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

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

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

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

[sage]

> 4 hour video
> part 1
the level of detail is simply nutty, these videos are so good

[AvnerSenderowicz]

"The Century of Warfare" (1993) is the finest, most well narrated war documentary I've ever seen, it's the gold standard.
And it is amazing to me that an Aussie with a YT channel is consistently producing content on-par with that.
The research, scope, narrative and the delivery, they are all top notch; I wasn't even interested in half the conflicts documented on the channel, not until I watched or listened to the videos anyway.
I am sure it's a ton of effort goes into each "episode" but the results really speak for themselves, thank you for sharing on public domain and please keep up the amazing work.

[stevehellyer]

This is possibly the best Falklands war video on Youtube. I've watched it 3 times. Can't wait for part 2.

[Tom_Cruise_Missile]

As an american who cares way too much about the falklands war, this is awesome

[MrTylerStricker]

This channel has some of the best historical breakdowns of battles just about anywhere on the Internet & I'm very happy to see a two-parter on the Falklands War.

[jakebsheppard]

A friend of mine was an RAF helicopter pilot during this time and according to him, the presence of tactical nuclear weapons was not incidental. They were being used to threaten Soviet submarines, he claimed that they carried them regularly and referred to them as a bucket of instant sunshine.

[IrishCaesar]

You have ruined youtube for me. Nothing and no one makes content as detailed, interesting, and well presented as you. There are other channels, like perun, who are of course fantastic. But there is no one i have found that does military history like you do. You both inspire me, and make me more disappointed with the lack of other military history content of a similar level of excellence on youtube

[timnewman]

An incredible piece of work. I've watched everything on YouTube re. The Falkland war but nothing is as comprehensive as this.
Thank you for your outstanding effort 👌
Looking forward to part II

[robbiepemberton]

No other unit in the UK will ever rib the royal marines for surrendering that day. It NEVER gets mentioned. They fought a hard battle and made a good decision.

[dclark]

One thing that this war did vindicate of the British defense strategy prior to 1982 was the shift to submarines. The mere threat of the three were sufficient to keep the Argentine Navy away from the islands.

The carriers were key to actually conducting the landings...but the subs were the most potent warship against warship weapon systems.

[carlpemberton]

I was borne 1974 in london, my early childhood memories are of this war and have been looking at documentaries ever since.This is without doubt the most indepth clear and concise retelling of what actually happened I've ever seen.Thankyou so much for your work. I'm drinking beer and brandy on a lazy afternoon enjoying this greatly learning points I never new before, keep it up newly subscribed.

[LIVTOMCHUROO]

This is easily the best Falklands island conflict summation I've ever seen. Kudos.

[AB-giqy]

Been looking forward to this one, the Falklands conflict is fascinating.

[hzmicide]

As an American who loves learning about wars (and knows about most of them) and knows nothing about the Falklands War, I will LOVE this video ❤

[feynmanstein]

Nice... you just ruined my plans for the next few hours.. well done, Sir. Much appreciated

[exodusz]

I loathe that our government (US) would ever diminish our international commitment to the UK. We have too much history with the English, Aussies, and Canadians to ever be anything but the best of allies.

[therocinante]

Part 1 - 4 hours. This is my kind of channel!

[riverlovec]

Absolutely masterful storytelling; history, politics, hardware, geography, strategy, tactics: every element of good military history. Looking forward to the next installment. Thank you for excellent content!

[TonyStark-eonf]

Holy smokes, one of the best videos of this type I have seen. Keep up the good work!

[Karl-vj]

Easily the best Falklands island war video on YouTube, so well researched and illuminating it makes all previous documentaries almost laughable.