyalty to commands,

So where were the Argy army...I mean, taking on the Brits..Where were the paid army...?  ????

[transam]

3 minutes ago, sawadee1947 said:

Who put this to TV? 

Does this has anything to do with expats in Thailand?

DELETE it immediately!!!! 

 

[vogie]

6 minutes ago, transam said:

So where were the Argy army...I mean, taking on the Brits..Where were the paid army...?  ????

There were Argentinian regulars on The Falklands, but most were conscripts. The regular Argentinian army were kept on the mainland as Argentina feared an attack from Chile which had strong diplomatic ties with Britain at the time.

[Jumbo1968]

It was an ego trip for Thatcher, her popularity was waning and the Falklands boosted it, in fact the UK were very lucky.

Although British losses were heavy, luck worked mostly to their advantage. Cloud cover and an inexplicable lapse in the Argentine defense allowed them to establish a beachhead unscathed. Argentine bombs would bounce harmlessly over ships, and some bombs that hit their targets did not explode. But Argentine incompetence may have been the biggest factor in the British victory. In a remarkably candid estimate, Woodward does not hide his contempt for Gen. Menendez, the army commander, nor does he overlook the good fortune it produced:

''Perhaps I should have simply been grateful for the incompetence of his defense, along with his lack of perseverence. It would not have taken much effort on his part to spin the land campaign out another ten days-and that would have finished us, not him.''

[Thongsaeng]

Estarán en silencio, e invisibles, en la mañana, los Gurkha disfrutarán otro día.

[shy coconut]

20 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

Some of the statements on this thread are quite offensive considering the fact that the Falkland Islanders did not wish to be ruled by a right wing military dictatorship known for its tossing of children from helicopters. The British fallen were not in vain as their sacrifice kept the appreciative islanders free and was instrumentalin returning freedom to Argentina.

 

I thought it was Pinochet in Chile who had people thrown from helicopters.

[shy coconut]

5 hours ago, billd766 said:

And our glorious French allies meanwhile were helping the Argentinians.

I'm sure that when the french sold the planes and missiles to the Argentine, no one

here, or virtually anyone , had ever heard of the Falklands.

[bluemoon58]

Just a slight correction Moonlover, there were two aircraft carriers, the other being HMS Hermes which was the flagship of the fleet. My mate was on board.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hermes_(R12)#Falklands_War

[khunPer]

7 hours ago, ally3220 said:

The Falkland Islands have never belonged to Argentina....sorry you need to read your history:

 

1764 - discovered by Europeans and colonised by France

1765 - British Captain claimed the islands for Britain

1770 - A Spanish fleet arrived forcing the British to leave Port Egmont - almost went to war

1774 - Britain withdrew from many overseas settlements, including Falklands. The Spanish administered the islands until 1811.

1811 - Spain forced to withdraw due to peninsular war.

1833 - Britain returned and have administered the islands since that date

1982 - Argentina invades "Malvinas" because it's theirs! No it's not and the people want to remain British.

 

I really get sick of people stating things that have no basis in truth. I was serving at the time of the Falklands War and I can tell you that we were really lucky to win.

Good argumentation.
So the Falklands should be given back to France...????

[Lokie]

Operation 'Black Buck' the Vulcan raid on Stanley airfield did have a major impact on Argentine military operations, true only one bomb (all the same outstanding) actually hit the runway but the fact was the Argies then thought; Hang on a minute.... if they can bomb Stanley then they can bomb the Argentinian mainland so that checked them on that front and the obvious moral implications, same as HMS Conqueror's sinking of the Belgrano kept the Argy naval forces in check/port  

 

Lots of reports of american accents amongst some of the argentinian units also over the years (hired hands) 

 

IMO we would be actually in a better position to do it again v the Argies down there, they had us with our pants down last time - one unit of marines and a handful of Territorial Army Islanders against a full unannounced/unprovoked surprise invasion.

 

For sure without the Harrier CAPs things would have been a lot different and have no doubts the Argentine pilots of both the Air Force and Navy flew some pretty good sorties also 

[StreetCowboy]

The Argentinians are our friends. The Argentinians have always been our friends.  The war strained relationships somewhat, even for years after, but they are still our friends. No amount of stirring by foreign troublemakers will change that.

[SheungWan]

6 hours ago, shy coconut said:

I thought it was Pinochet in Chile who had people thrown from helicopters.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/argentina/1401187/Galtieri-arrested-over-Argentina-dirty-war-deaths.html