Falklands War anniversary exhibition

The Imperial War Museum in London is opening a major exhibition tomorrow marking the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. Called The Falklands, it looks at the short war in 1982 between Britain and Argentina over the sparesly populated group of islands in the South Atlantic that have been British since the 1830s but are also claimed by Argentina.

The Falklands consist of two barren and wind blown main islands, East and West Falkland and over 700 smaller ones, and got their name in 1690 after a sea captain John Strong named the water between the two large islands after Viscount Falkand, Commissioner of the Admiralty. Sovereignty has been been disputed since the 19th century but the few thousand inhabitants are all English speaking descendents of British immigrants. The islands where uninhabited until Europeans arrived.

Remembering back to 1982, if you’d asked most people in the UK where the Falklands were, 95% wouldn’t have had a clue but after Argentina invaded on 2 April it became a major crisis. There were only 22 Royal Marines stationed on the islands as a defence force with no aircraft or ships and Argentina’s surprise attack with massive force was a formality. They quickly moved 10,000 troops onto the Falklands and Britain had to send a naval task force 8,000 miles south from the UK to recapture the islands.

With the nearest British base 4,000 miles away on Ascension Island the whole retaking of the Falkands had to done from ships. For a lot of people in Britain in 1982 it was the first time they’d experienced the country being involved in a major war and events like the British submarine HMS Conqueror sinking an Argentine battleship and a number of British frigates and troop ships being sunk by Argentine missiles was pretty shocking. Britain finally landed an invasion force and recaptured the Falklands in mid-June 1982.

The exhibition features first hand accounts and personal memorabilia from British and Argentinian militarty personnel, and looks at the effect of the war on civilians in Britain and the Falklands. The exhibition runs until 31 December 2007 and is open daily from 10am-6pm. The Imperial War Museum is on the south side of the River Thames about a ten minute walk from Westminster Bridge, Lambeth North is the nearest Tube station.