MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands commemorates 38th anniversary of Goose Green battle and liberation

Monument to the Goose Green battle which ended 29 May 1982

The Falkland Islands Governor, members of the elected government and public in general will be participating this Friday morning in the commemoration of the liberation of Goose Green settlement 38 years ago. However because of the Covid-19 pandemic the ceremony will be a shorter service to mark the occasion.

Governor Nigel Phillips CBE and elected lawmaker MLA Teslyn Barkman ill lay wreaths while Reverend Ian Faulds will be officiating the service.

Anyone who usually attends is welcome, but will be requested to observe social distancing or watch from their vehicles. The usual social gathering after the ceremony is not possible this year because of the coronavirus.

Goose Green and Darwin is one of the largest settlement in the Islands, includes an airfield and is a short distance from San Carlos, where the British Task force had made a successful amphibious landing a few days before.

On May28/29 there was an engagement between advancing British parachutists under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Jones, and the Argentine occupation forces in well entrenched and defended positions.

Jones was killed by an enemy machine-gun post, but the Argentine garrison agreed to a ceasefire and formally surrendered the following morning, 29 May 1982.

At the end of the battle, the British had lost 18 men, the Argentines some 55, and another 960 were taken prisoners.

Victory also meant the liberation of some 114 residents, men, women and children, of the settlement that had been locked up for weeks by the Argentine forces in the Community Hall under inhuman conditions.