Battle for the Falklands II Trivia Quiz

Answer: ARA General Belgrano

ARA Veinticinco de Mayo was the Argentine light fleet aircraft-carrier. Ironically, she was built in Britain and served as HMS Venerable in the British Pacific Fleet post WWII. She survived the Falklands War but was scrapped in 1999. The submarine Santa Fe, formerly the USS Catfish, was badly damaged in South Georgia by a helicopter attack. She was abandoned by her crew and later sunk by British Forces in Grytviken Sound. Isla de los Estados was a supply ship sunk by 4.5" gunfire from HMS Alacrity.
The sinking of the Belgrano was the greatest single loss of life during the conflict (more than 300 of her crew died) and remains controversial to this day.
This was the first time that torpedoes had been used in action since WWII, and the first (and only) operational sinking carried out by a nuclear submarine.

Answer: France

The Exocet missile had only recently been purchased by Argentina at the start of the conflict, and, despite frantic attempts to buy others, the Argentinian forces had only 5 of the airborne version of these deadly missiles. The Type 42 destroyer, HMS Sheffield, was badly damaged by one.

Although the missile warhead failed to explode, the remaining rocket fuel caused a fire so severe that the ship had to be abandoned. She sank several days later while under tow by HMS Yarmouth. The container ship Atlantic Conveyer was also struck by an Exocet and also burned fiercely, eventually sinking under tow.

In addition to the tragic loss of life, much needed equipment for the war, including 10 irreplaceable helicopters, was lost. HMS Glamorgan was damaged off Port Stanley by a land-based Exocet, but survived. Had the Argentinian forces possessed more of these missiles, or had they been able to take out the British aircraft carriers with the few they had, then the Falklands War might have had a very different outcome.

Answer: Brigadier-General Ernesto Horacio Crespo

The Southern Air Force was an air arm specifically created for the conflict, and included the Argentine Naval Aviation Command. General Crespo was responsible for the hasty training of the FAS, the majority of whose crews' previous training had been for an anticipated short-range war with Chile.

Instead, the British tactic of stationing the carrier fleet 100 miles NE of the Falklands forced them to fight at the extreme limits of their fuel, where aircraft like the Dagger and Mirage 3 were at a huge disadvantage, since they could not spend more than a few minutes in the target area, and any attempt to escape by using their afterburners and superior speed would have meant running out of fuel well before reaching the Argentine mainland. Crespo's pilots showed high levels of professionalism, competence and great courage in pressing home their attacks. In contrast, the Argentine Navy was largely confined to skulking in port after the sinking of its most powerful capital ship.

The land forces, although numerically superior, and deploying some very effective regular soldiers, consisted mainly of ill-equipped, poorly-trained and badly-led very young conscripts.

Answer: San Carlos Water

San Carlos was selected largely because it was a sheltered anchorage with good landing access. Additionally, the high hills surrounding it effectively screened the British ships from Exocet attack. Unfortunately, they also screened incoming Argentine air attacks from the ships' anti-aircraft defences, and San Carlos became known as "Bomb Alley".

Answer: SS Canberra

Defence cutbacks over the years had meant that in the event of a conflict, ships for transporting troops had to be requisitioned from Britain's dwindling merchant fleet under an arrangement aptly known as STUFT (Ships Taken Up From Trade). These ships were rapidly upgraded to incorporate minimum naval communications and some satellite navigation and satellite communication equipment. Most were fitted for RAS (Replenishment at Sea), many with one or two helipads and some with extra accommodation and light AA weapons.

As well as passenger ships, container ships, North Sea ferries and refrigerated stores ships and oil rig support vessels (for use as repair ships) were also commandeered.

Canberra was affectionately known to the troops as the "Great White Whale"; the grand old lady was refitted for passenger cruises again after the conflict, and was, sadly, scrapped in 1997.

Those ships shown in the other options also served with distinction during the conflict.

Answer: Black Buck

These 8-hour, 7700-mile long Black Buck raids held the record for long distance bombing raids until the record was broken by US SAC B-52 and B-2 raids in the Gulf conflicts. Although the raids did little tactical damage, they had a strategic value in that they sent the message that the Argentine mainland was within bombing range, thereby diverting Argentine fighters, with the additional bonus that Argentine radar operators in the Falklands became very reluctant to "light up" their radars, allowing several Harrier bombing raids to go virtually unopposed.

The other options all refer to the code names for radar equipment carried on Vulcan and Sea Harrier aircraft.

Answer: Pucara

The Pucara is a twin-engined turboprop aircraft carrying 2 Hispano cannon, 4 x 7.62mm machine guns and up to 1500 lbs of external stores which could operate from grass airstrips. A vicious little aircraft when used against lightly-armed ground forces, its relatively slow speed (around 220 mph) made it very vulnerable to shoulder-launched SAMs, Harriers, and even small-arms fire. Most of the Pucara fleet stationed in the Falklands during the conflict were destroyed by ground forces, most notable being the SAS (Special Air Service) night raid on the Pebble Island airstrip, when 11 aircraft were destroyed.

The other options are also aircraft of the FAS which served in the Falklands conflict.

Answer: Goose Green

The commanding officer of 2 Para, Colonel "H" Jones (awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously) was killed in an early stage of the heavy fighting for Goose Green. Major Chris Keeble took command and, the Paras having fought the Argentine garrison to a standstill, released 2 Argentinian prisoners to take a message to the commanding officer of the Goose Green Garrison informing him that he was besieged, and inviting him to surrender to avoid further unnecessary bloodshed.

This was duly agreed and, to their astonishment, the men of 2 Para watched as some 2000 Argentinian troops marched out of the settlement and laid down their arms.

Answer: All of these reasons

As inheritors of a part of the Spanish Empire, the Argentine claim seems to have its roots in the Utrecht Treaty of 1713, which confirmed the Falklands as being under Spanish control, even although Argentina did not exist as an independent entity until 1810 or so.

This long-held popular belief in the Argentine sovereignty of the Falklands was cynically exploited by the ruling military Junta in an effort to divert attention from internal problems and to give the people and the Junta a common goal. To a large extent it worked, at least temporarily.

The Junta were encouraged in their belief that Britain would not fight for the Falklands. Lukewarm support for the Islands from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office seemed to indicate that, given an excuse, it would relinquish sovereignty of the islands, which were seen as expensive and inconvenient to support.

The planned withdrawal of the Antarctic patrol ship, HMS Endurance, from the area was seen as a signal further strengthening that supposition.

Answer: Mount Longdon

The attack on Longdon had been intended to be a silent attack, but the element of surprise was lost when a Para NCO trod on a landmine. The Argentine defenders resisted with courage and tenacity and the assault degenerated into brutal hand-to-hand combat, with the defence trenches being cleared by bullet, grenade and bayonet. It lasted for 9 hours, during which 18 men of 2 Para and an attached Royal Engineer died, with many more wounded. During this engagement, Sgt Ian McKay was killed while trying to take a heavy machine-gun position, and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

The other options are also mountains surrounding Port Stanley. Mount Tumbledown was taken by the Scots Guards, Mount William by the 1/7th Gurkha Rifles and Wireless Ridge by 2 Para.

By this stage, Stanley was encircled. The Argentine commander of the Falklands, Mario Menendez, still had some 8000 troops in Port Stanley, with plenty of food and ammunition, but little in the way of artillery shells. He was ordered by the Argentine junta to fight on, but decided to negotiate.

The surrender document was signed the following morning.