3rd May | British forces sink one Argentine patrol boat and seriously damage another; Argentine navy vessels are recalled to shallow waters off Argentine coastline out of reach of submarines; Galtieri rejects Peruvian peace plan, citing General Belgrano |
4th May | British destroyer Sheffield hit by an exocet missile, and subsequently sinks - 20 die; First British sea harrier piloted by Lt Nick Taylor is shot down over Goose Green; British forces begin bombarding Argentine positions around Stanley |
5th May | Emergency meeting of full British cabinet approves Peruvian peace plan |
6th May | Two British sea harriers crash in fog; Argentine junta rejects Peruvian peace plan; Convoy including Canberra heads south from Ascension Island |
7th May | Britain extends total exclusion zone to 12 miles off Argentine coast; de Cuellar discusses peace proposals in New York with British and Argentine delegations |
8th May | War cabinet dispatches landing force south from Ascension Island; Argentina rejects Peru's peace proposals |
9th May | Final plans drawn up for San Carlos landing site; Argentine trawler Narwhal bombed by sea harriers, and subsequently sinks; Argentine positions face heavy bombardment from sea and air, especially around Stanley |
10th May | Task Force briefed about San Carlos landing plans; Argentine supply ship Islas de los Estados sunk by Alacrity in Falkland Sound; Argentina declares the entire South Atlantic a war zone |
11th May | Haig sends his deputy General Vernon Walters to Buenos Aires |
12th May | QE2 leaves Southampton with 5 Infantry Brigade comprising Scots Guards, Welsh Guards and Gurkhas Argentine junta concedes that sovereignty of the Islands isn't a precondition to the UN peace plan |
14th May | Britain's ambassadors to the US and the UN summoned back to London; Thatcher warns Britain that a peaceful settlement may not be possible; SAS attack the Argentine base on Pebble Island and destroy supplies and 11 pucara aircraft; 3 Argentine skyhawk aircraft are shot down by sea harriers |
16th May | Britain's UN ambassador Sir Anthony Parsons sent back to New York with British peace proposals |
17th May | British peace proposals transmitted to Argentina; Helicopter from Invincible lands SAS team in Argentina but they fail to destroy Argentine military aircraft at the Rio Grande base |
18th May | Landing force rendezvous with Admiral Woodward's task group; San Carlos landing plan put to full cabinet; Argentine junta rejects British peace proposals |
19th May | War cabinet gives Admiral Woodward the go ahead for landing plan; British sea king helicopter crashes with the loss of its crew and 19 Special Forces personnel |
20th May | de Cuellar admits failure of UN peace talks; Thatcher accuses Argentina of 'obduracy and delay, deception and bad faith', tells Commons of collapse of peace process, and orders task force into battle; RMS St. Helena requisitioned by the Task Force - 19 Saint Helenian sailors volunteer to serve aboard alongside naval personnel, and after the end of the War she stays in the Islands as a minesweeper |
21st May | San Carlos landings begin, codenamed Operation Sutton; British frigate Ardent sunk in San Carlos Water by air attack - 22 die; Argonaut and Antrim hit by Argentine bombs which fail to explode - 2 die; 2 British helicopters and 15 Argentine aircraft are shot down; Open debate commences at UN Security Council |
23rd May | British frigate Antelope hit by Argentine bomb which fails to explode - 1 crewman dies; 10 Argentine aircraft are shot down |
24th May | Antelope explodes and sinks when a bomb disposal officer attempts to defuse the bomb; Landing craft Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot hit by Argentine bombs which fail to explode while Sir Bedivere is damaged by a bomb exploding in water nearby; 7 Argentine aircraft are shot down |
25th May | British destroyer Coventry sunk by air attack - 20 die; British container ship Atlantic Conveyor is abandoned with 3 vital chinook helicopters aboard after an exocet missile hit sets the ship ablaze - 12 die; 8 Argentine aircraft are shot down; SAS unit reconnoitre Mount Kent |
