How Port Stanley was won
Updated on 01 February 2007
British troops take Stanley and 10,000 Argentine prisoners of war.
Just before the British forces were to take Stanley, they were shocked by the attack on the Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram.
On 8 June five Argentine planes hit the two British supply ships as they moved up men and equipment to a British-held position in Fitzroy, near Stanley.
Around 200 men, many of them Welsh Guards, were killed or injured as the Argentine bombs ignited the huge amount of explosives the ship was carrying.
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The Argentineans were unable to follow the success up and the campaign's initiative remained with the British.
In the following days UK forces took the key defensive positions around the capital and soon captured the high points of Mount Tumbledown and Wireless Ridge.
As Stanley was surrounded the Argentineans surrendered on 14 June.
Not all of them were sorry to lay down their weapons. The British took over 10,000 prisoners of war.
It had taken the British just three weeks after they first landed at San Carlos and started fighting and "yomping" their way across the island.
The fighting had seen 913 deaths - 655 Argentines, 255 British troops and three Falkland islanders lost their lives in the brief conflict.
The fighting had seen 913 deaths - 655 Argentines, 255 British troops and three Falkland islanders.
Hostilities formally ceased on 20 June 1982. But by then the head of Argentina's military Junta, General Leopold Galtieri had resigned.
Government by the armed forces soon fell, and democratic rule was returned to Argentina in 1983. Once out of power key figures in the military government were tried for human rights offences. In 1986 Galtieri was imprisoned for incompetence and his part in the war.
The success of the war changed Margaret Thatcher's fortunes as she romped to election victory the following year and stayed in power for another seven years.
