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Falklands: Goose Green commemorates 35th Liberation day

Sunday, June 4th 2017 - 13:56 UTC
Full article 62 comments
 Goose Green Village Hall where Islanders were imprisoned when the Argentine Military Junta took over the Islands in 1982. Goose Green Village Hall where Islanders were imprisoned when the Argentine Military Junta took over the Islands in 1982.

Falkland Islanders who were held prisoner in the Goose Green Community Hall by the invading Argentine forces in 1982, joined with members of the British 3 PARA to commemorate those who died during the battle to liberate the settlement which happened at 13:30 hours May 29th.

 An estimated 100 residents, including women and children, from Goose Green and Darwin where locked up, for almost seven weeks, in appalling conditions, at the Community Hall by the occupying Argentine military.

When news came of the landing of the Task Force in San Carlos, Argentine forces dug into well defended positions. After two days of fierce fighting and threats of massive British air support and naval artillery, Argentine forces turned in their arms and surrendered.

According to military reports from the time PARAs suffered 15 killed including Colonel H Jones, and thirty wounded. Argentines lost 55 men and close to a hundred were wounded.

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  • Marti Llazo

    Malvado 1833

    184 years. Longer than many countries have existed.

    Get used to it.

    Jun 05th, 2017 - 04:23 pm +5
  • HughJuanCoeurs

    Poor old Hepatia. Again with the old “England will return the Malvinas within 25 years” BS.
    #1 Yes, we have no Malvinas...
    #2 England doesn't have the wherewithal to return the FALKLANDS (please learn the difference between “England” and “The United Kingdom of Great Britain”
    #3 The United Kingdom of Great Britain won't be returning the Falklands to Argentina without the express wishes and permission of the Falkland Islanders
    #4 It ain't going to happen

    Jun 05th, 2017 - 05:16 pm +5
  • Marti Llazo

    Malvado 1833,

    All those silly 19th century imaginings are of no consequence now. Perhaps you haven't heard that the island are British? And they'll stay that way until the joint occurrence of pigs flying and the Falklanders deciding perhaps on some other arrangement. Get used to it.

    -------

    Islander1: Some years ago I discussed the matter of the 1982 airport situation with a former RAF officer who visited us in Río Gallegos, a bit incognito in that his former work was kept mostly quiet. Apparently it was not the Vulcan raids that prevented the aerodrome from being made fit for argie fast-movers, but the lack of work done by them to make the facility suitable. There would have been a great deal of work to accommodate the fast jets, beyond the comparatively simple matter of lengthening the runway. It seems as though a good bit of steel matting was delivered early on but the surface preparation for expanding the runway couldn't be accomplished with the argie personnel and equipment on the island, and they quickly gave up on the idea, long before the Vulcan raids. The mat delivered for the runway then quickly found its way out to the trenches, where it showed up nicely on aerial recon photography.

    But the argie Skyhawks could have more easily been accommodated there with a little bit of work, and doing so would have greatly improved their capabilities. But the argie navy couldn't figure that one out, either. So many phenomenal errors on the part of their leaders.

    And speaking of psychological blows: there was an attempt by a damaged argie Mirage to land at that too-short runway near Stanley, but their own AA shot it down and killed their pilot. Another example of their lack of comparatively simple command and control. The result: fratricide. Or was we say, own goal.

    Then there was a case of the argie destroyers running away as the Belgrano was sinking, effectively assuring the deaths of many. Tragic, but very argie.

    Jun 06th, 2017 - 02:09 am +5
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