26th May | War cabinet questions lack of movement out of bridgehead at San Carlos; London makes the retaking of Goose Green a priority; 2 Para set out for Goose Green; UN Security Council Resolution 505 instructs de Cuellar to seek negotiated settlement |
27th May | 45 Commando and 3 Para set out for Douglas and Teal Inlet; SAS land in strength on Mount Kent; Sea harriers attack Goose Green - one plane is shot down; British forces furious when BBC World Service report 2 Para are advancing on Darwin but Argentine commander believes this is deliberate misinformation |
28th May | 2 Para launch attack early in the morning, and by evening surround Goose Green - 17 British and 250 Argentines die; Colonel H Jones is killed during the attack and subsequently awarded Victoria Cross; 5 Infantry Brigade trans-ship from QE2 to Norland and Canberra at South Georgia; British shelling by air and sea of Stanley recommences and continues for the next 16 days |
29th May | Argentines surrender Goose Green, British take 1,400 prisoners, and the Islanders imprisoned at Goose Green by the Argentines are released; Organisation of American States condemns Britain's military action and calls on the US to stop helping Britain - only the US, Chile, Columbia and Trinidad & Tobago abstain |
30th May | 45 Commando take Douglas and 3 Para take Teal Inlet; 42 Commando advance on Mount Kent and Mount Challenger; General Moore arrives at San Carlos; Pope John Paul II preaches anti-war message in Coventry Cathedral |
31st May | 42 Commando take Mount Kent and Mount Challenger; 19 men from the Royal Marines Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre capture Top Malo House after a firefight; Reagan asks Thatcher not to inflict too serious a defeat on the Argentines |
1st June | 5 Infantry Brigade begins disembarkation at San Carlos; War cabinet debate further peace proposals; Britain repeats its ceasefire terms; Updated Shackleton Report ordered |
2nd June | 2 Para reach Bluff Cove; Argentine military envoys arrive in New York offering to surrender to the UN |
3rd June | Versailles summit opens; Reagan's 5-point plan given to Britain |
4th June | Britain and US veto Panamanian-Spanish immediate ceasefire resolution in UN Security Council; Spain criticises Britain's military action, becoming the only NATO country not to support Britain 2 Para occupy the undefended Bluff Cove and Fitzroy |
5th June | Scots Guards depart San Carlos at night on board Intrepid heading for Fitzroy |
6th June | Scots Guards land at Fitzroy in early morning; Versailles summit supports British position on the conflict; Welsh Guards depart San Carlos at night on board Fearless heading for Fitzroy |
7th June | A shortage of landing craft mean half the Welsh Guards land at Fitzroy in early morning but the rest return to San Carlos, which they leave again at night on board landing craft Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram; President Reagan pays official visit to Britain |
8th June | Plymouth in Falkland Sound is hit by 4 Argentine bombs but none explode; Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram are bombed at Fitzroy while the Welsh Guards are waiting to disembark - 51 die including 38 Welsh Guards and 55 are seriously wounded; War cabinet asked not to reveal Fitzroy casualties; Landing craft Foxtrot-4 sunk with British vehicles aboard; 3 Argentine skyhawks are shot down by sea harriers; General Moore finalises battle plan for Stanley |
10th June | Falklands Appeal launched under patronage of Lord Shackleton; Peru sends 10 mirage jets to Argentina to replenish losses |
11th June | Battle for Stanley begins on Mount Longdon, Mount Harriet and Two Sisters - 23 paras and 50 Argentines die; Sergeant Ian McKay of 3 Para is killed on Mount Longdon and subsequently awarded Victoria Cross; 3 Islanders killed during British naval bombardment of Stanley; Pope John Paul II visits Argentina and denounces all wars as 'unjust' |
12th June | 3 Para take Mount Longdon - another 6 paras and 50 Argentines die, including Sergeant Ian John McKay who is awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross; 42 Commando take Mount Harriet and 45 Commando take Two Sisters; British destroyer Glamorgan badly damaged by land-launched exocet missile - 13 die; 5 Infantry Brigade moves into position |
