Falklands War veterans recall conflict 40 years later as they return to the islands

Briton Gary Platts, 59, was 19 years old when he landed on the Falkland Islands to fight the Argentine forces that had occupied the archipelago in the last major war in South America, in 1982.

In early November, he returned to the site for the first time, as part of a delegation of former combatants and relatives of dead soldiers organized by the British government to commemorate the 40 years of the conflict.

“Ironically, as you distance yourself from difficult events, the sense of loss grows,” he said, shortly after participating in a mass and procession in honor of the victims on the last day 13.

“I had three marriages, three children, four grandchildren, a complete life. But my friends didn’t have another 40 years of life, they didn’t have children or the losses and loves that are common in life. It’s very difficult.”

Platts was one of the soldiers who landed on the first day of operations at San Carlos Bay, the point chosen by the British to launch the land offensive. He was in combat for the entire duration of the conflict and lost three friends. The landing, on 21 May, initiated an action that led to the Argentine surrender on 14 June. The British lost 255 men in the war. On the other side, 649 dead.

Looking back on those days, Platts agrees with the perception that opposing forces were poorly trained and poorly equipped, a view shared by Argentine commanders such as General Martín Bauza, author of a book on the subject. “I met many prisoners. I thought I was young, but they were even younger,” he says. “We can’t blame the soldiers, because professional soldiers are professional soldiers, but those young people… I have no words to describe how sorry I am for them.”

The island’s weather conditions, with average temperatures below 10°C in winter, compounded by strong winds, were challenging, he says. “Surviving cold, wet and windy days is a struggle.”

He reinforces the justifications for the reaction to the Argentine invasion, when he says that the head of the Military Junta of the country’s dictatorship at the time, Lieutenant General Leopoldo Galtieri, “was not fighting the good fight”. Jeremy Larken, 83, who commanded the assault ship Fearless as the troops landed, echoes: “We feel obligated to protect these islands because we believe they should belong to those who live on them.”

During the war, the main British setback was the bombing of the ship Sir Gallahad, on June 8, 1982, when 48 soldiers were killed. Aged 20 at the time, John Lamb was aboard the vessel. “The ship caught fire, and people escaped by jumping with life jackets. I was rescued in a helicopter”, he recalls. “Although I was in pain, I was better off than many others.”

Lamb, like other veterans brought to the Falkland Islands in November, visited memorials near the battlefields and the Argentine Cemetery, where 237 soldiers killed in the war are buried.

Six years old when the war started, helicopter pilot Tom Chater, a resident of Stanley, says the first memory he has is people entering his house desperately. Then, the planes that began to fly over the city, the noise of the bombs and having seen a helicopter being shot down. “Sometimes I wish I’d been born earlier, to have more memories of the conflict. Sometimes I think it’s better not to.”