Having served in the Falkands, the weather was atrocious.

With your info-diggings skills you could probably find Atlantis in two weeks

Regardless of what you think of the politics, those Argie pilots had some serious stones, making those wavetop attacks in those Scooters. Some real ace stick-and-rudder work.

France suspended deliveries when Argentina invaded the Falklands. Now imagine if Argentina had invaded the Falklands AFTER taking full delivery of the Super Etandards and the Exocet missiles!

This channel is better than history channel thanks mark felton!! Thanks for 400 likes hahaha History channel is crap now aliens mysteries etc no lore history in it.

I felt so guilty after watching your videos so often, I just sent a small payment via PayPal. You are one of the best video producers on KZfaq, and whether you know it or not are making a MAJOR contribution to history with this. Deep respect.

Amazing work as usual!! 👍👍

I was a RAF technician supporting the aircraft that joined the fleet, the aircraft that bombed the runway and various 'other aircraft' during the Falklands conflict. I've never seen the footage you are showing. Thank you.

Once a respected foe now a respected ally Greetings and respect from Germany to our British friends

I know the Rio Grande base area well and let me tell you: It would have been extremely difficult for unsupported raiders to make it out of the landing strip. They might have caused some considerable damage because they were the SAS and who dares wins and all that, but on the whole they would have come out of the affair with quite a collection of holes each. For one thing, the landing strip itself was watched as much as the outlaying zone. A hostile landing inside the base had been considered a possibility, for obvious reasons, and there were literally dozens of bunkers and mutually supporting positions that looked both in and out. The Rio Grande base wasn't an improvised landing strip in the Libyan desert watched over by poorly led, poorly armed Italians. The area had been in fact a war zone during the entire seventies because of the leftist insurgency that had ravaged the country back then and constantly tried to assault military bases to steal weapons, kill soldiers and for propaganda purposes. So the place was not stranger to war. The perimeter of the base, which held critically sensitive materiel, was therefore quite beefed up, heavily mined and watched over by four battalions of Marines, perhaps the toughest soldiers we have outside the "Buzos Tácticos". Some of their commanders had in fact undergone training in the UK with the SBS and knew what to expect from the daring British. Also, unlike our starved, half-frozen conscripts in the islands, the Marines manning the defenses were well fed, well equipped and had decent bunkers and material support. The SAS brass was perfectly right when they called it a suicide mission. It would have been one more tragedy in an already tragic and unnecessary conflict.

My mums first boyfriend flew the remaining Chinook off the Atlantic Conveyor. Ironically he survived the war but died in the Falklands on exercise some years later, because of water contamination!

Jabber 1974, You do a disservice to the French, they kept stalling on delivery of previously ordered Exocets until the war was over. The Exocets used were old stock delivered when Argentina was still a British ally. Britain and Argentina were close friends until this incident.

Nice video, thanks. I have read in the Argentine mass media articles that the "Seaking" helicopter was first detected (heard) by an Argentine oil extraction tower ignored by the SAS. The employees of this tower had reported the contact to the military authorities of Tierra del Fuego who alerted the coast guards about the incursion. There is another report of an Argentine patrol vessel detecting a small boat approaching the Argentine coast very close to Rio Grande. Apparently, the ship opened fire "blindly" following the radar "mark" at what, the boat (presumably British), noticing that it had been discovered, salied away. The Argentine Navy knew that the Super Etendards were important military targets and, every day, they took the airplanes out of the base and hid them among the houses of the city. Obviously, every day the place where each plane was hidden was changed. The "sensitive" sites of Tierra del Fuego (Argentine side of the island) and the border with Chile was guarded by, whatever was considered, the best troops of the Argentine Navy. The fear of a direct intervention of Chilean troops on the Argentine side of the Island of Tierra del Fuego caused that, neglecting the participation of these troops in the conflict, (there were many command groups of the Argentine Navy), any military attack on the Argentine side of the Island was very difficult. I have a couple of Argentine books about "mikado operation" seen with "Argentine eyes" but, saddly, I haven't had the time to read them yet. I promise to do that soon !!!

The tension in these videos is amazing, even though I knew Argentina had never sunk an aircraft carrier I was still on the edge of my seat. Thank you, great channel.

That would have been one hell of a SAS assault on that Arge air field, most definitely would have went down into the history books.

Coming home from work and excited to finally watch another excellent episode of Mark Felton's history documentaries!

Very good description on Operation Mikado. The Falklands/Malvinas War is such a short conflict that if any small incident was changed it could define a different aftermath. Respect from Argentina

Loving the Falklands videos, keep up the good work!

Why do all history KZfaqrs have such good voices?

Well credit where credit is due. The Argentine pilots showed some real guts. Can't deny that.

Interestingly the destruction of HMS Sheffield was down to fires started by the missiles engine rather then the warhead which did not explode. In fact if it was not for the fact that the sea water fire main was knocked out the ship could well have been saved. In the case of the Atlantic Conveyor there is no conclusive evidence that the warhead exploded and again it is possible the missiles engine caused a fire in the fuel and ammunition aboard the Atlantic Conveyor which burnt the ship out. So it is possible that even if the carriers had been hit, and assuming the fire control worked well, the may not have been knocked out. Argentina did try to obtain more missiles but the British Secret Service did set up a number of fake arms dealers to diverted Argentina from pursuing sources which could genuinely supply a few missiles. France, to its credit, stopped a supply of missiles going to Peru which they thought could have been diverted to Argentina. Though how much that was influenced by the fact that British intelligence knew what was going on would be interesting to know.

Yet again, Dr Felton, a superb production. Interesting, concise, to the point.... if only more history documentaries were made in this style, I think they would receive far more viewers. I recently saw a documentary about Operation Thunderbolt (the Israeli Special Forces operation in Ntebbe, Uganda, in 1976, mentioned in this film). It was 1.5 hours long. So, it must be amazing, right?? Wrong. It was SO full of repetition, padding, re-summarizing the story so far, and so on (this was excluding the endless commercials), that it made me realise just how good the Felton Production films are. It left me longing for a concentrated, 10 - 15 minute version. Awesome job Sir!!!

Interesting video. Yes some fairly crazy things were considered during the Falklands conflict. Credit should also go to the Argentinian technical team that repurposed the MM38 ship launched exocet onto a truck, added a radar and successfully hit HMS Glamorgan on Jun 12 killing 14 crew. They had something like 30 missiles available from the navy. A week earlier and this small team of geeks might have changed the outcome of the conflict. Frustratingly I can find very little detail, but as they say victory is written by the victor.

Thanks Mr Felton, keep up the good work.

That footage at 1:50 of the Argentine jets flying low against the British ships is the hilight

The result of losing the Atlantic Conveyor was that troops landing in the Falklands had no overland helicopter transport and thus had to walk multiple days and fight their way to their target town.

My understanding from the Argentinian pilot’s testimony is that his target radar could not differentiate between the carrier and the transport ship as they were both large targets. He had detected both, and he just had to pick one.

*You didn't mention that the Argentinian troops on Falkland were amateurs and many were drafted and poorly trained. While the British troops they fought against were elite units that had advanced weapons.*

Another amazing video and piece of history. Thank you.

You forgot two more missions. The air attack of 05/30/1982. On that mission, the Argentines claim to have hit the invincible or something. And the attack on 06/12/1982 with an exocet MM.38 (from the ground) that hit the Glamorgan.

I’ve been watching your high quality videos since February,keep up the good work!

Lindybeige and mark both doing falklands war videos. Absolute winner !

I am REALLY enjoying your recent Falklands videos! Thanks!

Good video! The last Exocet misil was lunch in a combine attack with 4 Skyhawks that Argentina claim damages a carrier and England claim that hit the floating shell of the Atlantic Conveior.

Damn, interesting, never knew of this. Love the little facts behind larger stories. Also, firmly agree, awesome channel! You are great!

Many thanks Marc, as every post, highly interesting. This one in particular as I lived in AR at the time.

Long time subscriber, love your videos mark! ~cheers from Argentina

Sounds like Cpt Legg bottled it. Preferred to be near to Chile rather than the target and baled out at the first opportunity.

First time I've ever heard about this and I live in Hereford !! Great video Mark.

Mr Felton sir I just wanted to say thank you for your bringing all these interesting and overlooked stories to light. I emensly enjoy them and look very much forward to the next. I am a very proud ex member of the Canadian Armed Forces and as such I appreciate the significance of the stories. Ther are many Canadian stories as well I,m told we played a very important part in both wars. Thank you again sir . Cheers Wade

I recall being told at the time, that Argentina’s shocking success with their small stock of Exocet missiles, was viewed with such alarm and dismay by our Government, that immediate steps were taken to purchase all of France’s remaining stock of Exocet missiles, in order to prevent Argentina from getting their hands on any more!

Mark, would you consider doing a video on Ethiopian/African forces in the Korean War?

What I read on the sinking of the Sheffield was the use of aluminium in the ship's construction caused some horrific incidents.

The U.S. secretly offered to loan Britain an amphibious assault carrier in the event that one of her carriers was sunk.

The Atlantic Conveyor name was put on a new ship. I used it to send a wooden classic boat to Liverpool from Baltimore. The name on the shipping documents surprised me.

Well done mark another great video about the falklands war i would love to see one about the battle of port stanley and the argentinian invasion

The Skyhawk was one of the most agile aircraft ever made , light and could carry a huge payload and manouverability was outstanding and was one of the only aircraft of its size capable of carrying nuclear bombs

Dr Mark any chance of some Ghurhka history videos? Just visited the Ghurkha Welfare Trust nursing home in Pokhara which was very humbling.

Keep up the great work Mark. I always look forward to learning something new about our past when you upload.

Holy crap, those argentinian skyhawk pilots got balls

When you hear that intro music, you know it's going to be good.

Always good to see that History is not all being lost to Hollywood remakes, and historical facts are being kept intact. Thanks

Smashing video Mr. Felton!

Mark please do one on the decoy mission that fended off the two exocets. Apparently they used sea kings like matador's capes pulling up above the maximum altitude of the exocets as the missles passed beneath them. I was aquainted with the proud father of one of the sea king pilots. The father was former SAS.

Considering the seeming crackdown on military history on KZfaq I'm very pleased this was on top of my feed when I got home from work. Keep up the good work, Mark. Cheers to you for these videos!

I love the coverage of lesser known events in history. I feel The Battle of Castle Itter would make a great video, it's an incredible story that doesn't get enough recognition.

I love the SAS stories, specially during the Falklands war. You should talk more about Chile and his involvemt on it helping the UK. Greetings from Chile!

Interesting fact the Argentine navy and airforce cooperated to modify an exorcet and mount it on an improvised lorry trailer launcher at port Stanley designed to sink the first major royal navy ship to approach fortunately Stanley was overrun from the landward side

I love it! So glad to see more on the Falklands from you.

Any day that Mark uploads is good day !!

I love the mix of eras of history you portray on your channel ......loved to see this one..... Had only seen previously this described in one or two sentences.....nice to finally get the WHOLE story...... keep up the OUTSTANDING work!!!!!💂💂💂 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I would like to say that there was an another mission, against the HMS invincible with the last exocet missile, and a couple of A4-B bombing the carrier. But there are serious doubts about the result of the mission, with diferent versions from both sides. Apart from that, great video.

The commander of the SAS unit was so embarrassed after quitting the mission that after returning he left the army , he was right that the Argentinians has detected them , at least they catched radar signal from the flying helo, furthermore there was a strong opposition at land and well prepared argentine SF teams patrolling the zone ... it was no picnic ...

mark should do a video on THE DAY THE SAS DEFIED THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT TO RESCUE THEIR OWN (september 2005, basra Iraq)

Epic mark

Mark should've been my history teacher is high school

Lindybeige talked about this yesterday. Interesting.

Must not forget that Argentinians struggled to attack the British Flotilla because the aircraft/jets they had lacked in terms of range. The Air-bases was way away from the targets and hence, mostly the Argentinian Naval and Airforce Jets struggled to get back after launching raids, as they were low on fuel. But not taking away anything from British Naval Aviation. The Harriers performed brilliantly. Also, the French Mirages and American Sky hawks were not really outdated jets by the end of 1982. They were considered to be pretty modern even back then!

Best history channel on the platform, and yet another great video.

As a low brass/trombone player, I approve of the theme music you use. Love that bass bone on the right channel!

These episodes leave me on the edge of my seat! More, please!

More More More...lovin the 80s conflicts...

Thank you Mark very cool!

I did not know of this not-so-little mission! Thanks Maek!

Wow! Released after I showered

Good one Mark. I was down there during the scuffel but our part has yet to be acknowledged. However it's good to find out what other things were going on. People have no idea how complex an opporation the whole thing was. The fact that there were more supply ships than warships should be a clue. But!!!!

These videos are so addictive, always learn something new from them, thank you Dr Mark

Lindybeige talking about this raid yesterday and now this ... huh 🤓

Brilliant as always Mark. Less known incidents and always meticulously researched and presented. Thank you.

As always another Great Video! However, there was a last attack of the argentinian navy using the remaining exocet missile. There are two versions about it : the british claim that the missile was destroyed by Royal navy ships, while argentina declare that it hit the Invincible. Nevertheless both parts agree in that one more attack by super etendards did happen during the war. Thanks for the video!

Alternate title: “The officer who didn’t dare ...and lost!” In this case, the Atlantic Conveyor!

The sad aspect of the attacks on the task force was the bombs dropped were British 500 pound bombs .

I keep thinking I know a lot of military history until you post a video. Such fun. Thank you Mark.

Just in case it was not already mentioned : The Argentinians did expend their last air-launched Exocet on May 30th. By using two air-to-air refuelings instead of one they were able to attack the RN TF from the SE. But they were still short of the carriers and the missile apparently locked onto the Type 21 HMS Avenger. Avenger's maneuvering and chaff rockets were enough to break the lock and it failed to hit any target.

The SAS. The only regiment apart from the Gurkhas who'll gladly accept a suicidal plan and barge in on death's door.

You are the new history channel. Great video and story.

How ironic that now 1 of the world's greatest navies can barely guard let alone defend it's oil tankers. Times have changed for the British navy that was able to sail thousands of miles and reclaim its territory. To bad it cannot do the same in the Straits of Hormuz.

I really enjoy the videos on the Falkland Islands war. I am learning a lot.

interesting video, i had no idea. on a separate point. i know french advisers visited argentina during the war, i always wondered if they helped or hindered their war effort.

Let us not forget the 1987 "incident" when an Iraqi F1 Mirage fired a pair of Exocet missiles at the USS Stark, both hitting her port side, resulting in 37 deaths and almost sinking the ship. IIRC, the ship's electronics did not detect the incoming Excocets. Five years after the UK-Argentina scuffle, the US had reason to fear the Exocet. Despite Iraq having fired the missiles, Reagan blamed Iran as "the villain in the piece." We were still kinda upset over that Iranian hostage thing in 1979.

Great video!!!

Nice little history blurb. I actually have a model of an Argentine Super Etendard sitting on my desk that I built a few years back. It's aircraft 03.

Keep up the Falklands War vídeos if you can, very interesting and no one else seems to cover specific stories about it like you do. Most docs or info out there are about the war as a whole that everyone has heard of.

Shame the video of a Sea King in flight was an SAR Mk2. It sort of ruins the continuity to see a dayglo red machine which was clearly not involved. Also I would query whether the SAS left that quickly. I was in one of the frigates and we got regular reports when aircraft took off from Rio Grande so someone was sat near the runway with a radio. Also I think you will find that the 'explosive charge' used to get the aircraft on fire was actually a Very flare pistol fired into the gravity refuelling point.l. They tried all sorts of methods to make it burn but that was the only thing that worked. As an ex Sea King pilot myself, we all laughed about that because we were forbidden to smoke in the aircraft because of the fire risk!

This reminds me of a story I once read somewhere. During the Falklands conflict the Argentinians fuzed their bombs incorrectly, so that when dropped from sea-skimming A-4 Skyhawks, the munitions didn't have time to arm themselves before striking RN vessels. Thus something like three out of four bombs that hit were duds. A reporter working for a British tabloid came upon this information and it was printed as a small sidestory and read by hundreds of thousands of people. RN had a Royal Shitfit, but the damage was done. However, this accidental intelligence coup was somehow completely ignored by the Argentinians, and they just kept chucking heavy-duty paperweights at Her Majesty's boats. Supposedly if the Argentinians had not ignored this information, the British Task Force's losses would have been too great and the conflict would have been lost.

Loving the Falklands videos Mark

Cracking story. I remember the events but had no idea on the details. Thank you very much.

Fascinating and smoothly produced video as ever, only the raid itself an anticlimax!

Thanks for bringing us this coverage of the short, far away Argentine War. It was fascinating to read the news coverage at the time (made more interesting in that I was dating an Argentine woman then) and I've read an excellent book on the war, but I never heard of this attempted raid until now.

And the failure of the preparatory mission “Duff” saved the SAS from being slaughtered and shamed because the RioGrande AFB was heavily fortified with bunkers and self-supporting fortified shooting positions manned by 4 battalions (6000 men) of the Argentinian Marines, they were very prepared for it and the SAS plane landing in the middle of that would have been a turkey shoot qith the plane itself being immediately damaged and grounded and the 55 poor souls killed off slowly. Had they attempted that mission today the SAS would be considered a half joke of Special Forces.