13th June | Battle for Tumbledown, Wireless Ridge and Mount William - 15 Britons and 40 Argentines die |
14th June | By daylight Argentine troops are fleeing in disarray, by mid-morning white flags are flying in Stanley, and by noon the British have marched to the outskirts of Stanley; Thatcher informs the Commons at 10.15pm UK time that the Argentines have surrendered; General Mario Menendez surrenders to Major General Jeremy Moore at 9pm FI time; 9,800 Argentine troops put down their arms |
15th June | British officers are flown by helicopter to the outlying settlements to accept the surrender of local Argentine commanders; Stanley's historic Globe Store is destroyed by an Argentine arsonist; Canberra embarks 1,200 Argentine POWs at San Carlos |
16th June | Canberra embarks a further 1,850 Argentine POWs in Port William outside Stanley; Peter Blaker, Defence Minister of State, announces that the official count of British military and civilian war dead is 255, with approximately 300 wounded |
17th June | Galtieri resigns |
18th June | Canberra sails from Port William with 3,046 Argentine POWs aboard once Argentina guarantees her safe passage |
19th June | Canberra offloads the POWs at Puerto Madryn, Argentina; Britain announces that 11,845 Argentines were captured |
20th June | British forces land on Southern Thule (South Sandwich Islands) - Argentines surrender without a fight; Britain formally declares an end to hostilities; 200 mile exclusion zone established around the Islands during the war is replaced by a Falkland Islands Protection Zone of 150 miles; British newspaper 'The Sunday Times' publishes an unsubstantiated story that Argentina had been holding 7 members of the British Secret Air Service since 19 May, captured whilst providing intelligence information on Argentine Air Force plane departures to the British fleet; EEC lifts economic sanctions against Argentina |
22nd June | Retired Army General Reynaldo Bignone replaces Galtieri as President of Argentina; Argentine army assumes full power, the Navy and Air Force withdrawing from the Junta |
24rd June | Thatcher visits Reagan in Washington |
25th June | Governor Rex Hunt returns to Stanley as Civil Commsisioner; Canberra departs Falklands waters with 40, 42 and 45 Commando on board |
26th June | Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance at St. Paul's Cathedral in London |
28th June | Argentina releases 3 British journalists imprisoned on spying charges at the beginning of the War |
2nd July | Argentine war toll set at 645 dead and missing; Rear Admiral John (Sandy) Woodward replaced by Rear Admiral Derek Roy Reffell as Commander of the British naval task force, and Major General Jeremy Moore replaced by Major General David Thorne as Commander of the British ground forces |
6th July | Thatcher appoints an official commission headed by Lord Franks to examine the causes of Britain's failure to prevent Argentine capture of the Islands |
7th July | EEC agrees to provide financial aid to the Islands |
8th July | Argentina releases its only acknowledged British prisoner of war, an airman shot down near Stanley in May; Thatcher announces British government will repatriate bodies of dead British servicemen buried in the Falklands for reburial in Britain if requested by next-of-kin |
11th July | Canberra arrives home at Southampton with 40, 42 and 45 Commando; Britain drops its condition that Argentina formally acknowledge the end of hostilities before repatriating the remaining prisoners of war |
12th July | USA ends trade sanctions against Argentina |
14th July | Final 593 Argentine prisoners of war (mostly officers and technicians) repatriated |
17th July | Britain admits to falsifying press releases during the war to mislead Argentina |
22nd July | Britain lifts the Exclusion Zone around the Islands |
26th July | Brigadier General Mario Menendez dismissed from Argentine army |
24th August | RMS St. Helena arrives home in St. Helena |
12 October | Victory Parade in London |
4 November | UN General Assembly passes a resolution calling for a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute |