I'm Sixty years old next month. I served on HMS Antrim in South Georgia and also in the Falklands in San Carlos during the British landings. We fought hard and ultimately prevailed. The Argentine Air Force were extremely brave and skilled. They were warriors and fought well. Last year I had the honour, for the first time since the war, to return. Unexpectedly I met an Argentine soldier. We were visiting the Argentine cemetery at Darwin. He walked straight up to us, looked into our eyes and held out his hand. I took it and I shook it. We understood each other. There is an understanding over the years. A respect and a resolution. We are all human. Please don't seek to re fight old wars over key boards. There is no point. We are all brothers and sisters.
you have beautifully written it Micky. I had the same experience when I was back to the islands last December!.. I met an British officer at the Darwin cemetery so I said thanks to him for doing that.... and also I paid my respect to the British one !... you are right.. we are all brothers and sisters...cheers.
People are getting antsy sitting at home. I'm made for this, but most aren't. Plus, most of the nasty posters are kids. I'll bet you have a ton of stories to tell :)
Mark: "Due to the British breaking Argentine naval codes, they knew roughly where the 25th of May was" Me: "probably somewhere between the 24th and 26th"
I was a submariner on HMS Conqueror ("Conx") - we had a great crew who completed a tough assignment in an exemplary manner. Before that, I was on a frigate, HMS Juno tracking Soviet carrier Kiev in the Arctic circle Xmas Day 1981 - exciting times for a teenager. NB: I can confirm the footage of the officer on the periscope was indeed the newly promoted TAS office, Captain Brown.
Hi Mark it was a very interesting and accurate chronology of the events. I was part of the crew of one of the aircraft carrier's escort. I was a conscript aboard the destroyer ARA Hercules one of the two type 42 destroyers in service in the Argentinian Navy. I served at the Operation Room as a 965 and 992 aerial and surface radar operator and , as I was sitting next to the sonar operator, I could see the entire process of search for the two British nuclear subs.. For your records, the ARA Hercules was the only type 42 destroyer (both Argentinian and Royal Navy) fitted with 4 MM38 Exocet which gave us an additional surface defense & attack capability we have to remember that Type 42 destroyer were mainly designed to give the fleet a sort of an anti aircraft umbrella, which I think those serving in the RN did successfully even though getting the full brunt of the Argentinian air force attacks (Sheffield , Coventry Glasgow) ... The full Task Force escorting the ARA 25 de Mayo were: another type 42 destroyer ARA Santisima Trinidad, 2 french manufactured corvettes (ARA Drummond & ARA Granville) equipped both with MM38 Exocet missiles and the WWII era Gearing-class destroyer ARA PY also equipped with MM38 Exocet missiles and was famous to have the best Sonar in the entire Argentine Navy at that time. If the attack (Code named by the Argentine Navy as "The night of Banzai) planned for 1st of May would have gone ahead, it would have been the major naval battle since Midway in WW2 (I'm glad we didn't enter in the history book for that ...otherwise I wouldn't probably be here writing this :) ). I'm a regular visitor to your channel and, like I said, I really enjoying doing it .. Keep up the good work. Cheers ..!
I was on the Canberra blissfully unaware running around its deck keeping fit ready to land. Hard to think it was 38 years ago this week that we sailed. I do remember being given the news the Belgrano had been sunk.
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 well I've got German, Italian and British ancestors like most of the Argentine people. A very european background for most of us... Plus I live in Australia so I'm a bit detached actually of nationalities but I will always remember the war...I was just 19yo so it's very strong experience to forget..
@David According to wiki, the 'Veinticinco de Mayo' attempted to launch a wave of A4-Skyhawks to attack the British Task Force, but the launch was prevented by the weather that day. After the 'General Belgrano' was sunk, the Carrier returned to port for her own safety. I'm not saying the Argentinian Navy had much of a chance, just that an attack by Carrier-Borne Aircraft on another Carrier nearly happened during that war.
@David I'm not sure that Britain could have blockaded the Falklands, at least not for long. The fleet was 8000 miles from home and constantly harassed by Argentine planes. The loss of two destroyers, two frigates and three auxiliaries really hurt. Also, only having 22 Harriers was problematic, as Argentina had ten times as many planes and could have whittled the Harriers down.
@@derworfnet You're right, sir. Seeing how the Brits were caught off-guard by Argentine Skyhawks and Daggers and had no real defense against Exocets, I have no doubt that a bunch of missiles would have hit either Hermes or Invincible.
@David That's really not true at all. HMS Sheffield, Atlantic Conveyor are just two examples of this point. Given that the Skyhawks were to be armed with conventional bombs means that it's far from certain that they would have been effective against the British fleet, as Mark rightly points out, just a single bomb hit could have caused the whole operation to be scrubbed...
Mr Canada Yeah and it used to be HMS Venerable a colossus class carrier, sold to Netherlands then sold again to Argentina. And Funny enough, during it’s service as Karel Doorman with the Dutch navy in 1961, she was almost/planned to be sunk during the West Papua Crisis or known in Indonesia as Trikora, Indonesian Air force’s Soviet made Tu-16 “Badgers” were supposed to take off and sink the carrier with As-1 Kernels Anti Ship missiles but the operation was cancelled as peace talks began and UN intervened, had the war continued on for a few more weeks it may have never met Argentina.
Thanks for this, Mark. I'm British and remember the Falklands war as a civilian of 19. I recall thinking that 'our boys will give the Argies a bloody nose'. What a damned fool I was. It never occurred to me then to thank my lucky stars that I wasn't one of 'our boys' who would be asked to die in this conflict, or indeed one of the Argentine 'boys' who would die there. Hopefully I've grown up enough now to realize that every single life lost, on both sides, was somebodies son, husband, father, brother and that people not very different from me in both countries still mourn to this day their loved ones lost in the war. I remember a TV show in the 90's with a Royal Navy Harrier pilot who described meeting an Argentine pilot after the war. He said they chatted about their experiences and apparently neither had much regard for the politicians that had created this problem for them to solve. He also said that he had great respect for the Argentine pilots, who were extremely skilled and pressed home their attacks with enormous courage. Seems to me that if the politicians had to fight we'd have the brotherhood of man tomorrow.
Argentina and the uk actually had great relations before the conflict, Argentina even almost joined the commonwealth during the great depression, you can also see that in the Argentine military equipment from 1945 to 1982, type 42 destroyers, gloster meteors,avro Lincoln's and avro Lancasters the UK was even considering the idea of giving an aeronaval base to Argentina in the islands
@@CruelSculpture And Prince Harry served two terms in Afghanistan with the British army. There are still some instances of Politicians who are militarily involved.
@@CruelSculpture You Know your stuff Sir. James IV of Scotland was the last king to die in battle on British soil, at the Battle of Flodden Field here in Northumberland 1513.
The loss of life was due to the British government's successful and totally wrong, morally wrong attempt to put an end to Britain's role as a world power; another result: 5000 dead from the Irish "Emergency", 100 times the death toll from the IRA Terrorist episode of 1956. The reason being that Russia did not support the "Terrs" in the Fifties; they feared the UK, and with good reason. By 1968 that was no longer the case, and direct and indirect Soviet sponsorship of terrorism had led the world to assume that Europe, and the rest of the West, would submit to any outrage with barely a protest. The Falklands episode partly changed that perception, and led directly to the fall of every Non-Communist Dictatorship in the Americas; no immediate benefit to the U.K. obviously, but an enormous step forward for us Yanks..... Who would shortly fumble the ball on eliminating the remaining Tyrannies in this Hemisphere. Those latter still constitute a deadly threat, and their contamination has since spread to Venezuela, and from there to the U.S......
Whenever I see any Falklands War coverage I can't help thinking about Surgeon Rick Jolly R,N who ran the field hospital. Treating both Argentinian and British wounded. Even having to endure 2 unexploded bombs lodged in the roof. He had the distinction of being the only man to be decorated by both sides for his humanitarian actions. RIP. Rick. Any chance of honouring this man with a video Mark ?
He was a great bloke, apparently there was an unexploded bomb by the cattle shed/ operating theatre where they worked! I don't think they lost a single servicemen who got casevaced there. He passed away a couple of years ago,RIP.
I met the man and he was very humble yet also utterly charming. He wrote an excellent book, The Red and Green Life Machine which is a book you can't put down.
@@enimentharp7421 My A-levels are officially cancelled and my college has told me i dont need to do any more work or revision so im free to just watch Marks videos now lmao
Wow! I never knew there was an active submarine battle playing out near the waters that we cruised through in that time frame. I would have been alarmed had I known. I was on the American fast attack submarine USS Groton, SSN-694. We were cruising home around the south tip of Africa after a six-month tour in the Indian Ocean when I looked at the compass and noticed we had turned westward. We knew the war was going on, but we were told that we wouldn't be playing any part in it. So when I saw the westward turn I wondered if things had changed. But I was told that no, we had to turn to avoid entering an active war zone, which I think was some unrelated British island further east. Anyway, we made it home to Groton CT without incident. Though we were shaken to get the news while we were still nearby that the British ship HMS Sheffield was hit by an Argentine exocet missile and sank a week later. Many in our crew had toured the Sheffield while we were both tied up alongside the same support ship at Diego Garcia.
The destroyer HMS Broadsword visited Charleston Naval Base on her way home from the Falkland's War. She took a well-placed bomb mid-ship, but it did not explode. Had it exploded, it probably would have sunk the ship. Killing and wounding about 18 men. Touchy business removing it - LOTS of welding. Very high morale among the crew. I'll never forget it.
Type 22 Frigate Broadsword was hit by one bomb which skipped off the sea, over the covered quarterdeck and passed up through flight deck, removing the nose section of a parked Lynx helicopter in the process. Bomb exploded harmlessly outboard.
This channel should be mandatory viewing for ALL students!! The detail you go into is amazing, and I appreciate the fact that you don't choose sides and report facts, not opinions! Excellent work again Mr Felton!!
@@patagualianmostly7437 yes, a fact is a fact, unless the revisionistas and thought police try to convince us otherwise ! in the meantime, rest in peace the soldiers/sailors/airmen of both sides
Just a minor point I suppose - it was not the "rules of war" that prevented the 25 de Mayo being attacked in territorial waters, it was the rules of engagement set by the British govt.
This video states they sank thebe belgrano in such conditions. It had gotten the carrier to retreat so it possibly felt like it had done its job and had no need to put itself in danger
Correct. Additionally, _25 de Mayo_ hadn't entered Argentine territorial waters, which are the waters within 12 nautical miles from the coast of a country. It wasn't attacked because it had left the exclusion zone established by the British government.
That depends if you're talking about the South Geographic Pole, the South Magnetic Pole, or the South Geomagnetic Pole. Thirty years ago the South Magnetic Pole was over Antarctica, but it has moved north along the 135th longitude and is now over the ocean heading towards Australia at a brisk pace.
I remember well this tragic senseless war, I was serving with the Brazilian Army at that time. Our Condolences to all the families from both sides who lost do many loved ones. Great article!
Actually, the loss of life on the Belgrano was pretty low, only a third of those on board--and that's TWO torpedos hitting a light cruiser. It's bad but not too horrific.
Yes, if Argentina hadn’t invaded the Falklands then none of this would have happened. If they had waited a few years I expect the British would have given them up anyway.
Im argentinean, the key fact in this war was the education (military history education). The Arg. President at 1982 and Commander in Chief Galtieri, didn´t remember that Great Britain never leave a territory without a fight, it´s a Nation that has been in war from his origins. Also the Arg. Armed Forces had training since 1950 to fight against a continental neighbour country because of sovereignty issues and also to fight against Terrorism Revolutionary Marxism who overpassed Security Forces, Federal Justice and Laws in Argentina, and every single Force (Army, Navy and Air Force) had his own rules and they weren´t excercise frecuently as a doctrine conjunction. Because of all that the Arg. Armed Forces were not prepared entirely to fight in a winter insular war against a NATO country just like UK in 1982, even though his Air Force, Naval Aviation, Marines, special reconnaissance Forces, and Army Artillery had good performance even admitted by top commanders of UK like Woodward, Moore and Thompson. Greetings.
I was in school on Ascension Island when this happened , I lived in two boats village . I remember coming home from school and finding soldiers having taken over our playing area and pitching tents everywhere, there was 1 swimming pool in the whole village and it was packed out because Ascension is a very hot little island. I live in nyc now and am watching this in lockdown because of the virus ,it would be a good time to be back on that little island or even better on my home island of St Helene which is 700 miles further south...
I was on HMS Lowestoft and we served at Ascension and ferried people to and from St Helena. Was at Ascension for my 22nd birthday. Arrived 24 hours after cessation of hostilities.
My father's unit, the 38th engineers, built the airfield in 90 days. Appropriately, the name given to it was Wideawake Field, the 38th nickname. The name came about because of the booby birds, who wouldn't shut up when it was mating season. They actually had someone from the Museum of Natural History investigate and come up with a solution.
A bit off topic but I went to Ascension in 2008 to do some work at the GPS radar site. Went through Two Boats and saw as much of the island as I could. I thought the island was fascinating and hope to get back some day.
I think nuclear subs in storage are a naval asset. It would not take very long to reactivate such vessles. Longer to crew them and work them up, in fact. If Britain were involved in a major war some of these ships would certainty be activated.
@@米空軍パイロット we British have a modern up-to-date navy that has, unlike Argentina long since replaced the stuff from 1982, our Royal Navy might not be the size it once was in sheer numbers but what we DO have is as good as any on Earth.
米空軍パイロット a shell compared to when? The 19th and 20th centuries yeah, but compared to the rest of them today the UK has a very advanced and capable military, significantly behind only america, china and russia, and when it comes to navy ahead of russia. It is easily within the top 10 militaries powers and at a push top 5.
Just an interesting note the failed Torpedo attacks from the Argentine Submarine was due to the relatively new torpedoes it used that were faulty. The HMS conquer (although not knowing that the Argentine submarines torpedo were failing at all) fearing that the new torpedoes it had could have problems, decided to use it's mark 8 torpedo as mentioned of ww2 vintage. A great example of a properly proven and tested device being more useful than something new and relatively untested.
Our US torpedoes were a joke. Many subs, during WWII fired uselessly, endangering themselves, for no results. The Russians still have better torps than us, unless something has changed, and if ours are improved, they probably cost the taxpayers a billion dollars to design, much less build.
the argentinian navy probably used the anti-sub torpedos against ships, and not the SST-4 wire-guided torpedoes of the germans against ships, they had 10 of these torpedos and they were only used in one drill really sucessfull by the turkish navy. the actual officer of the u-boat was at the time of the war in germany and became traped there. a young officer had to be the captain without xp of that ship and that armament. oh and the british navy didnt find or took out this one sub over the whole war.
@@jotabe1984 no the torpedo they did use was the SST-4 torpedo, it was said if they had used the MK 37 (made 1946 so just post war) in an anti-ship role they might have been successful.
@@apollomars1678 no the torpedo they did use was the SST-4 torpedo, it was said if they had used the MK 37 (made 1946 so just post war) in an anti-ship role they might have been successful.
I remember this war vividly. I caught wind of it on the morning news and told everyone in my high school geography class about it. All I got in return were blank stares. Not even my teacher knew where the Falklands were. She did apologize near the end of class when she went to the teacher's lounge and caught the news. The class ended up having to do a project about the history of the Falklands. Blank stares turned to angry stares.
I've been a high school history teacher for 30 years. One thing I had to learn as a young teacher was to have the humility to admit what I don't know...and to allow students to be my teacher from time to time.
...and let's not forget the thousands who lost limbs, sight, or suffered massive burns. Imagine building warships out of magnesium alloys? British ships hit by exocet missiles burned to the waterline after sustaining non-major hits to their superstructures. Magnesium burns white hot and is almost impossible to contain once it begins to burn.
Let us also remember the "disappeared" of Argentina under Galtieri: Some 30,000 by some estimates.* This "grabbing"of the Falklands was a smokescreen to deflect criticism from the Argentinean general public.... Sending half-trained , under-equipped conscript boy-soldiers.... An atrocity in itself. Footnote: *30,000 seems to be the accepted figure internationally..... Puts the estimates of Chiles 3,000 "disappeared" into perspective.... (Many of whom were years later found alive and well in various places around the globe.) Yet, according to the BBC.... Chile's Pinochet regime must never be forgotten, whilst rarely mentioning the Argentinean reality....30,000 .... Plus: The shameful "baby stealing" scandals for example.... Makes you wonder where many of Chile's 'disappeared' actually ended up....."Working at the BBC, perhaps?" Both regimes were abhorrent: I just expect better impartiality from the BBC.
As an uruguayan I can tell you that Argentina didn’t want to fight this war,but the military coupe that rule the country back then are the ones to blame,they tortured and kill their own people for political reasons,as a consecuence of this many of them were brought to justice and sentenced years later.Bastards!! My respect to the brave British and Argentinians soldiers.
Neither did British Intelligence who reported to Whitehall that the Argentinians were thinking of invading the Falklands, as they had when Wilson was PM and Heath was PM, difference being they were not in danger of being voted out the following year. As sir Keith Joseph was rumoured to have said "A nice little war will do your chances no harm". Under Wilson and Heath the Falklands garrison was strengthened and the RN increased their presence as they acted on the intelligence received this time the intelligence was ignored and we know the consequences
"kill their own people" falso uruguayo. Fue una Guerra Revolucionaria que las Organizaciones Terroristas Revolucionarias declararon al Estado Argentino y nuestro país se defendió por orden de Presidente mujer Constitucional en 1975 y así se cumplió militarmente. Por suerte ERP, Montoneros, FAR y otras Organizaciones Terroristas Revolucionarias como el MIR o Tupamaros fueron combatidas y derrotadas. Todas bajo el amparo de la dictadura marxista de Cuba. Luego Nicaragua y Venezuela fueron testigos del desastre que provoca el Socialismo.
5:53 In war the Brits always seem to have good luck with the weather. Just like with the Armada in 1588. But not in everyday life, when they want to go to the beach then it pours endlessly,
AvariceUntied Us brits have a complicated relationship with the weather, always looks down on us in battle but should you try and do battle on a cricket pitch then it’s like we left the lid off the toothpaste.
As a war history interested meteorologist I took a close look some years ago at the weather that caused the Skyhawks not being able to launch. This failure seems to be caused by poor meteorological forecasts on the Argentine side since they could have launched the Skyhawks by positioning the carrier slightly differently in space or time. Weather knowledge is critical for naval operations and can be the difference between victory and defeat.
As a young student in Britain in 1982,I remember the Falkands conflict from day one,to the day of the victorious armada's triumphant return to Portsmouth Harbour.I remember the daily casualty report on t.v.and the daily updates,the losses,and my own amazement that life went on so... normally back in Britain, despite the war..Just as I recall vividly all names of people and places in your narration.Thank you for filling in some of the blanks,38 years later, with this upload...
@@r.j.m4245 I meant the grim news of combat deaths and ship sinkings,that were part of daily updates on T.V. by a certain gentleman whose name escapes me right now...How's that in any way offensive?...Spring and Summer of '82,was a pretty grim time to be in Britain and follow the daily news on television...Oh yes...it was MoD press spokesman Ian McDonald,charged with delivering the bad news to the public during those unhappy days of the Falklands War...I do remember now...
@@Horriblebastad you're name is rather apt isn't it? If you actually read the guys comment it doesn't say a single thing anti British does it? Yet you fly off on some anti Argentinian rant at someone you don't know, without provocation, and at someone who you don't even know is Argentinian. People like you give us a bad name.
Hi Mark, I'm from Argentina. I want to thank you for doing such a thorough research for this video and for being impartial. A couple of years ago with some friends of a NGO I took part in we met Carlos Varela who was a captain in the Argentine Air Force at that time. He talk with us for about 4 hours about the war and told us about his whole experience. He used to fly a Skyhawk and took part in the last (argentine) aerial mission of the war (one day before the end of the war) which was to bomb an english camp near mount "Dos Hermanas" in the "Soledad Island" (idk the name in English) where Jeremy Moore was (chief of the British troops). At that time the AAF was in a clear technological inferiority and that's why they would have to fly at a maximum 15 metres above the sea to avoid being detected by the radars. He also told us about the process of fitting the Exocet missiles in the Skyhawks which was difficult because those were french missiles and were not prepared to be used, etc. I was an interesting history and me and friends left amazed about the history of the war which is kind of tabu here. Again thank you and I can't wait for new videos about that war
@@kincaidwolf5184 shouldn't have happened. The military dictatorship that ruled the country back them was unpopular, and they used the war to unite the country (they tried so bad to gain popularity that they used the media of that time to say that the war wasn't being lost, until the gov signed the surrender and the truth was known). They also sent many young conscripts to the war instead of the experienced men because they knew we had no opportunity against the British. The army was bad equipped, bad trained and had a huge technological inferiority, and they knew it but they still sent people to the war (who fought bravely with what they had and knew). But the war should have never happened. Back them we even had more opportunities through the diplomatic way, but because of the war the British won't even sit on a table to discuss anything (even... Idk... A commercial treaty between Argentina and the islands).
@@TanoEmpobrecedor69 The British not wanting to sit down with Argentina is not true my friend it has been offered many times ...But Argentina do not want representatives from the Falkland Islands to sit in on that meeting. There is a few photos taken with the British the Falklanders and an empty seat .
For some of you that didn't know, yes the cars were abandoned and seized by police where they were kept in a storage house as the Argentine government didn't want protesters burning the cars down. Until not long ago when the British and Argentine government agreed to quietly destroying them
@@lucaweller3371 what a shame those cars could have gone to anyone needing a car even one of those people who threw the eggs or the rocks it'd be better then destroying them.
i dont get the connection my self and i bet no one else did either wtf has this plate got to do with falklands war i reacon set up to throw at car silly gulable people every where.
@M 40 Do you think Argentina Main land were defendless? In fact Brtish Commandos tryed to attack the Naval Base were there was the Super Etendards aircraft and the Exocet missiles . But the operation failed and was aborted by the British commandos who run away into Chile and burn their oun helicopter ( or shoted down.. never was aclared by any side) . At the moment of the attack they realized that was a suicide operation with any chances of succes. Look for operation ¨Mikado¨. Regards from Spain.
Hey Mark, great video as always! I was born in Rosario just after the war in 1983. Argentine and British people have more in common than we think because, after all, we are all people. British people are welcome in Argentina. Peace :)
Tubeman: We have always been just "people".... But when highly paid politicians fail in their job.... It is us... the ordinary people who pay. Tragically. We lose our people, our family, our friends..... They lose nothing....even for their abject failure to do a simple job. "Keep the peace" But no, they fail. Time and time again. They make even more money out of our misery and pain. The politicians in Beruit failed their people...as evidenced last week... as they have done for far too many years.... How much longer can decent, peaceful, law-abiding people, put up with this total incompetence from the so-called 'ruling elite'? The time for change is long overdue. But Tubeman. I thank you for your comment.... Peace to you...always.
@@patagualianmostly7437 I totally agree. The actual war is between us the law abiding citizens and they, the corrupt politicians. No matter where in the world. Peace!
@@sebastiaandewit159 I don't know where you're from but don't make identity meaning out of the decision of a politician. It's not us the people who chose to take in Nazis. By the way, something to bear in mind: Some people spread love, some people spread hate. It's up to you. Choose wisely.
I missed the old documentaries from the 1990's History Channel, and later the Military channel...Mark Felton's docs are just as good as those (if not better!), and regularly includes content I've never heard about...Thanks again sir, and keep up the good work!
I cancelled my Sky Tv subscription because of the shite history programmes. It’s just reality tv and nothing at all to do with interesting and quality tv. This is excellent stuff along with a host of history podcasts including “we have ways of making you talk” with James Holland and Al Murrary. Top work Doc👍🍺
My grandfather worked on her modernization at Wilton-Fijenoord in the Netherlands when she was still in the dutch fleet as Hrms Karel Doorman, it was more a completly new ship than a modernization when compared to HMS Venerable he used to say to me. He told me a story that he checked out her old Bofors blueprints and that the blueprint was so large it stretched from one side of the room to the other. Only if we knew what Argentina had planned with her maybe we wouldn't have sold our upgraded ship to them.
No, that's called "we cant afford to dispose of them because it costs more than it did to buy them", so of course we're going to buy more! UK govt., kicking the can down the road since 1945.
I just don't buy it ? The Argintina couldnt launch there sky hawks because of dead wind ? You got to take few bombs off and go flank speed ! I think Captian got scared and ran home .
Wife: feed the children. It's lunch time. Me: right after I watch a video on how the Falklands war. Did you know the British almost sank the Argentine carrier? Wife: .........
Might not want to skip out on the schooling completely. Case in point, it's "not *too* hard to figure that one out." General public service reminder. There's two ways to spell "one", three ways to spell "two", but only one way to spell "three".
@@Seafarer64 indeed some parts are unskiable but almost everything else is or too unrefined to even try learning and the rest is just bullshit that is not very necessary for most of our life's
@Anglus Patria I don't think Dieppe, of all raids, is a great example on how to conduct amphibious operations. Sue Martino may be referencing the Argentinian forces, who's marines were trained and supplied by the US. The UK did do a very good and unique job on the Falklands by conducting such operations on short notice, extreme long distance and with integrating units not trained for amphibious operations. They could not have learned this from the US as the USMC never faced problems just like this. The US( as the UK) did have extensive amphibious experience prior to WWII though. Thats why I think Sue is referencing the Argies.
@Carcantos Cartinho he's clearly fluent in bullshit 😂 And such a saddo that he's copied and pasted the same comment across this video. Must've been a massive effort for him to vomit up that drivel.
@leonardimas1 It must really upset you to think that the Brits lost to all these poor countries, according to your comment, and yet still managed to win against Argentina.
I was in the U.S. Navy when this conflict was going down. My P-3 squadron happened to be in the Azores Islands and a British Antisubmarine Warfare Aircraft stopped to refuel. We got a chance to talk to them for a short period of time and wish them good luck.
@@amipsActually I did hear somewhere, that Reagan had agreed to lease us an old carrier, should one of ours get hit. I heard that we already had sailors,aboard it learning the ropes. I'm not sure that this story is true, maybe someone reading this might like to corroborate. I would never refer to the great Ronald Reagan as "cowardly", saying so is an insult to a great ally. I would however curse the present incompetent incumbent of the White House, from the roof tops. Biden is indeed a coward, I have no respect for him nor any who voted for him. If you think Reagan failed us in our time of need, just consider how bad that great A hole Biden would have failed us had he been president then. Remember Afghanistan? The arrogant Biden, pulled out over night without telling us. He wouldn't even answer the WTF phonecalls from Boris Johnson - left him hanging for 36 hours before talking to him. This disgusting behavior from an "ally" whom we supported by sending our forces to Afghanistan, because of 911, defies belief. The US ceased to be an ally , the moment Biden entered the White House as president. Please don't insult Reagan's memory again.
blitzpelirrojo what you hear also that gives me goose bumps is all the small arms fire from the deck crews which were the last line of defence against low flying high speed aircraft dropping bombs. Sobering stuff.
I was only 14 when the Falklands war kicked off. I can still remember rushing home from school every day, to see how our task force was getting on. All gave some, some gave all. LWF.
Me too! I remember when we first heard about it and we all were wondering what the f the argentines were doing off the coast of Scotland! Listened every evening to the brilliantly controlled and measured Ian McDonald giving the update from the MoD.
I used to dash to the TV after work to see the action every day. I was rooting for the United Kingdom of course, and it seemed touch and go for a while. It was very suspenseful and fascinating to me, sitting in the safety of my living room in California.
11:43 imagine being some Soviet, Chilean or American submariner just chilling out and then out of nowhere somebody starts dropping depth charges and firing torpedoes at you.
@@rogerwilco2 yep. Death is within a warzone in all ways . Marksmen IED Mines Shrapnel Ambush Sudden artillary Is the most common ways of unexpected death
Thatcher got alot of flak for sinking the Belgrano but she was exactly right: doing so effectively prevented sea borne attacks on British ships from the carrier.
@@lucianobaiter3996 Maybe it was illegal, but for Sure this Action "saved" more Life´s on both Sides later on as seen in this Video. So, I see the Belgrano as a Sacrifice. "Only them( poor Souls) had to die instead of maybe later Sailors and Airman of both Nations.
@@lucianobaiter3996 it wasn’t illegal the exclusion zone was to prevent the sinking of neutral ships. Belgrano was flying the flag of the belligerent Argentina and was thus a viable target. On top of that she was preparing to launch an attack on the British fleet
@@lucianobaiter3996 under what article of the Geneva convention or maritime law was it illegal ? It was an enemy ship attacked during hostilities. You can disagree with the decision, but if it was illegal, then so was every other ship attacked on the open sea in every other maritime conflict
The Argentines get what works for them. Their main battle tank, the TAM was a joint venture between Germany and Argentina based on the Marder IFV chassis. It's probably not that much of a threat to an Abrams, Challenger, or LeClerc but it gets the job done.
Dominik,they same with my state indonesia,in 1961-1962 we fought dutch in Dutch West Guinea(invasion of Trikora) with AMX-13 and PT-76,and mixed warship(some are british,French,and some are soviet,poland and american warship),and also 1963-1966 invasion of malaysia(operation dwikora)
When the 25th of May was in service with the Dutch navy she proved herself an often defective ship. She was built in WWII when good steel was unavailable. I saw Rear-admiral Vinke kick through her boiler walls with his shoes in the sixties. When she was ordered to head for New Guinea in 1962 against the Indonesian navy the crew had serious doubts about whether she would ever get there. The Dutch navy leadership was quite happy when the ship was sold to the Argentinian navy...Thnx for this interesting post!
I've heard not all in the Dutch army were happy when the Netherlands decided to sell the Leopard 2A6 tanks to Finland. They have been very solid, though, unlike that carrier.
The 1942 Light Fleet Carriers were built to commercial standards , they were supposed to have an operational life of at most 3 years. So for one to reach the 1960's was a surprise in itself! In fact the Venerable/Minas Gerais somehow managed to last from 1945 to 2001. The Hermes was built a little tougher and lasted even longer.
Sadly I dont think the current British Navy could repeat the deed today. Many of those capabilities have gone away, a sad chapter for the once greatest sea power
Q Tig you don’t think the current Royal Navy could defeat Argentina at the falklands? Of course they could, the thing is the Argentinians wouldn’t actually be able to take it now due to a greater British presence protecting the islands.
@@qtig9490 What? Today the Royal Navy has more Type 45 Destroyers then Argentina have working jets lol. They have more ASW Frigates then Argentina has working submarines ect.
I would describe the Argentine pilots as determined and heroic professional soldiers. I would not call them suicidal. Utmost respect to these pilots. They had a job to do and they performed their duty.
I think it was my uncle that told me that he saw the belgrano one time in some exchange as he was part of the Colombian navy. When he boarded, the one thing he remembers is that they had blocked some bulkheads doors in the open position because they were inconvenient. He believes the boat sank so fast because of this attitude, by not isolating the compartments it would allow the water to flood all compartments instead of remaining afloat due to the compartment design.
That footage of the argentine fighters is just amazing and scary at the same time! They were flying so low and fast I never seen anything like that whoever shot that got some perfect war footage
Everybody put down the A4 when it's a scrappy little bullet with heavy payload capacity. They are maneuverable enough to simulate Russian Migs for Top Gun.
That's because there were AA batteries on the far side. By flying wavetop height they stayed under radar lock. But difficult to arm bombs in time. A friend of mine in the engine room bent to tie his lace. He stood up with a piece of bomb tailfin in his overalls and a neat hole in the side of the ship where his head was a second earlier. A case of a bomb that didn't arm in time. It exited the other side leaving a draft. No, I'm not joking.
The Argentine Air Force was the most professional of the country's armed forces. It's been said that that the Argentine pilots flew with "suicidal bravery." They were respected and feared by the British.
@@stalker5299 The Super Étendard pilots as well. For want of a nail--if the Argentines had possessed just a few more Exocet missiles, things would have likely been much bleaker for the British task force. Probably one of the British carriers would have been hit or even sunk.
If you think there's an event in history you know pretty much everything about, wait for what Dr. Felton comes up with ! his was once again filled with inside information I haven't come across elsewhere - thanks a lot for all your work !
I was in the Canadian forces while this was going on. We were in daily contact with British troops on the ground there. Some of their stories, priceless!
@m k *sigh* Clearly, you were never in the military. Soldiers talk to each other. We had (and have) a network of messaging systems that would make an intelligence officer's head explode. Please, try not to comment on something you clearly, know nothing about. K?
Love Marks content, especially the story about Switzerland’s role during WWII he put up the other day!! Brilliantly scripted & love the accent to. Keep up the good work Mark. 👍🏼
@@bobbyrayofthefamilysmith24 They had to sink it, the war was close to ending and there were hundreds more British deaths than Argentine. It was to save face
Thank you Mr. Mark Felton. I'm a very advent student of military history. I never knew about this secret mission during the Falklands War. You got yourself a new subscriber.
My understanding was that the United States provided location data from satellite reconnaissance, but kept that classified as most of the Argentine pilots trained at the United States Air Force base in Columbus, Mississippi. Also a scandal of the war was that the BBC covered the war & cost many British lives. Argentine pilots were scoring hits on British ships, but much of the munitions had not exploded, because they were dropped too close and the propeller fuses did not have time to properly fuse. The BBC reported this and the Argentines backed off and had better success in getting detonations.
The BBC are cultural Marxist traitors - nothing new there. Another interesting US angle is the SAS captured a band of (presumably South American) US mercenaries - Maggie got on the blower to Reagan who said (and repeated) “There are no US citizens on the Falklands”. I guess it was a coded “take no US prisoners” statement. I suspect shallow graves were dug where appropriate.
You have to think that Argentina thought that there was no way in hell that the UK would respond so forcefully. They totally misunderstood the aggressiveness of Thatcher.
Thatcher wrecked your middle class and presided over the corpse of an empire that had committed suicide. And she pathetically opposed the reunification of Germany for crass political reasons, which shocked even Gorbechev.
@@snowflakemelter1172 Go see that your daughter isn't falling victim to a grooming gang. This is the problem with the British and Americans. Jingoistic foreign policy while the country is invaded.
I sadly disliked one. He did a video early on and it ended with "to find out what happened buy my book". It was actually pretty ignorant of him. But he never pulled that again.
nunca lo va a hacer este pirata….fijate como le di con un cano en mis comnents….nunca va a reconocer el valor Argentino…..porque le duele admitir que le dejamos un 'bloody nose"....ajjajaja
They were brave, yes. But they were using out of date ‘welded wing’ combat formations, and they failed to release their bombs within the correct parameters - which is why so many of their bombs failed to explode.
Not, really. They were launching from Argentina, fighting on their own 'door-step' mainland a mere 1.500km. Britain is almost 13,000km away! Plus the Argentines outnumbered the RAF 10 to 1. I would say the Argentine airforce was doing the bare minimum expected of an airforce.
I saw a documentary which included lots of interviews with Argentine pilots. It wasn't specifically on the Argentine Air Force or the Argentine point of view but it was well balanced. You would probably have to watch a few documentaries before you find it.
The Argentine navy pilots were the true MVP of Argentina. They didn't get as many sorties with their Skyhawks as the Air Force, but those that did were more damaging, due to their long practice in attacking ships. Then there was the Super Etendards & Exocets...
As an American, it's weird to me to think of a country like Argentina being able to militarily challenge a western country like the UK, especially considering the Aggies were using surplus ww2 equipment. Even in the 1980s, the capabilities of the US Navy and Army weren't too different from what we have now. It's just amazing how far the British govt allowed their military readiness to fall after ww2. It's like they seriously didn't think another war was possible.
You are not a western country when you go to war against a NATO country like UK, doesn't matter that Prince Andrew (Royal Navy 1982-present) always shows up for quincenera
Me too..I remember watching the morning news show to see what was happening before going off to school every morning ,, maybe the only one in my 5th grade class idk *s ( no maybe not
Amazing video Mark, thank you. Very well presented and organized. I love history and the Falklands war is one of my favorite topics, yet some of the footage were completely new to me. Keep them coming !
Wow! amazing footage and narration, I was a kid (10 yrs) in Central America when this was news, this is the first time I see how it unfolded !. Thanks...
Dr Felton, thanks for sharing your tremendous grip on military history with us again and again. No jingoism ever, nor judgments about the rights and wrongs of the political objectives that are the causes of wars. Just the facts of the military conflict explained on both sides.
kyle hardman Yes you guys are. The SAS are very respected in my book and by a lot of U.S. military service men who served with them. We also have your back until the end! One attack on an ally is an attack on all of us in NATO. But the Brits will always be our number 1 Ally. That’s why we share so much technology with each other! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇬🇧🇬🇧
Yeah they don’t have the infrastructure for disposing of them like the US does. Of course, they could always pull a China and dispose of it in the ocean.
@@jeebus022 The UK has fifteen nuclear reactor power plants. Where do they dispose of those spent rods? The have somewhere between 25 to 30 tons of rods per plant are replaced every two years. That's up to 450,000 pounds annually. A nuclear sub uses around 800 pounds. I'm not sure your thesis is accurate.
I was 5 at the time of the war yet still remember the news reports in Australia. The word 'Exocet missile' is something I'd never heard before and stuck in my mind.
I'm from Brazil and I was 9 at the time. The word Exocet was everywhere. Because Brazil was neutral I remembered the adults talking about a possible Argentinian land invasion if Brazil joined the Britishs. I was living and I still live in south of Brazil, very close to Argentina.
I remember back in the late 70's there was a movement to purchase the Belgrano back from Argentina and turn it into a museum ship as the last surviving ship from Pearl Harbor. Those plans were apparently torpedoed.
The British found much to their chagrin that replacing steel superstructure with Aluminum was a death knell for those ships when they were hit with Argentine French Exocet anti-ship missiles. Once Aluminum catches fire it is nearly impossible to put it out.
That was a legitimate concern that was highlighted by a couple of very bad accidents that the US Navy had in the 1970s. However there was no case of a structural aluminium fire on a British ship in the Falklands War. The only British ships with aluminium superstructures were the Type 21 frigates. Two of these were lost, but aluminium fires played little part in this. HWS Ardent had her weapons systems disabled by a lucky bomb hit in one attack and was then sunk by more bomb hits in a second attack. HMS Antelope was hit by a two bombs that didn't explode. One of these exploded later while an EOD team was trying to make it safe and most of the crew evacuated. That started a fire which eventually reached the magazine: there MIGHT have been an element of aluminium fire in that, but since the crew were off the ship by that time, it's hard to tell. However the bomb, fire and magazine explosion were all deep within the hull, which was made of steel, so it seems unlikely than an alumininum fire was critical. Two Type 42 destroyers were lost, but these had steel superstructures. HMS Sheffield burned out due to inadequate fire-fighting equipment and procedures but stayed afloat. She subsequently sank whilst under tow when worsening weather casued her to ship water through the hole made by the Exocet. HMS Coventry was hit by four bombs, which caused flooding to five compartments: more than her damage control could cope with. She capsized and sank quite quickly, so fire didn't get much time to take effect.
@@cra83 The Ardent's sister ship Antelope was lost too, but that was due to two unexploded bombs deep inside the hull, one of which went off as an EOD team were trying to make it safe. The resultant fires eventually reached a magazine and sank her. The aluminium superstructure MIGHT have been a factor in the spread of the fire, but since there was nobody on board to fight it, it's a moot point (the crew had been evacuated while the EOD team worked). Type 21s had a number of dubious detail design features that helped the spread of fire irrespective of the metals used.
@@smartypants5036 Yes the RN abandoned synthetic uniform materials and went back to cotton after that. Other problems were excessive soft furnishings giving off toxic smoke, interior linings making it hard to trace and repair hull leaks, insufficient supplies of fire-fighting equipment, a whole list of poor ship design features in one or more classes, and inadequate fire-fighting/damage-control training. Basically, the RN hadn't fought a hot war since 1945: complacency had crept in and standards had slipped in a hundred tiny increments that all added up. Things got WAY sharper in the aftermath (don't know if they've managed to keep it up...)
@Darth Kennedy What have cell phones got to do with any war? The tech in them was mostly developed in the private sector for consumer use. No rich country has been involved in a truly serious war since WWII. They just sometimes send small portions of their military to fight in poorer countries. Having a technologically up-to-date military is also not the same as fighting pointless wars all the time. One can have an effective military and choose not to use it.
@Darth Kennedy The early military devices you're talking about can hardly be called cell phones. The vast majority of the tech in a modern phone is from the private sector. Moore's Law is powered by civilian, private sector forces.
@Darth Kennedy Those wars were not serious. They were limited wars against inferior countries that had no hope of actually harming the United States itself. That's exactly the point. No modern, wealthy country has been willing to risk a war on home soil in nearly a century. People still die in minor wars.
@Darth Kennedy The military adopted cell phones first because it is willing to spend huge money on unique needs. It is the ultimate early adopter, but it's Moore's law that made mass market cell phones possible. Without the military, cell phones would have just gotten developed in silicon valley a few years later when electronics got smaller and cheaper from consumer electronic demand, and we'd have about the same tech in our phones today, since it's the miniature electronics and batteries that are the limiting factor for mobile devices. Jet engine technology also would have shown up in airliners sooner or later without military help. And like I said, peace doesn't mean you scrap the military or stop doing military development. A capable and up to date military is needed for any sovereign state.
Hi Mark it was a very interesting and accurate chronology of the events. I was part of the crew of one of the aircraft carrier's escort. I was a conscript aboard the destroyer ARA Hercules one of the two type 42 destroyers in service in the Argentinian Navy. I served at the Operation Room as a 965 and 992 aerial and surface radar operator and , as I was sitting next to the sonar operator, I could see the entire process of search for the two British nuclear subs.. For your records, the ARA Hercules was the only type 42 destroyer (both Argentinian and Royal Navy) fitted with 4 MM38 Exocet which gave us an additional surface defense & attack capability we have to remember that Type 42 destroyer were mainly designed to give the fleet a sort of an anti aircraft umbrella, which I think those serving in the RN did successfully even though getting the full brunt of the Argentinian air force attacks (Sheffield , Coventry Glasgow) ... The full Task Force escorting the ARA 25 de Mayo were: another type 42 destroyer ARA Santisima Trinidad, 2 french manufactured corvettes (ARA Drummond & ARA Granville) equipped both with MM38 Exocet missiles and the WWII era Gearing-class destroyer ARA PY also equipped with MM38 Exocet missiles and was famous to have the best Sonar in the entire Argentine Navy at that time. If the attack (Code named by the Argentine Navy as "The night of Banzai) planned for 1st of May would have gone ahead, it would have been the major naval battle since Midway in WW2 (I'm glad we didn't enter in the history book for that ...otherwise I wouldn't probably be here writing this :) ). I'm a regular visitor to your channel and, like I said, I really enjoying doing it .. Keep up the good work. Cheers ..!
Haha I thought this was a 30 year old documentary at first, which is a HUGE compliment. I was shocked that the narrator said "please subscribe" etc in the end. I haven't heard anyone talk like that for ages, it's almost like hearing Frank Sinatra sing or something.
They were the highly trained, top-level, of Argentinean military society. Yes, they were serious adversaries to the British military. A stark contrast to the poorly equipped, barely trained, cannon-fodder they sent to "defend" their ill-gotten gains....mere boys in many cases. And all to appease the dictator Galterieri in deflecting public criticism from the ever-increasing number of"disappeared"... (30,000 seems to be the internationally accepted number.)...not to mention the scandal of the "stolen babies". Strange how we hear so little from the BBC on these matters. Far too obsessed with the Pinochet, equally abhorrent regime in Chile.
They were aided by British ego, too. Despite the NATO push for more advanced SAM systems like Sea Sparrow, (US) Aspide (Italy) and Crotale (France), British ships were woefully ill-equipped to fend off air and missile attacks. In fact, they had no defense against the sea-skimming Exocets. And the fact that the Daggers hit the Brits with bombs drives home the embarrassing air defense situation.
That must be what top speed at sub sonic speed looks like-- a white blur quickly crossing your view before disappearing. At Mach 2, you would see a white flash out of nowhere, followed seconds later by the incoming jet sound.
Rob Bowes yes they did. They knew damn well they were up against one of the most powerful navy’s in the world. Argentina still managed to sink 7 British ships!!!!
They were fighting in their own backyard. The RAF were 13,000km from home and were outnumbered 10 to 1! The Argentines were doing their job, nothing more, nothing less.
@@leod-sigefast argentina was attacking from mainland with only 3 minutes of time to launch the bombs and sink a ship,the courage and mastery of argentines pilots were praised worldwide by aces of the sky,britain had full support of daddy USA that gave you your sweet sidewinder and others materials
@@annoyed707 Just so you could wait for another 15 minutes for a doctored image of a young 'Buffy Summers' from a dodgy site to load up - screen freezing viruses an all.. Magic.
Wars like these always fascinated me. Since ww2 very few wars happened between proper nations and prepared militaries. No fighting insurgent, terrorists or hermits in the mountains. Just plain out war. Nowadays we're mostly used to an extremely asymmetric type of warfare where the US for example, would never lose a carrier or a destroyer to ISIS. There is essentially no risk involved there. Events like these remind you that -- holy crap the enemy CAN just fly in and bomb your carrier to the bottom of the ocean!!
Yes, indeed, good comment. It really was the last of the 'traditional' style wars. As a Brit it was a very touch and go war. The Argentines had good capacity to really hurt the British task force and many in the British upper echelons did not think it was possible to win at such a long distance. It was that little bit of 'extra' that the Brits had, some luck, some professionalism and guts that pulled the Brits through. But it could have gone to the Argentines with a few twists of fate, as this video shows.
@@foxvsbadgervsferretvstwocr6577 There is a 4/5hr long documentary series on youtube with full interviews of the general and infantrymen who commanded and fought on the islands. From what I gathered, a good chunk of the win could've been attributed to simply low morale of the Argentine troops, exemplified in the large numbers of POW in quite appaling states who surrendered. They had been thrusted into a war that nobody wanted in an attempt to score some cheap propaganda points for the new militarist government/coup. They were banking on the UK not fighting back. Had the Argentines actually wanted the island and properly committed, they would probably have pulled it off.
You have torpedoes failing, bombs failing, missiles failing, cannons jamming, guns jamming, ejection seats old af, exocets failing (the warhead didnt explode, HMS Sheffield) Radars failing. Yep seems about right.
"Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult. These difficulties accumulate and produce a friction, which no man can imagine exactly who has not seen war." -- Carl con Clausewitz, On War, 1832
This is a very fine treat Mark! Thank you very much! I do wish more of the 'ordinary' enlisted people would write down their accounts of their experiences and people of both sides of a conflict. I think it would be good to help us civilians and who knows? Perhaps help to slow occurrences of wars.
I'm Sixty years old next month. I served on HMS Antrim in South Georgia and also in the Falklands in San Carlos during the British landings. We fought hard and ultimately prevailed. The Argentine Air Force were extremely brave and skilled. They were warriors and fought well. Last year I had the honour, for the first time since the war, to return. Unexpectedly I met an Argentine soldier. We were visiting the Argentine cemetery at Darwin. He walked straight up to us, looked into our eyes and held out his hand. I took it and I shook it. We understood each other. There is an understanding over the years. A respect and a resolution. We are all human. Please don't seek to re fight old wars over key boards. There is no point. We are all brothers and sisters.
you have beautifully written it Micky. I had the same experience when I was back to the islands last December!.. I met an British officer at the Darwin cemetery so I said thanks to him for doing that.... and also I paid my respect to the British one !... you are right.. we are all brothers and sisters...cheers.
People are getting antsy sitting at home. I'm made for this, but most aren't. Plus, most of the nasty posters are kids. I'll bet you have a ton of stories to tell :)
AS a former american submariner, I would not wish death on any other submariner, shitty way to go
Heartfelt and dignified statement. This mature kind of reasoning and compassion may ultimately save us from ourselves. Bless you, Sir.
Hi Micky fun fact I live in Antrim Northern Ireland your boats name sake it must of been some experience fighting in the Falklands 🇬🇧🇬🇧
Mark: "Due to the British breaking Argentine naval codes, they knew roughly where the 25th of May was"
Me: "probably somewhere between the 24th and 26th"
LOL
Go to your room, Mike. And no dinner.
😆 good one
Underrated comment for sure. 😂
Ok, second dad joke of the day on a forum. How is everybody's quarantine going? :-)
Everyone keep Mark safe, this man doesn’t deserve hate, he keeps everyone busy with these great video’s.
You deserve hate for the way you write videos! Wtf dude?
@@Thomas-wo9ur You deserve pity for writing such a statement.
Ouch you cant just talk nowadays you have to be careful on what you say or sound really stupid
@@ph11p3540 and you seem to be one of those who'd write "statement's".
videos*
I was a submariner on HMS Conqueror ("Conx") - we had a great crew who completed a tough assignment in an exemplary manner. Before that, I was on a frigate, HMS Juno tracking Soviet carrier Kiev in the Arctic circle Xmas Day 1981 - exciting times for a teenager. NB: I can confirm the footage of the officer on the periscope was indeed the newly promoted TAS office, Captain Brown.
So where you part of operation Barmaid ?
@@garwhittaker3743 SHHHHHH....
Do you happen to have that log room book that went.missing?
What a Christmas.
Hi Mark it was a very interesting and accurate chronology of the events. I was part of the crew of one of the aircraft carrier's escort. I was a conscript aboard the destroyer ARA Hercules one of the two type 42 destroyers in service in the Argentinian Navy. I served at the Operation Room as a 965 and 992 aerial and surface radar operator and , as I was sitting next to the sonar operator, I could see the entire process of search for the two British nuclear subs.. For your records, the ARA Hercules was the only type 42 destroyer (both Argentinian and Royal Navy) fitted with 4 MM38 Exocet which gave us an additional surface defense & attack capability we have to remember that Type 42 destroyer were mainly designed to give the fleet a sort of an anti aircraft umbrella, which I think those serving in the RN did successfully even though getting the full brunt of the Argentinian air force attacks (Sheffield , Coventry Glasgow) ... The full Task Force escorting the ARA 25 de Mayo were: another type 42 destroyer ARA Santisima Trinidad, 2 french manufactured corvettes (ARA Drummond & ARA Granville) equipped both with MM38 Exocet missiles and the WWII era Gearing-class destroyer ARA PY also equipped with MM38 Exocet missiles and was famous to have the best Sonar in the entire Argentine Navy at that time. If the attack (Code named by the Argentine Navy as "The night of Banzai) planned for 1st of May would have gone ahead, it would have been the major naval battle since Midway in WW2 (I'm glad we didn't enter in the history book for that ...otherwise I wouldn't probably be here writing this :) ). I'm a regular visitor to your channel and, like I said, I really enjoying doing it .. Keep up the good work. Cheers ..!
Your name is the most Argentine name ever lol
I was on the Canberra blissfully unaware running around its deck keeping fit ready to land. Hard to think it was 38 years ago this week that we sailed. I do remember being given the news the Belgrano had been sunk.
@shutup when covid-19 is over I'd recommend a visit . It's a great country to visit and know about.
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 well I've got German, Italian and British ancestors like most of the Argentine people. A very european background for most of us... Plus I live in Australia so I'm a bit detached actually of nationalities but I will always remember the war...I was just 19yo so it's very strong experience to forget..
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 Yes, for a man whose dad was a Nazi war criminal.
Interesting how this war was the only time since WW2 a Carrier vs. Carrier-Battle could have happened.
@David According to wiki, the 'Veinticinco de Mayo' attempted to launch a wave of A4-Skyhawks to attack the British Task Force, but the launch was prevented by the weather that day. After the 'General Belgrano' was sunk, the Carrier returned to port for her own safety. I'm not saying the Argentinian Navy had much of a chance, just that an attack by Carrier-Borne Aircraft on another Carrier nearly happened during that war.
@David I'm not sure that Britain could have blockaded the Falklands, at least not for long. The fleet was 8000 miles from home and constantly harassed by Argentine planes. The loss of two destroyers, two frigates and three auxiliaries really hurt. Also, only having 22 Harriers was problematic, as Argentina had ten times as many planes and could have whittled the Harriers down.
@@derworfnet You're right, sir. Seeing how the Brits were caught off-guard by Argentine Skyhawks and Daggers and had no real defense against Exocets, I have no doubt that a bunch of missiles would have hit either Hermes or Invincible.
The RN had already tapped in to Argintine comms, they knew everything that was going on.
@David That's really not true at all.
HMS Sheffield, Atlantic Conveyor are just two examples of this point.
Given that the Skyhawks were to be armed with conventional bombs means that it's far from certain that they would have been effective against the British fleet, as Mark rightly points out, just a single bomb hit could have caused the whole operation to be scrubbed...
I didn’t even know they had a carrier
Haha, that was my first thought. "Argentina had a carrier, what?!"
I'm argentine and i didn't know either
Mr Canada Yeah and it used to be HMS Venerable a colossus class carrier, sold to Netherlands then sold again to Argentina.
And Funny enough, during it’s service as Karel Doorman with the Dutch navy in 1961, she was almost/planned to be sunk during the West Papua Crisis or known in Indonesia as Trikora, Indonesian Air force’s Soviet made Tu-16 “Badgers” were supposed to take off and sink the carrier with As-1 Kernels Anti Ship missiles but the operation was cancelled as peace talks began and UN intervened, had the war continued on for a few more weeks it may have never met Argentina.
Argentina had two carriers, 25 de Mayo and Independencia.
They were sorta a modern in 1980s sense, they sunk the Sheffield with an anti ship missile called an exocet.
Thanks for this, Mark. I'm British and remember the Falklands war as a civilian of 19. I recall thinking that 'our boys will give the Argies a bloody nose'. What a damned fool I was. It never occurred to me then to thank my lucky stars that I wasn't one of 'our boys' who would be asked to die in this conflict, or indeed one of the Argentine 'boys' who would die there. Hopefully I've grown up enough now to realize that every single life lost, on both sides, was somebodies son, husband, father, brother and that people not very different from me in both countries still mourn to this day their loved ones lost in the war.
I remember a TV show in the 90's with a Royal Navy Harrier pilot who described meeting an Argentine pilot after the war. He said they chatted about their experiences and apparently neither had much regard for the politicians that had created this problem for them to solve. He also said that he had great respect for the Argentine pilots, who were extremely skilled and pressed home their attacks with enormous courage.
Seems to me that if the politicians had to fight we'd have the brotherhood of man tomorrow.
Argentina and the uk actually had great relations before the conflict, Argentina even almost joined the commonwealth during the great depression, you can also see that in the Argentine military equipment from 1945 to 1982, type 42 destroyers, gloster meteors,avro Lincoln's and avro Lancasters the UK was even considering the idea of giving an aeronaval base to Argentina in the islands
@@CruelSculpture And Prince Harry served two terms in Afghanistan with the British army. There are still some instances of Politicians who are militarily involved.
@@CruelSculpture You Know your stuff Sir. James IV of Scotland was the last king to die in battle on British soil, at the Battle of Flodden Field here in Northumberland 1513.
The loss of life was due to the British government's successful and totally wrong, morally wrong attempt to put an end to Britain's role as a world power; another result: 5000 dead from the Irish "Emergency", 100 times the death toll from the IRA Terrorist episode of 1956. The reason being that Russia did not support the "Terrs" in the Fifties; they feared the UK, and with good reason. By 1968 that was no longer the case, and direct and indirect Soviet sponsorship of terrorism had led the world to assume that Europe, and the rest of the West, would submit to any outrage with barely a protest. The Falklands episode partly changed that perception, and led directly to the fall of every Non-Communist Dictatorship in the Americas; no immediate benefit to the U.K. obviously, but an enormous step forward for us Yanks..... Who would shortly fumble the ball on eliminating the remaining Tyrannies in this Hemisphere. Those latter still constitute a deadly threat, and their contamination has since spread to Venezuela, and from there to the U.S......
There would have been no Falklands War had the RN not been scrapped down to a skeleton in the name of..... What? No "precious" money was saved......
Whenever I see any Falklands War coverage I can't help thinking about Surgeon Rick Jolly R,N who ran the field hospital. Treating both Argentinian and British wounded. Even having to endure 2 unexploded bombs lodged in the roof. He had the distinction of being the only man to be decorated by both sides for his humanitarian actions. RIP. Rick.
Any chance of honouring this man with a video Mark ?
thanks for sharing this, i hadn't heard about him before and you prompted me to read up on the man, cheers
T+have 966÷
This I didn't know. Thanks for sharing.
He was a great bloke, apparently there was an unexploded bomb by the cattle shed/ operating theatre where they worked! I don't think they lost a single servicemen who got casevaced there. He passed away a couple of years ago,RIP.
I met the man and he was very humble yet also utterly charming. He wrote an excellent book, The Red and Green Life Machine which is a book you can't put down.
Me: *sees Marks Notification* "welp forget whatever i was doing"
I have e-learning so the second I was done, I came over
@@enimentharp7421 My A-levels are officially cancelled and my college has told me i dont need to do any more work or revision so im free to just watch Marks videos now lmao
I'm sorry. We are in a war for the truth. You know which side we are on.
@@barkebaat I am but where does it apply here?
Gatorade may help you.
Wow! I never knew there was an active submarine battle playing out near the waters that we cruised through in that time frame. I would have been alarmed had I known. I was on the American fast attack submarine USS Groton, SSN-694.
We were cruising home around the south tip of Africa after a six-month tour in the Indian Ocean when I looked at the compass and noticed we had turned westward. We knew the war was going on, but we were told that we wouldn't be playing any part in it. So when I saw the westward turn I wondered if things had changed. But I was told that no, we had to turn to avoid entering an active war zone, which I think was some unrelated British island further east.
Anyway, we made it home to Groton CT without incident. Though we were shaken to get the news while we were still nearby that the British ship HMS Sheffield was hit by an Argentine exocet missile and sank a week later. Many in our crew had toured the Sheffield while we were both tied up alongside the same support ship at Diego Garcia.
@Christopher Moore Never heard that one before, so must be a pack of lies.
@Christopher Moore Let's see your proof then, clown.
@Christopher Moore Then by all means show the rest of the international audience your proof. We are waiting
@@MrCraigtastic im not waiting since hes talking the truth 100%
The destroyer HMS Broadsword visited Charleston Naval Base on her way home from the Falkland's War. She took a well-placed bomb mid-ship, but it did not explode. Had it exploded, it probably would have sunk the ship. Killing and wounding about 18 men. Touchy business removing it - LOTS of welding. Very high morale among the crew. I'll never forget it.
Type 22 Frigate Broadsword was hit by one bomb which skipped off the sea, over the covered quarterdeck and passed up through flight deck, removing the nose section of a parked Lynx helicopter in the process. Bomb exploded harmlessly outboard.
One of the most iconic photos of the war was the 2 A4 attacking her below deck level
This channel should be mandatory viewing for ALL students!!
The detail you go into is amazing, and I appreciate the fact that you don't choose sides and report facts, not opinions!
Excellent work again Mr Felton!!
MrFelton presents what he sees. The truth is not rocket science. Never will be.
@@patagualianmostly7437 yes, a fact is a fact, unless the revisionistas and thought police try to convince us otherwise !
in the meantime, rest in peace the soldiers/sailors/airmen of both sides
Totally agree! If only more historians stuck to facts instead of ideology we might be in a better world
Bing Chilling 🥶🧁Bing Chilling 🥶🧁
@@unityostara6380 Ideology?
Just a minor point I suppose - it was not the "rules of war" that prevented the 25 de Mayo being attacked in territorial waters, it was the rules of engagement set by the British govt.
Exactly. We should have sunk it. Imagine if your son had been on a ship sunk by one of the Mayo's planes later in the conflict.
@@MiniTheVinx spot on
Con el crucero Belgrano no se actuó de la misma forma.
This video states they sank thebe belgrano in such conditions.
It had gotten the carrier to retreat so it possibly felt like it had done its job and had no need to put itself in danger
Correct. Additionally, _25 de Mayo_ hadn't entered Argentine territorial waters, which are the waters within 12 nautical miles from the coast of a country. It wasn't attacked because it had left the exclusion zone established by the British government.
You don't have to say "north of Antarctica."
Everything is north of Antarctica.
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.....
Good point!
Unless you're a "Flat-Earther" 😜
That depends if you're talking about the South Geographic Pole, the South Magnetic Pole, or the South Geomagnetic Pole. Thirty years ago the South Magnetic Pole was over Antarctica, but it has moved north along the 135th longitude and is now over the ocean heading towards Australia at a brisk pace.
You want them to say 250 miles of Argentina? )))))))) then you know haw it looks like)))))))
I remember well this tragic senseless war, I was serving with the Brazilian Army at that time.
Our Condolences to all the families from both sides who lost do many loved ones.
Great article!
MP Tony Benn said that it was a futile war, but got a tongue lashing from Mrs Thatcher. see my video location above.
Actually, the loss of life on the Belgrano was pretty low, only a third of those on board--and that's TWO torpedos hitting a light cruiser. It's bad but not too horrific.
Yes, if Argentina hadn’t invaded the Falklands then none of this would have happened. If they had waited a few years I expect the British would have given them up anyway.
Ola, estudo com professores Do ITA que falam q não fosse a pressão brasileira os ingleses teriam invadido i terreno argentino.
Im argentinean, the key fact in this war was the education (military history education). The Arg. President at 1982 and Commander in Chief Galtieri, didn´t remember that Great Britain never leave a territory without a fight, it´s a Nation that has been in war from his origins. Also the Arg. Armed Forces had training since 1950 to fight against a continental neighbour country because of sovereignty issues and also to fight against Terrorism Revolutionary Marxism who overpassed Security Forces, Federal Justice and Laws in Argentina, and every single Force (Army, Navy and Air Force) had his own rules and they weren´t excercise frecuently as a doctrine conjunction. Because of all that the Arg. Armed Forces were not prepared entirely to fight in a winter insular war against a NATO country just like UK in 1982, even though his Air Force, Naval Aviation, Marines, special reconnaissance Forces, and Army Artillery had good performance even admitted by top commanders of UK like Woodward, Moore and Thompson. Greetings.
I was in school on Ascension Island when this happened , I lived in two boats village . I remember coming home from school and finding soldiers having taken over our playing area and pitching tents everywhere, there was 1 swimming pool in the whole village and it was packed out because Ascension is a very hot little island. I live in nyc now and am watching this in lockdown because of the virus ,it would be a good time to be back on that little island or even better on my home island of St Helene which is 700 miles further south...
is your last name actually Lamborghini?
David Holcomb dude right what a dope name
I was on HMS Lowestoft and we served at Ascension and ferried people to and from St Helena. Was at Ascension for my 22nd birthday. Arrived 24 hours after cessation of hostilities.
My father's unit, the 38th engineers, built the airfield in 90 days. Appropriately, the name given to it was Wideawake Field, the 38th nickname. The name came about because of the booby birds, who wouldn't shut up when it was mating season. They actually had someone from the Museum of Natural History investigate and come up with a solution.
A bit off topic but I went to Ascension in 2008 to do some work at the GPS radar site. Went through Two Boats and saw as much of the island as I could. I thought the island was fascinating and hope to get back some day.
The subs are now in "long term storage". What a nice euphemism for "we have no idea what to do with the nuclear reactors in it".
Can I buy one reactor as surplus to put in my Winnebago?
I think nuclear subs in storage are a naval asset. It would not take very long to reactivate such vessles. Longer to crew them and work them up, in fact. If Britain were involved in a major war some of these ships would certainty be activated.
@@daleeasternbrat816 Except for when your military is a shell of its former self.
@@米空軍パイロット we British have a modern up-to-date navy that has, unlike Argentina long since replaced the stuff from 1982, our Royal Navy might not be the size it once was in sheer numbers but what we DO have is as good as any on Earth.
米空軍パイロット a shell compared to when? The 19th and 20th centuries yeah, but compared to the rest of them today the UK has a very advanced and capable military, significantly behind only america, china and russia, and when it comes to navy ahead of russia. It is easily within the top 10 militaries powers and at a push top 5.
Just an interesting note the failed Torpedo attacks from the Argentine Submarine was due to the relatively new torpedoes it used that were faulty. The HMS conquer (although not knowing that the Argentine submarines torpedo were failing at all) fearing that the new torpedoes it had could have problems, decided to use it's mark 8 torpedo as mentioned of ww2 vintage. A great example of a properly proven and tested device being more useful than something new and relatively untested.
Our US torpedoes were a joke. Many subs, during WWII fired uselessly, endangering themselves, for no results. The Russians still have better torps than us, unless something has changed, and if ours are improved, they probably cost the taxpayers a billion dollars to design, much less build.
the argentinian navy probably used the anti-sub torpedos against ships, and not the SST-4 wire-guided torpedoes of the germans against ships, they had 10 of these torpedos and they were only used in one drill really sucessfull by the turkish navy.
the actual officer of the u-boat was at the time of the war in germany and became traped there. a young officer had to be the captain without xp of that ship and that armament.
oh and the british navy didnt find or took out this one sub over the whole war.
@@jotabe1984 no the torpedo they did use was the SST-4 torpedo, it was said if they had used the MK 37 (made 1946 so just post war) in an anti-ship role they might have been successful.
@@apollomars1678 no the torpedo they did use was the SST-4 torpedo, it was said if they had used the MK 37 (made 1946 so just post war) in an anti-ship role they might have been successful.
I guess that's what the joke in "Yes, Prime Minister" was based on.
I remember this war vividly. I caught wind of it on the morning news and told everyone in my high school geography class about it. All I got in return were blank stares. Not even my teacher knew where the Falklands were. She did apologize near the end of class when she went to the teacher's lounge and caught the news. The class ended up having to do a project about the history of the Falklands.
Blank stares turned to angry stares.
I got beaten up for having red hair and all you got was hard stairs..,.
@@almilhouse9059 what does that have to do with the falklands war?
@@almilhouse9059 I never got that.
Gingers look awsome, especially girls.
@@daniels_0399 gingers are either extremely attractive or have the face of a mares hind
I've been a high school history teacher for 30 years. One thing I had to learn as a young teacher was to have the humility to admit what I don't know...and to allow students to be my teacher from time to time.
RiP to all those that lost their lives in the Falklands conflict.
...and let's not forget the thousands who lost limbs, sight, or suffered massive burns. Imagine building warships out of magnesium alloys? British ships hit by exocet missiles burned to the waterline after sustaining non-major hits to their superstructures. Magnesium burns white hot and is almost impossible to contain once it begins to burn.
Let us also remember the "disappeared" of Argentina under Galtieri:
Some 30,000 by some estimates.*
This "grabbing"of the Falklands was a smokescreen to deflect criticism from the Argentinean general public....
Sending half-trained , under-equipped conscript boy-soldiers....
An atrocity in itself.
Footnote: *30,000 seems to be the accepted figure internationally..... Puts the estimates of Chiles 3,000 "disappeared" into perspective....
(Many of whom were years later found alive and well in various places around the globe.)
Yet, according to the BBC.... Chile's Pinochet regime must never be forgotten, whilst rarely mentioning the Argentinean reality....30,000 ....
Plus: The shameful "baby stealing" scandals for example....
Makes you wonder where many of Chile's 'disappeared' actually ended up....."Working at the BBC, perhaps?"
Both regimes were abhorrent: I just expect better impartiality from the BBC.
@@patagualianmostly7437 Sorry for them, but they were communists.
@@eduardalavanja9607 oh well, that’s alright then.
And the government plows the money in 1 million pounds per head Yet there's places in the UK where Ministers fear to tread...
8,000 miles away *
As an uruguayan I can tell you that Argentina didn’t want to fight this war,but the military coupe that rule the country back then are the ones to blame,they tortured and kill their own people for political reasons,as a consecuence of this many of them were brought to justice and sentenced years later.Bastards!! My respect to the brave British and Argentinians soldiers.
Neither did British Intelligence who reported to Whitehall that the Argentinians were thinking of invading the Falklands, as they had when Wilson was PM and Heath was PM, difference being they were not in danger of being voted out the following year. As sir Keith Joseph was rumoured to have said "A nice little war will do your chances no harm". Under Wilson and Heath the Falklands garrison was strengthened and the RN increased their presence as they acted on the intelligence received this time the intelligence was ignored and we know the consequences
"kill their own people" falso uruguayo. Fue una Guerra Revolucionaria que las Organizaciones Terroristas Revolucionarias declararon al Estado Argentino y nuestro país se defendió por orden de Presidente mujer Constitucional en 1975 y así se cumplió militarmente. Por suerte ERP, Montoneros, FAR y otras Organizaciones Terroristas Revolucionarias como el MIR o Tupamaros fueron combatidas y derrotadas. Todas bajo el amparo de la dictadura marxista de Cuba. Luego Nicaragua y Venezuela fueron testigos del desastre que provoca el Socialismo.
@@sebacabregu You are rather off subject here. Dai Unwin stated perfectly the view of the world at the time but your response adds nothing.
@Yt Gleve 😂😂
Bruh, y vos que vas a saber? que sos un personaje de marvel que podes leer las mentes de todas las personas?
5:53 In war the Brits always seem to have good luck with the weather. Just like with the Armada in 1588. But not in everyday life, when they want to go to the beach then it pours endlessly,
AvariceUntied Us brits have a complicated relationship with the weather, always looks down on us in battle but should you try and do battle on a cricket pitch then it’s like we left the lid off the toothpaste.
Because God loves us but doesn't want us to become complacent. :)
🤣🤣🤣
It's an agreement we have with the weatherman.
Ads Gsy unless you happen to be Michael Fish.
As a war history interested meteorologist I took a close look some years ago at the weather that caused the Skyhawks not being able to launch. This failure seems to be caused by poor meteorological forecasts on the Argentine side since they could have launched the Skyhawks by positioning the carrier slightly differently in space or time. Weather knowledge is critical for naval operations and can be the difference between victory and defeat.
Good point!
Carrier options limited by presence of Swiftsures.
As a young student in Britain in 1982,I remember the Falkands conflict from day one,to the day of the victorious armada's triumphant return to Portsmouth Harbour.I remember the daily casualty report on t.v.and the daily updates,the losses,and my own amazement that life went on so... normally back in Britain, despite the war..Just as I recall vividly all names of people and places in your narration.Thank you for filling in some of the blanks,38 years later, with this upload...
@Alexander Karayannis Armada? LOL the entire British fleet that was present was barely large enough to qualify as a task force.
Alexander Karayannis tv losses update??? Like over Serbia ? You are a sweet optimist
@@micfail2 100 ships are no more than a task force? FFS. If you're going to troll at least do it with some semblance of intelligence
@@r.j.m4245 I meant the grim news of combat deaths and ship sinkings,that were part of daily updates on T.V. by a certain gentleman whose name escapes me right now...How's that in any way offensive?...Spring and Summer of '82,was a pretty grim time to be in Britain and follow the daily news on television...Oh yes...it was MoD press spokesman Ian McDonald,charged with delivering the bad news to the public during those unhappy days of the Falklands War...I do remember now...
@@Horriblebastad you're name is rather apt isn't it? If you actually read the guys comment it doesn't say a single thing anti British does it? Yet you fly off on some anti Argentinian rant at someone you don't know, without provocation, and at someone who you don't even know is Argentinian. People like you give us a bad name.
Hi Mark, I'm from Argentina. I want to thank you for doing such a thorough research for this video and for being impartial.
A couple of years ago with some friends of a NGO I took part in we met Carlos Varela who was a captain in the Argentine Air Force at that time. He talk with us for about 4 hours about the war and told us about his whole experience.
He used to fly a Skyhawk and took part in the last (argentine) aerial mission of the war (one day before the end of the war) which was to bomb an english camp near mount "Dos Hermanas" in the "Soledad Island" (idk the name in English) where Jeremy Moore was (chief of the British troops).
At that time the AAF was in a clear technological inferiority and that's why they would have to fly at a maximum 15 metres above the sea to avoid being detected by the radars. He also told us about the process of fitting the Exocet missiles in the Skyhawks which was difficult because those were french missiles and were not prepared to be used, etc.
I was an interesting history and me and friends left amazed about the history of the war which is kind of tabu here.
Again thank you and I can't wait for new videos about that war
@@kincaidwolf5184 shouldn't have happened. The military dictatorship that ruled the country back them was unpopular, and they used the war to unite the country (they tried so bad to gain popularity that they used the media of that time to say that the war wasn't being lost, until the gov signed the surrender and the truth was known). They also sent many young conscripts to the war instead of the experienced men because they knew we had no opportunity against the British. The army was bad equipped, bad trained and had a huge technological inferiority, and they knew it but they still sent people to the war (who fought bravely with what they had and knew).
But the war should have never happened. Back them we even had more opportunities through the diplomatic way, but because of the war the British won't even sit on a table to discuss anything (even... Idk... A commercial treaty between Argentina and the islands).
@@TanoEmpobrecedor69 The British not wanting to sit down with Argentina is not true my friend it has been offered many times ...But Argentina do not want representatives from the Falkland Islands to sit in on that meeting. There is a few photos taken with the British the Falklanders and an empty seat .
My dad served on hms conqueror during the falklands war, and untill i moved away i could see all the decommissioned subs from my bedroom window!
You haven't got the log book in your attic have you??
what was is role ?
Woahh... that is cool
Gosh! How fantastic!
@@casinodelonge lol lol lol
Remember don't drive around Argentina while being British with the license plate H982 FKL.
Drelam Jeremy still regrets that.... not
For some of you that didn't know, yes the cars were abandoned and seized by police where they were kept in a storage house as the Argentine government didn't want protesters burning the cars down. Until not long ago when the British and Argentine government agreed to quietly destroying them
@@lucaweller3371 what a shame those cars could have gone to anyone needing a car even one of those people who threw the eggs or the rocks it'd be better then destroying them.
Love this reference so much
i dont get the connection my self and i bet no one else did either wtf has this plate got to do with falklands war i reacon set up to throw at car silly gulable people every where.
There was a joke that during the conflict the 25 de Mayo was docked in the province of Mendoza, deep in land near the Andes.
That would have been safer.
That's because of the exquisite wine from Mendoza!
@M 40 cool story bro. Laws are what distinguishes war from State sponsored terrorism
@M 40 Do you think Argentina Main land were defendless? In fact Brtish Commandos tryed to attack the Naval Base were there was the Super Etendards aircraft and the Exocet missiles . But the operation failed and was aborted by the British commandos who run away into Chile and burn their oun helicopter ( or shoted down.. never was aclared by any side) . At the moment of the attack they realized that was a suicide operation with any chances of succes. Look for operation ¨Mikado¨. Regards from Spain.
@M 40 yeah I agree its stupid but unfortunately the british government didnt want the negative publicity associated with breaking international law.
Hey Mark, great video as always! I was born in Rosario just after the war in 1983. Argentine and British people have more in common than we think because, after all, we are all people. British people are welcome in Argentina. Peace :)
Nice to know. Peace ✌️.
Tubeman: We have always been just "people"....
But when highly paid politicians fail in their job....
It is us... the ordinary people who pay. Tragically.
We lose our people, our family, our friends.....
They lose nothing....even for their abject failure to do a simple job.
"Keep the peace" But no, they fail. Time and time again.
They make even more money out of our misery and pain.
The politicians in Beruit failed their people...as evidenced last week...
as they have done for far too many years....
How much longer can decent, peaceful, law-abiding people, put up with this total incompetence from the so-called 'ruling elite'?
The time for change is long overdue.
But Tubeman. I thank you for your comment.... Peace to you...always.
@@patagualianmostly7437 I totally agree. The actual war is between us the law abiding citizens and they, the corrupt politicians. No matter where in the world. Peace!
You guys take in everyone. Even mass-murdering Nazi's..
@@sebastiaandewit159 I don't know where you're from but don't make identity meaning out of the decision of a politician. It's not us the people who chose to take in Nazis. By the way, something to bear in mind: Some people spread love, some people spread hate. It's up to you. Choose wisely.
I missed the old documentaries from the 1990's History Channel, and later the Military channel...Mark Felton's docs are just as good as those (if not better!), and regularly includes content I've never heard about...Thanks again sir, and keep up the good work!
Yeah, but I miss the Bass-O-Matic commercials.
Now history channel is besieged with reality shows...
I cancelled my Sky Tv subscription because of the shite history programmes. It’s just reality tv and nothing at all to do with interesting and quality tv. This is excellent stuff along with a host of history podcasts including “we have ways of making you talk” with James Holland and Al Murrary.
Top work Doc👍🍺
Build Indian And everything is an Alien conspiracy
This is way much better. When you watch the old shows they are ok but man they looked dated even when they were new
My grandfather worked on her modernization at Wilton-Fijenoord in the Netherlands when she was still in the dutch fleet as Hrms Karel Doorman, it was more a completly new ship than a modernization when compared to HMS Venerable he used to say to me. He told me a story that he checked out her old Bofors blueprints and that the blueprint was so large it stretched from one side of the room to the other. Only if we knew what Argentina had planned with her maybe we wouldn't have sold our upgraded ship to them.
The UK has 20 nuclear powered subs in retirement, but not scrapped. That's called, "just in case"! Cheers from the US.
No, that's called "we cant afford to dispose of them because it costs more than it did to buy them", so of course we're going to buy more!
UK govt., kicking the can down the road since 1945.
🇬🇧🇺🇸🇬🇧🇺🇸
I just don't buy it ? The Argintina couldnt launch there sky hawks because of dead wind ? You got to take few bombs off and go flank speed ! I think Captian got scared and ran home .
@@PlayerFalcon4 maybe but we won't let our former colonial rulers be nuked, so either way it's MAD!!!
We've lost the keys.
Wife: feed the children. It's lunch time.
Me: right after I watch a video on how the Falklands war. Did you know the British almost sank the Argentine carrier?
Wife: .........
Wonderful. Still, I hope you got your ass kicked by your wife :)
Did She reply what carrier 😂
After lunch, have the kids also ask mom, "did you know the Brits almost sank the Argentine carrier"?
@Meyaka Brown only country to take Washington🇬🇧. 😂😂 never forget the past 😉 joking btw👍
@@bigste5771 No - She replied, "What's a carrier?"
I have the option to do school works or watch a great Mark Felton. Not to hard to figure that one out
@Brett Willett yup that sure has more hirtory than the entire school system
@Justin Trudeau nah let him be it's all better than school just leave him the satisfaction
Might not want to skip out on the schooling completely. Case in point, it's "not *too* hard to figure that one out."
General public service reminder. There's two ways to spell "one", three ways to spell "two", but only one way to spell "three".
@@Seafarer64 indeed some parts are unskiable but almost everything else is or too unrefined to even try learning and the rest is just bullshit that is not very necessary for most of our life's
Brett Willett By far
As a Dutchman, I'd like to compliment you on your near-flawless pronunciation of Karel Doorman.
@@rokker333 It's easier than you might think, we're fast learners lol.
I'd like to say that the ex-Karel Doorman was the NAe Minas Gerais (Brazilian navy's carrier). It was not the 25 de Mayo.
@madesh gandra , no. The HMS Vengeance was named Karel Doorman when she was in the Dutch navy. There was never a Karel Doorman in the Royal Navy.
@madesh gandra ... or so I read many years ago. But I never did any research recently.
@@hans9834 ... yeah, so they say 🤔
"Almost forgotten" is your bread and butter sir.
You're going ham with the content lately Mark.
I love it.
Falklands Naval Campaign played out like a WWII movie.
@Anglus Patria You would think the British weren't in the south pacific at all in WW2 according to the americans.
@Anglus Patria I don't think Dieppe, of all raids, is a great example on how to conduct amphibious operations.
Sue Martino may be referencing the Argentinian forces, who's marines were trained and supplied by the US.
The UK did do a very good and unique job on the Falklands by conducting such operations on short notice, extreme long distance and with integrating units not trained for amphibious operations. They could not have learned this from the US as the USMC never faced problems just like this.
The US( as the UK) did have extensive amphibious experience prior to WWII though. Thats why I think Sue is referencing the Argies.
Its incredible to see WW2 footage with better quality that those cheap VHS recordings on the 80's.
@Carcantos Cartinho he's clearly fluent in bullshit 😂
And such a saddo that he's copied and pasted the same comment across this video. Must've been a massive effort for him to vomit up that drivel.
@leonardimas1 It must really upset you to think that the Brits lost to all these poor countries, according to your comment, and yet still managed to win against Argentina.
I was in the U.S. Navy when this conflict was going down. My P-3 squadron happened to be in the Azores Islands and a British Antisubmarine Warfare Aircraft stopped to refuel. We got a chance to talk to them for a short period of time and wish them good luck.
Thanks for the wish sailor! Shame your cowardly president wouldn't lease us the spare US carrier we requested in case he upset the South Americans!
@@amips EH we didn't ask to lease a carrier ...Stop being ignorant to our friends
@@amipsActually I did hear somewhere, that Reagan had agreed to lease us an old carrier, should one of ours get hit. I heard that we already had sailors,aboard it learning the ropes.
I'm not sure that this story is true, maybe someone reading this might like to corroborate.
I would never refer to the great Ronald Reagan as "cowardly", saying so is an insult to a great ally. I would however curse the present incompetent incumbent of the White House, from the roof tops.
Biden is indeed a coward, I have no respect for him nor any who voted for him. If you think Reagan failed us in our time of need, just consider how bad that great A hole Biden would have failed us had he been president then.
Remember Afghanistan? The arrogant Biden, pulled out over night without telling us. He wouldn't even answer the WTF phonecalls from Boris Johnson - left him hanging for 36 hours before talking to him.
This disgusting behavior from an "ally" whom we supported by sending our forces to Afghanistan, because of 911, defies belief. The US ceased to be an ally , the moment Biden entered the White House as president.
Please don't insult Reagan's memory again.
That low flight combat films of argentine pilots always gives me goose bumps
blitzpelirrojo what you hear also that gives me goose bumps is all the small arms fire from the deck crews which were the last line of defence against low flying high speed aircraft dropping bombs. Sobering stuff.
Those Argentine pilots were amazing, I hated thinking of these two countries at war though. 38 years ago, wow.
they had to keep in account the weight of those balls to balance out the centre of gravity of their aircrafts.
their balls of steel are almost visible on the footage, that's how brazenly fearless they were
@@johnfisher747
if the argentine army and navy had been as daring and aggressive as the AF the outcome may have been different
I was only 14 when the Falklands war kicked off. I can still remember rushing home from school every day, to see how our task force was getting on.
All gave some, some gave all. LWF.
Me too! I remember when we first heard about it and we all were wondering what the f the argentines were doing off the coast of Scotland! Listened every evening to the brilliantly controlled and measured Ian McDonald giving the update from the MoD.
@@peteconrad2077 lol.
I used to dash to the TV after work to see the action every day. I was rooting for the United Kingdom of course, and it seemed touch and go for a while. It was very suspenseful and fascinating to me, sitting in the safety of my living room in California.
@@patrickcrowley2268 Interesting to know, that it wasn't just us British, who were hyped up about the Falklands conflict.🇬🇧🇺🇸
@@raibeartthehairypict4696 Raibeart... great "handle".
11:43 imagine being some Soviet, Chilean or American submariner just chilling out and then out of nowhere somebody starts dropping depth charges and firing torpedoes at you.
Oh, they were well aware that they were in a war zone.
@@rogerwilco2 yep. Death is within a warzone in all ways .
Marksmen
IED
Mines
Shrapnel
Ambush
Sudden artillary
Is the most common ways of unexpected death
@@In-the-year-2525 everyone is in danger of it. Even friendly fire.
When you walk into a bar fight expect to get punched or stabbed, probably accidentally.
Probably trying to stealthily observe to both train inexperienced officers and to test stealth capabilities
Thatcher got alot of flak for sinking the Belgrano but she was exactly right: doing so effectively prevented sea borne attacks on British ships from the carrier.
She was completely in the wrong it was illegal
@@lucianobaiter3996 Maybe it was illegal, but for Sure this Action "saved" more Life´s on both Sides later on as seen in this Video. So, I see the Belgrano as a Sacrifice. "Only them( poor Souls) had to die instead of maybe later Sailors and Airman of both Nations.
@@lucianobaiter3996 it wasn’t illegal the exclusion zone was to prevent the sinking of neutral ships. Belgrano was flying the flag of the belligerent Argentina and was thus a viable target. On top of that she was preparing to launch an attack on the British fleet
@@lucianobaiter3996 under what article of the Geneva convention or maritime law was it illegal ? It was an enemy ship attacked during hostilities. You can disagree with the decision, but if it was illegal, then so was every other ship attacked on the open sea in every other maritime conflict
@@jamesburden6807 violated exclusion zone tard
i love the fact that argentina used american, french, german and even british weapons/ships/aircrafts to fight the british navy. Such irony
They had their own small aircraft industry which made an aircraft called the Pucara. There is one captured by the British at Duxford museum.
The Argentines get what works for them. Their main battle tank, the TAM was a joint venture between Germany and Argentina based on the Marder IFV chassis. It's probably not that much of a threat to an Abrams, Challenger, or LeClerc but it gets the job done.
No matter what sides are fighting, it's the arms dealers who win everytime.
Dominik,they same with my state indonesia,in 1961-1962 we fought dutch in Dutch West Guinea(invasion of Trikora) with AMX-13 and PT-76,and mixed warship(some are british,French,and some are soviet,poland and american warship),and also 1963-1966 invasion of malaysia(operation dwikora)
Sadly i find no historical video about it,and some just cut blurred historical video
When the 25th of May was in service with the Dutch navy she proved herself an often defective ship. She was built in WWII when good steel was unavailable. I saw Rear-admiral Vinke kick through her boiler walls with his shoes in the sixties. When she was ordered to head for New Guinea in 1962 against the Indonesian navy the crew had serious doubts about whether she would ever get there. The Dutch navy leadership was quite happy when the ship was sold to the Argentinian navy...Thnx for this interesting post!
I've heard not all in the Dutch army were happy when the Netherlands decided to sell the Leopard 2A6 tanks to Finland. They have been very solid, though, unlike that carrier.
The 1942 Light Fleet Carriers were built to commercial standards , they were supposed to have an operational life of at most 3 years. So for one to reach the 1960's was a surprise in itself! In fact the Venerable/Minas Gerais somehow managed to last from 1945 to 2001. The Hermes was built a little tougher and lasted even longer.
@@herrakaarme Some were sold to Finland. Interesting. Yeah that was a pity and now I believe we are leasing Leopards from Germany. Go figure.
The brits have balls bringing the fight to Argentina like that! Don’t mess with the British Navy!
There is no more "British navy" any more.
black polished chrome correct, there has never been a British navy. It always has and always will be the Royal Navy.
Sadly I dont think the current British Navy could repeat the deed today. Many of those capabilities have gone away, a sad chapter for the once greatest sea power
Q Tig you don’t think the current Royal Navy could defeat Argentina at the falklands? Of course they could, the thing is the Argentinians wouldn’t actually be able to take it now due to a greater British presence protecting the islands.
@@qtig9490 What? Today the Royal Navy has more Type 45 Destroyers then Argentina have working jets lol. They have more ASW Frigates then Argentina has working submarines ect.
I would describe the Argentine pilots as determined and heroic professional soldiers. I would not call them suicidal. Utmost respect to these pilots. They had a job to do and they performed their duty.
My heart went out to those young Argie conscripts in their shitty cold kit.
@@Longtack55 man,you're cringe
its respectful... showing how big their balls were, suicidal suggests how dangerous it was yet they still did it. Respect
@MARK JONES what if the Argentineans were supported by soviets ?
@John Rodrigues: I believe he uses the phrase "almost suicidal"...?
I think it was my uncle that told me that he saw the belgrano one time in some exchange as he was part of the Colombian navy. When he boarded, the one thing he remembers is that they had blocked some bulkheads doors in the open position because they were inconvenient. He believes the boat sank so fast because of this attitude, by not isolating the compartments it would allow the water to flood all compartments instead of remaining afloat due to the compartment design.
That footage of the argentine fighters is just amazing and scary at the same time! They were flying so low and fast I never seen anything like that whoever shot that got some perfect war footage
Everybody put down the A4 when it's a scrappy little bullet with heavy payload capacity. They are maneuverable enough to simulate Russian Migs for Top Gun.
That's because there were AA batteries on the far side. By flying wavetop height they stayed under radar lock. But difficult to arm bombs in time. A friend of mine in the engine room bent to tie his lace. He stood up with a piece of bomb tailfin in his overalls and a neat hole in the side of the ship where his head was a second earlier. A case of a bomb that didn't arm in time. It exited the other side leaving a draft. No, I'm not joking.
The Argentine Air Force was the most professional of the country's armed forces. It's been said that that the Argentine pilots flew with "suicidal bravery." They were respected and feared by the British.
As a brit I have nothing but respect for the Argentine Skyhawk pilots, not many would be willing to do what they did
@@stalker5299 The Super Étendard pilots as well. For want of a nail--if the Argentines had possessed just a few more Exocet missiles, things would have likely been much bleaker for the British task force. Probably one of the British carriers would have been hit or even sunk.
There's never any Bumpf with Mr. FELTON, even if you're familiar with the story, there is a fresh look and new details. Nice One 🙏🍻👍
If you think there's an event in history you know pretty much everything about, wait for what Dr. Felton comes up with ! his was once again filled with inside information I haven't come across elsewhere - thanks a lot for all your work !
Where does he fond all of this info? Public Records Office?
I GOT HERE AS FAST AS I COULD
When i was alerted by the officals i got here as fast as i could riding on my pollar bear
You did well but due to recent restrictions there will be no medal in the post lol
@@steveholmes5207 sad pollar bear noises
on a Avro Vulcan i suppose?
then what
I was in the Canadian forces while this was going on. We were in daily contact with British troops on the ground there.
Some of their stories, priceless!
What branch were you in?
Care to tell any? Seems pretty cool
@m k *sigh*
Clearly, you were never in the military.
Soldiers talk to each other. We had (and have) a network of messaging systems that would make an intelligence officer's head explode.
Please, try not to comment on something you clearly, know nothing about.
K?
It's surprising how many young people have never heard of the Falklands War!!!
Typical for the new generation 😉
Love Marks content, especially the story about Switzerland’s role during WWII he put up the other day!! Brilliantly scripted & love the accent to. Keep up the good work Mark. 👍🏼
I remember like yesterday the newspaper with the Jolly Roger Flag with crossed torpedoes on the HMS conquerer. I can't imagine that's 38 yrs ago ....
That flag might be on display at Portsmouth naval dockyard.
And don't forget the broom attached to the periscope.
I’ve visited the submarine museum across from the Dockyard, I believe it’s the conqueror there, and yes the flag is on display
I remember the headline in one tabloid "Argy Bargy!" LOL
And to this day, the Argies still refer to us as Pirates.... I think they need to get some Anusol cream for 40 years of butt hurt
Well, even if Splendid couldn't sink the 25 de Mayo, she chased her away putting her effectively out of combat.
She could've sunk her but only got in range as the carrier made it to home waters so it wasn't allowed under war crime rules.
Spoiler alert much!
@@bobbyrayofthefamilysmith24 that seems bit ridiculous considering they attacked Britain?
@@robbieh2458 They didn't attack uk mainland though so it probably wouldn't have been advised to sink a retreating ship that's almost home.
@@bobbyrayofthefamilysmith24 They had to sink it, the war was close to ending and there were hundreds more British deaths than Argentine. It was to save face
The long-term storage of these ancient submarines is another story in itself.
Thank you Mr. Mark Felton. I'm a very advent student of military history. I never knew about this secret mission during the Falklands War. You got yourself a new subscriber.
My understanding was that the United States provided location data from satellite reconnaissance, but kept that classified as most of the Argentine pilots trained at the United States Air Force base in Columbus, Mississippi. Also a scandal of the war was that the BBC covered the war & cost many British lives. Argentine pilots were scoring hits on British ships, but much of the munitions had not exploded, because they were dropped too close and the propeller fuses did not have time to properly fuse. The BBC reported this and the Argentines backed off and had better success in getting detonations.
Literally "loose lips sink ships"
Well, BBC went from ‘real news’ to ‘fake news’, but still hurt the British people either way!
Lol
The BBC are cultural Marxist traitors - nothing new there. Another interesting US angle is the SAS captured a band of (presumably South American) US mercenaries - Maggie got on the blower to Reagan who said (and repeated) “There are no US citizens on the Falklands”. I guess it was a coded “take no US prisoners” statement. I suspect shallow graves were dug where appropriate.
@@LondonSteveLee when justice was justice. Hang traitors
Your channel is brilliant. I was going to say I wish stuff like this was still made for TV, but then, who needs TV when we have channels like this!
I agree David
You have to think that Argentina thought that there was no way in hell that the UK would respond so forcefully. They totally misunderstood the aggressiveness of Thatcher.
Thatcher wrecked your middle class and presided over the corpse of an empire that had committed suicide. And she pathetically opposed the reunification of Germany for crass political reasons, which shocked even Gorbechev.
@@gregorymalchuk272 boo hoo !
@@snowflakemelter1172
Go see that your daughter isn't falling victim to a grooming gang. This is the problem with the British and Americans. Jingoistic foreign policy while the country is invaded.
Completely !!
@@gregorymalchuk272 What is your problem?
Imagine disliking a Mark Felton video. Shame!!!
my be argentinian
Most likely Arge's, spoiled sports they are
I sadly disliked one. He did a video early on and it ended with "to find out what happened buy my book". It was actually pretty ignorant of him. But he never pulled that again.
CG Account very well, that makes sense
confused muchachos with poor command of English: I like dis - vs - I dis like.
I would love to see a video about Argentina air force in this conflict. True balls of steel
nunca lo va a hacer este pirata….fijate como le di con un cano en mis comnents….nunca va a reconocer el valor Argentino…..porque le duele admitir que le dejamos un 'bloody nose"....ajjajaja
They were brave, yes. But they were using out of date ‘welded wing’ combat formations, and they failed to release their bombs within the correct parameters - which is why so many of their bombs failed to explode.
Not, really. They were launching from Argentina, fighting on their own 'door-step' mainland a mere 1.500km. Britain is almost 13,000km away! Plus the Argentines outnumbered the RAF 10 to 1. I would say the Argentine airforce was doing the bare minimum expected of an airforce.
I saw a documentary which included lots of interviews with Argentine pilots. It wasn't specifically on the Argentine Air Force or the Argentine point of view but it was well balanced. You would probably have to watch a few documentaries before you find it.
The Argentine navy pilots were the true MVP of Argentina. They didn't get as many sorties with their Skyhawks as the Air Force, but those that did were more damaging, due to their long practice in attacking ships. Then there was the Super Etendards & Exocets...
Love this! I’m a disabled submarine service veteran who was on a diesel electric US sub when this all went down.
As an American, it's weird to me to think of a country like Argentina being able to militarily challenge a western country like the UK, especially considering the Aggies were using surplus ww2 equipment. Even in the 1980s, the capabilities of the US Navy and Army weren't too different from what we have now.
It's just amazing how far the British govt allowed their military readiness to fall after ww2. It's like they seriously didn't think another war was possible.
A country drops its gard at its perel it's always politicians trying to save peanuts.
Argentina its a western country
The US military also had deteriorated after Vietnam and especially under Jimmy "Grinning Idiot" Carter.
Argentina might be poor but they are westerners
You are not a western country when you go to war against a NATO country like UK, doesn't matter that Prince Andrew (Royal Navy 1982-present) always shows up for quincenera
Got to say the names the UK give its Vehicles, aircraft and ships are the best
not always. Invincible. badass, sure. but names like that don't age well
Imagine if the "Invincible" had been sunk instead of the Sheffield.
Great name though. Why not name your flagship "Pride of Britain?"
Interestingly enough, HMS Invincible was also the name of a battle cruiser that fought in the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914
Yea agreed especially aircraft... Spitfire, meteor, etc etc
Boatie McBoatie Face
This seems to be a very common side effect of doing battle with the Royal Navy... enemy fleet goes to port, does not come out again.
The old fleet, but no the old aircraft and the brave pilots.
Today just a SAS squad could wipe an entire city 😂
@carmine paola you got me there, not even thanos would live
WOW I was a kid when this happens, I remember it so well. Thank you for bringing it to UA-cam.
Me too..I remember watching the morning news show to see what was happening before going off to school every morning ,, maybe the only one in my 5th grade class idk *s ( no maybe not
Amazing video Mark, thank you. Very well presented and organized. I love history and the Falklands war is one of my favorite topics, yet some of the footage were completely new to me. Keep them coming !
Wow! amazing footage and narration, I was a kid (10 yrs) in Central America when this was news, this is the first time I see how it unfolded !. Thanks...
“25th of May” fighting in the month of May ... this has “Who’s on First” written all over it.
On the evening of May 24th, British shipborne detection and early warning systems sighted the 25th of May coming in at precisely 12 O'clock.
Dr Felton, thanks for sharing your tremendous grip on military history with us again and again. No jingoism ever, nor judgments about the rights and wrongs of the political objectives that are the causes of wars. Just the facts of the military conflict explained on both sides.
Much love from the U.S. to our brothers in arms, the British.
Respect coming back at you.
Nice to not be ignored we might be small but elite and fisty
kyle hardman Yes you guys are. The SAS are very respected in my book and by a lot of U.S. military service men who served with them. We also have your back until the end! One attack on an ally is an attack on all of us in NATO. But the Brits will always be our number 1 Ally. That’s why we share so much technology with each other! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇬🇧🇬🇧
Technically they are our fathers in arms
Nobody:
Me at 12:24 am: “Yeah, I've got time.”
Feldpolizei von Preußen oh? What country are you in? I’m in Thailand, it’s 01:14 here.
You forgat to mention that the islands in question are only 945 miles a little closer than England
I'm Australian, the german name is from more of a “family heritage”.
the subs are in long term storage. what it really means is there's nowhere to get rid of the nuclear reactors
Could make a top episode of Storage Wars mind.....
Yeah they don’t have the infrastructure for disposing of them like the US does. Of course, they could always pull a China and dispose of it in the ocean.
Its very, very long term, once they are no longer radioactive they can be disposed of
My thoughts exactly!
@@jeebus022 The UK has fifteen nuclear reactor power plants. Where do they dispose of those spent rods? The have somewhere between 25 to 30 tons of rods per plant are replaced every two years. That's up to 450,000 pounds annually. A nuclear sub uses around 800 pounds. I'm not sure your thesis is accurate.
The number of first hand stories here is unreal! Thanks so much for sharing all-and sorry for any loss or trauma.
I was 5 at the time of the war yet still remember the news reports in Australia.
The word 'Exocet missile' is something I'd never heard before and stuck in my mind.
I'm from Brazil and I was 9 at the time. The word Exocet was everywhere. Because Brazil was neutral I remembered the adults talking about a possible Argentinian land invasion if Brazil joined the Britishs. I was living and I still live in south of Brazil, very close to Argentina.
That's not all it 'stuck' in !
I was onboard the Karel Doorman when she was still Dutch, for a visit when I was 18. Very impressive, even for a small carrier!
I remember back in the late 70's there was a movement to purchase the Belgrano back from Argentina and turn it into a museum ship as the last surviving ship from Pearl Harbor. Those plans were apparently torpedoed.
Almost....
Hilarious!
The project was already underwater. Not worth sinking funds into it. Couldn't float a loan, anyway.
OW!! That "puny pun" is gonna leave a mark!
So was the ship!
The British found much to their chagrin that replacing steel superstructure with Aluminum was a death knell for those ships when they were hit with Argentine French Exocet anti-ship missiles. Once Aluminum catches fire it is nearly impossible to put it out.
That was a legitimate concern that was highlighted by a couple of very bad accidents that the US Navy had in the 1970s. However there was no case of a structural aluminium fire on a British ship in the Falklands War.
The only British ships with aluminium superstructures were the Type 21 frigates. Two of these were lost, but aluminium fires played little part in this. HWS Ardent had her weapons systems disabled by a lucky bomb hit in one attack and was then sunk by more bomb hits in a second attack. HMS Antelope was hit by a two bombs that didn't explode. One of these exploded later while an EOD team was trying to make it safe and most of the crew evacuated. That started a fire which eventually reached the magazine: there MIGHT have been an element of aluminium fire in that, but since the crew were off the ship by that time, it's hard to tell. However the bomb, fire and magazine explosion were all deep within the hull, which was made of steel, so it seems unlikely than an alumininum fire was critical.
Two Type 42 destroyers were lost, but these had steel superstructures. HMS Sheffield burned out due to inadequate fire-fighting equipment and procedures but stayed afloat. She subsequently sank whilst under tow when worsening weather casued her to ship water through the hole made by the Exocet. HMS Coventry was hit by four bombs, which caused flooding to five compartments: more than her damage control could cope with. She capsized and sank quite quickly, so fire didn't get much time to take effect.
But to be fair; only one ship with an an aluminium superstructure was lost; the ardent and that was due to bomb damage within the hull
@@cra83 The Ardent's sister ship Antelope was lost too, but that was due to two unexploded bombs deep inside the hull, one of which went off as an EOD team were trying to make it safe. The resultant fires eventually reached a magazine and sank her. The aluminium superstructure MIGHT have been a factor in the spread of the fire, but since there was nobody on board to fight it, it's a moot point (the crew had been evacuated while the EOD team worked). Type 21s had a number of dubious detail design features that helped the spread of fire irrespective of the metals used.
Another huge fault was the lack of decent material in the crews uniforms. Burn victims had material melted and fused to their wounds.
@@smartypants5036 Yes the RN abandoned synthetic uniform materials and went back to cotton after that. Other problems were excessive soft furnishings giving off toxic smoke, interior linings making it hard to trace and repair hull leaks, insufficient supplies of fire-fighting equipment, a whole list of poor ship design features in one or more classes, and inadequate fire-fighting/damage-control training. Basically, the RN hadn't fought a hot war since 1945: complacency had crept in and standards had slipped in a hundred tiny increments that all added up. Things got WAY sharper in the aftermath (don't know if they've managed to keep it up...)
Damn son, top 10 trending in the uk, keep up the amazing work
heres hoping this corona virus is a wake up call to all mankind - we can get through life together, helping each other, without fighting each other.
@Darth Kennedy What have cell phones got to do with any war? The tech in them was mostly developed in the private sector for consumer use. No rich country has been involved in a truly serious war since WWII. They just sometimes send small portions of their military to fight in poorer countries. Having a technologically up-to-date military is also not the same as fighting pointless wars all the time. One can have an effective military and choose not to use it.
@Darth Kennedy The early military devices you're talking about can hardly be called cell phones. The vast majority of the tech in a modern phone is from the private sector. Moore's Law is powered by civilian, private sector forces.
@Darth Kennedy Those wars were not serious. They were limited wars against inferior countries that had no hope of actually harming the United States itself. That's exactly the point. No modern, wealthy country has been willing to risk a war on home soil in nearly a century. People still die in minor wars.
@Darth Kennedy The military adopted cell phones first because it is willing to spend huge money on unique needs. It is the ultimate early adopter, but it's Moore's law that made mass market cell phones possible. Without the military, cell phones would have just gotten developed in silicon valley a few years later when electronics got smaller and cheaper from consumer electronic demand, and we'd have about the same tech in our phones today, since it's the miniature electronics and batteries that are the limiting factor for mobile devices. Jet engine technology also would have shown up in airliners sooner or later without military help.
And like I said, peace doesn't mean you scrap the military or stop doing military development. A capable and up to date military is needed for any sovereign state.
The Submarine Santa Fe, was the former USS Catfish (SS-339), my first duty assignment. Narragansett Bay
Hi Mark it was a very interesting and accurate chronology of the events. I was part of the crew of one of the aircraft carrier's escort. I was a conscript aboard the destroyer ARA Hercules one of the two type 42 destroyers in service in the Argentinian Navy. I served at the Operation Room as a 965 and 992 aerial and surface radar operator and , as I was sitting next to the sonar operator, I could see the entire process of search for the two British nuclear subs.. For your records, the ARA Hercules was the only type 42 destroyer (both Argentinian and Royal Navy) fitted with 4 MM38 Exocet which gave us an additional surface defense & attack capability we have to remember that Type 42 destroyer were mainly designed to give the fleet a sort of an anti aircraft umbrella, which I think those serving in the RN did successfully even though getting the full brunt of the Argentinian air force attacks (Sheffield , Coventry Glasgow) ... The full Task Force escorting the ARA 25 de Mayo were: another type 42 destroyer ARA Santisima Trinidad, 2 french manufactured corvettes (ARA Drummond & ARA Granville) equipped both with MM38 Exocet missiles and the WWII era Gearing-class destroyer ARA PY also equipped with MM38 Exocet missiles and was famous to have the best Sonar in the entire Argentine Navy at that time. If the attack (Code named by the Argentine Navy as "The night of Banzai) planned for 1st of May would have gone ahead, it would have been the major naval battle since Midway in WW2 (I'm glad we didn't enter in the history book for that ...otherwise I wouldn't probably be here writing this :) ). I'm a regular visitor to your channel and, like I said, I really enjoying doing it .. Keep up the good work. Cheers ..!
tf copied comment .why
I love these dispassionate, factual war documentaries. So nice to watch when you go to sleep.
Haha I thought this was a 30 year old documentary at first, which is a HUGE compliment. I was shocked that the narrator said "please subscribe" etc in the end. I haven't heard anyone talk like that for ages, it's almost like hearing Frank Sinatra sing or something.
Those Argentine A-4 pilots had balls. They pressed home their attacks against heavily armed ships and got hits.
Yeah
They were the highly trained, top-level, of Argentinean military society.
Yes, they were serious adversaries to the British military.
A stark contrast to the poorly equipped, barely trained, cannon-fodder they sent to "defend" their ill-gotten gains....mere boys in many cases.
And all to appease the dictator Galterieri in deflecting public criticism from the ever-increasing number of"disappeared"... (30,000 seems to be the internationally accepted number.)...not to mention the scandal of the "stolen babies".
Strange how we hear so little from the BBC on these matters.
Far too obsessed with the Pinochet, equally abhorrent regime in Chile.
They were aided by British ego, too. Despite the NATO push for more advanced SAM systems like Sea Sparrow, (US) Aspide (Italy) and Crotale (France), British ships were woefully ill-equipped to fend off air and missile attacks. In fact, they had no defense against the sea-skimming Exocets. And the fact that the Daggers hit the Brits with bombs drives home the embarrassing air defense situation.
That must be what top speed at sub sonic speed looks like-- a white blur quickly crossing your view before disappearing. At Mach 2, you would see a white flash out of nowhere, followed seconds later by the incoming jet sound.
Even more, thanks to the US Arms embargo, the ejector seats on the A-4's were not operable.
Those Agentine pilots had balls.
Well considering royal navy ships didn't even have anti-air missiles it made it easy.
skillbopster they did. Sea Wolf? Sea Dart?
Rob Bowes yes they did. They knew damn well they were up against one of the most powerful navy’s in the world. Argentina still managed to sink 7 British ships!!!!
They were fighting in their own backyard. The RAF were 13,000km from home and were outnumbered 10 to 1! The Argentines were doing their job, nothing more, nothing less.
@@leod-sigefast argentina was attacking from mainland with only 3 minutes of time to launch the bombs and sink a ship,the courage and mastery of argentines pilots were praised worldwide by aces of the sky,britain had full support of daddy USA that gave you your sweet sidewinder and others materials
Never underestimate clever and determined Brits out for a bit of payback!
- An American Cousin ;-)
I had forgotten how absolutely awful the picture quality of television was in the 80s. My god.
Some of us remember the first video on the internet in the '90s lol
And don't forget about horrible VHS tapes.
@asdsdjf asdjxajiosdqw You should try watching "The Lucy Show" or "Jack Benny" from the 1950's.
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 Channel the sound of a 16kbps modem dialing up...
@@annoyed707 Just so you could wait for another 15 minutes for a doctored image of a young 'Buffy Summers' from a dodgy site to load up - screen freezing viruses an all..
Magic.
Guys. We did it. Dr. Mark Felton is now on trending!
Execellent info that isn't easily available elsewhere.
Watching your contents is like watching history documentary in a nutshell
Exactly
Wars like these always fascinated me. Since ww2 very few wars happened between proper nations and prepared militaries. No fighting insurgent, terrorists or hermits in the mountains. Just plain out war.
Nowadays we're mostly used to an extremely asymmetric type of warfare where the US for example, would never lose a carrier or a destroyer to ISIS. There is essentially no risk involved there.
Events like these remind you that -- holy crap the enemy CAN just fly in and bomb your carrier to the bottom of the ocean!!
Yes, indeed, good comment. It really was the last of the 'traditional' style wars.
As a Brit it was a very touch and go war. The Argentines had good capacity to really hurt the British task force and many in the British upper echelons did not think it was possible to win at such a long distance. It was that little bit of 'extra' that the Brits had, some luck, some professionalism and guts that pulled the Brits through. But it could have gone to the Argentines with a few twists of fate, as this video shows.
@@foxvsbadgervsferretvstwocr6577 There is a 4/5hr long documentary series on youtube with full interviews of the general and infantrymen who commanded and fought on the islands. From what I gathered, a good chunk of the win could've been attributed to simply low morale of the Argentine troops, exemplified in the large numbers of POW in quite appaling states who surrendered. They had been thrusted into a war that nobody wanted in an attempt to score some cheap propaganda points for the new militarist government/coup. They were banking on the UK not fighting back.
Had the Argentines actually wanted the island and properly committed, they would probably have pulled it off.
They should rename the Falklands War "the malfunction war".
And "the tech testing War"
You have torpedoes failing, bombs failing, missiles failing, cannons jamming, guns jamming, ejection seats old af, exocets failing (the warhead didnt explode, HMS Sheffield) Radars failing. Yep seems about right.
"Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult. These difficulties accumulate and produce a friction, which no man can imagine exactly who has not seen war." -- Carl con Clausewitz, On War, 1832
All wars are full of "malfunctions". Normally, the side with the least mistakes wins.
Why? These things happened in WW2 all the time.
An extraordinary story, not sufficiently considered in the histories of the Falklands conflict.
Thank you!
So little is told aout this war. Thank you. Great research and story telling.
During my submarine training in 1989 , we heard a tape from the sub as it attacked and sank the Belgrano.
Did it sound as typical as one would expect?
Was uncle trotter the entrainment officer?
Martin's claim seems authentic. Anyone younger would have said he had listened to a CD, DVD, or MP3/audio file from the sub.
👍
@@77thTrombone No they wouldn’t, people are aware of older obsolete technology.
This is a very fine treat Mark! Thank you very much! I do wish more of the 'ordinary' enlisted people would write down their accounts of their experiences and people of both sides of a conflict. I think it would be good to help us civilians and who knows? Perhaps help to slow occurrences of wars.