Every Day Is Special: Battle of Falkland Islands

Showing posts with label Battle of Falkland Islands. Show all posts

April 2 – Malvinas Day

Posted on April 2, 2019

April 2, in Argentina, is Day of the Veterans and Fallen of the Falklands War. The shorter name, Malvinas Day, takes its name for the Spanish name for the Falkland Islands.

The Falkland Islands (or Islas Malvinas) are really close to Argentina, which is why that nation has claimed them as Argentinian territories.

But most of the Falkland Islanders are of British descent, and almost all of them wish to to remain a U.K. overseas territory, as they have been since 1833. They like the fact that they have self-rule for internal issues, but they can rely on the much larger and more powerful United Kingdom for defense and foreign affairs. Which is why the U.K. continues to claim the islands as British territories.

After about 150 years, Argentina got sick of having their claims ignored, and on this date in 1982, Argentinian forces attacked and occupied the islands. British forces fought back, of course. After 74 days of conflict, the Brits won.

Almost 650 Argentinian soldiers died in the war, compared with only about 250 British soldiers. Their loss prompted the Argentinian people to protest and then overturn their military government. But...

...Argentina still claims those islands!

Check out some of the beautiful landscapes of the Falklands/Malvinas:

Also on this date:

Artist / scientist Maria Sibylla Merian's birthday

Peanut Butter and Jelly Day

Tater Day

Sizdeh Bedar – Persian Nature Day

International Children's Book Day

Birthday of children's author Hans Christian Andersen

National Ferret Day

Birthday of "Father of Tagalog Literature," Francisco Balagtas

Equal Pay Day

Plan ahead:

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December 8 – Battle of Falkland Islands Day

Posted on December 8, 2016

I don't think of World War I being fought near South America, do you?

But I guess they don't call it a “world war” for nothing!

Imperial Germany had a squadron of ships that disrupted other nations' shipping by attacking merchant ships and supply bases.

And on this date in 1914, this overseas naval group was effectively destroyed!

The Germans' squadron was made up of eight ships under Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. In November of 1914 they had sunk two British cruisers with all hands (“with all hands” means ALL of the sailors and officers died) in the South Pacific Ocean, near Chile. This was the first defeat for the Royal Navy in a century. In response to the defeat, the British sent a large squadron to track down and destroy the German ships.

The British were waiting at the port of Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, when the German squadron tried to raid the supply base. The weather was good, and the visibility was excellent, so I wondered why Spee would attack seeing the British squadron in port. Well, it seems that he was confident that he could outdistance the big battleships he saw – the British Dreadnoughts – and he was probably overconfident because of his earlier victory.

He paid for his mistake.

It turns out that the Brits also had two swift battle cruisers designed to combine speed and maneuverability with power and big guns. Even as early as nine in the morning it was obvious that the Germans were outgunned and would be easily caught.

Eventually, all but one German ship were hunted down and sunk.

The British suffered only very light casualties – only 10 dead compared to more than 2,000 German sailors, including Admiral Spee and both of his sons. (The three Spees were each on a different ship. But remember, 7 out of 8 ships were sunk.) There were a couple of hundred German sailors who survived and were taken aboard the British ships as prisoners. It was considered the most decisive naval battle of World War I – and it provided a much-needed surge of confidence for the Allies.

Also on this date: