1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands On 2 April 1982 , Argentine forces mounted amphibious landings of the Falkland Islands ( ) . It marked the beginning of the Falklands War . The Argentinians mounted amphibious landings , with the invasion ending with the battle and final surrender of Government House . Defence . Governor Rex Hunt was informed by the British Government of a possible Argentine invasion on 1 April 1982 . At 3 : 30 pm that day he received a telegram from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office stating : Forces involved . The Governor summoned the two senior Royal Marines officers of Naval Party 8901 to Government House in Stanley to discuss the options for defending the Falklands . He said during the meeting , " Sounds like the buggers mean it " , remaining composed despite the seriousness of the situation that the islands faced . Major Mike Norman was given overall command of the Marines due to his seniority , while Major Gary Noott became the military advisor to Governor Hunt . The total strength was 68 Marines and 11 sailors , which was greater than would normally have been available because the garrison was in the process of changing over . Both the replacements and the troops preparing to leave were in the Falklands at the time of the invasion . This was decreased to 57 when 22 Royal Marines embarked aboard the Antarctic patrol ship HMS " Endurance " to observe Argentine soldiers based at South Georgia . The Royal Navy , on the other hand , states that a total of 85 marines were present at Stanley . Their numbers were reinforced by at least 25 Falkland Islands Defence Force ( FIDF ) members . Graham Bound , an islander who lived through the Argentine occupation , reports in his book " Falkland Islanders At War " that the higher figure of approximately 40 ( both serving and past ) members of the FIDF reported for duty at their Drill Hall . Their commanding officer , Major Phil Summers , tasked the volunteer militiamen with guarding such key points as the telephone exchange , the radio station and the power station . Skipper Jack Sollis , on board the civilian coastal ship " Forrest " , operated his boat as an improvised radar screen station off Stanley . Two other civilians , former Marine Jim Alister and a Canadian citizen , Bill Curtiss , also offered their services to the Governor . Operation " Rosario " . The Argentine amphibious operation began in the late evening of Thursday 1 April , when the destroyer ARA " Santisima Trinidad " disembarked special naval forces south of Stanley . The bulk of the Argentine force was to land some hours later from the amphibious warfare ship ARA " Cabo San Antonio " near the airport , on a beach previously marked by frogmen from the submarine ARA " Santa Fe " . The operation had been called " Azul " ( Blue ) during the planning stage , but it was finally renamed " Rosario " ( Rosary ) . ARA " Santa Fe " . The very first move of Operation " Rosario " was the reconnaissance of Port William by the submarine ARA " Santa Fe " and the landing of 14 members of the tactical divers group near Cape Pembroke , including the commander of this elite unit , Captain Cufré . The recce mission began as early as 31 March , when the trawler " Forrest " was spotted through the periscope at 10 : 00 PM off Port Stanley . The next day , the " Santa Fe " learned that the authorities in Stanley were aware of the Argentine intentions , so a change of plans was in order . Instead of landing right on Pembroke , the commandos would initially take a beach near Menguera Point , south of Kidney Island . They left the " Santa Fe " at 1 : 40 PM . From the beach , they headed towards Pembroke peninsula in Zodiac boat s . They reached Yorke Bay at 4 : 30 AM of 2 April . After planting beacons for the main landing , they took over the airstrip and the lighthouse without resistance . Argentine sources claim that they captured a few prisoners . This team was later given the task of gathering and taking in custody the Royal Marines in their flight out of the islands after the British surrender . Attack on Moody Brook barracks . On the night of 1 / 2 April 1982 , the destroyer ARA " Santísima Trinidad " halted 500 metres off Mullet Creek and lowered 21 Gemini assault craft into the water . They contained 84 special forces troopers of Lieutenant - Commander Guillermo Sánchez - Sabarots ' 1st Amphibious Commandos Group and a small party under Lieutenant - Commander Pedro Giachino , who was normally 2IC of the 1st Marine Infantry Battalion , that was to capture Government House . The Argentine Rear Admiral Jorge Allara , through a message radioed from " Santisima Trinidad " , had requested to Rex Hunt a peaceful surrender , but the proposal was rejected . Giachino ' s party had the shortest distance to go : two and a half miles due north . Moody Brook Barracks , the destination of the main party , was six miles away , over rough Falklands terrain . Lieutenant - Commander Sánchez - Sabarots , in the book " The Argentine Fight for The Falklands " , describes the main party ' s progress in the dark : The main party of Argentine Marines assumed that the Moody Brook Barracks contained sleeping Royal Marines . The barracks were quiet , although a light was on in the office of the Royal Marine commander . No sentries were observed , and it was a quiet night , apart from the occasional animal call . Lieutenant - Commander Sánchez - Sabarots could hear nothing of any action at Government House , nor from the distant landing beaches ; nevertheless , he ordered the assault to begin . Lieutenant - Commander Sánchez - Sabarots continues his account : The noise of the grenades alerted Major Norman to the presence of Argentines on the island , and he thus drove back to Government House . Realising that the attack was coming from Moody Brook , he ordered all troop sections to converge on the house to enable the defence to be centralised . Although there were no Royal Marine witnesses to the assault , British descriptions of the state of Moody Brook barracks afterward contradict the Argentine version of events . After the action , some of the Royal Marines were allowed to return to barracks to collect personal items . Major Norman describes walls of the barracks as riddled with machine gun fire and bearing the marks of white phosphorus grenades — " a classic houseclearing operation " . Amphibious landing at Yorke Bay . There was a more pressing action on the eastern edge of Stanley . Twenty US - built LVTP - 7A1 Argentine tracked amphibious armoured personnel carriers from the 1st Amphibious Vehicles Battalion , carrying D and E Companies of the 2nd Marine Infantry Battalion ( BIM - 2 ) from Puerto Belgrano , had been landed from the tank landing ship ARA " Cabo San Antonio " at Yorke Bay , and were being watched by a section of Royal Marines under the command of Lieutenant Bill Trollope . The armoured column trundled along the Airport Road into Stanley , with three Amtracs ( Numbers 05 , 07 and 19 ) in the vanguard , and , near the Ionospheric Research Station , at exactly 7 : 15 am , was engaged by a section of Royal Marines with anti - tank rockets and machine guns . This from Lieutenant - Commander Hugo Santillán ' s official post - battle report : The Amtrac on the right manoeuvred itself off the road into a little depression and as it did so , disembarked the Marines inside out of view . This encouraged the Royal Marines to think that Marine Mark Gibbs had scored a direct hit on the passenger compartment of the APC . Lieutenant Bill Trollope , with No . 2 Section , describes the action : Lieutenant Trollope and his men withdrew along Davis Street , running behind the houses with Argentine Marines in hot pursuit , and went to ground firing up the road when it became obvious they could not reach Government House . Battle of Government House and surrender . Lying on a small hillock south of Government House , Lieutenant - Commander Pedro Giachino faced the difficulty of capturing this important objective with no radio and with a force of only sixteen men . He split his force into small groups , placing one on either side of the house and one at the rear . Unknown to them , the Governor ' s residence was the main concentration point of the Royal Marines , who outnumbered the Commandos by two to one . The first attack against this building came at 6 . 30 a . m . , barely an hour before the Yorke Bay amphibious landing , when one of Giachino ' s platoons , led by Lieutenant Gustavo Lugo , started to exchange fire with the British troops inside the house . At the same time , Giachino himself , with four of his subordinates , entered the servants ' annexe , believing it to be the rear entrance to the residence . Three Royal Marines , Corporal s Sellen and Fleet and Marine Dorey , who were placed to cover the annexe , beat off the first attack . Giachino was hit instantly as he burst through the door , while Lieutenant Diego Garcia Quiroga was shot in the arm . The remaining three retreated to the maid ' s quarters . Giachino was not dead , but very badly wounded . An Argentine paramedic , Corporal Ernesto Urbina , attempted to get to Giachino but was wounded by a grenade . Giachino , seeing what had happened , pulled the pin from a hand grenade and threatened to use it . The Royal Marines then attempted to persuade the officer to get rid of the grenade so that they could give him medical treatment , but he refused , preventing them from reaching his position . After the surrender of the British forces at Government House , some three hours later , Giachino was taken to Stanley Hospital but died from loss of blood . At the Governor ' s office , Major Norman received a radio report from Corporal York ' s section , which was positioned at Camber peninsula , observing any possible Argentine ship entering Stanley Harbour . The Corporal proceeded to report on three potential targets in sight and which should he engage first . " What are the targets ? " the Major enquired . " Target number one is an aircraft carrier , target number two is a cruiser " , at which point the line went dead . Corporal York decided to withdraw his section and proceeded to booby trap their Carl Gustav recoilless rifle , before paddling their Gemini assault boat north across Port William . As he did so , York claimed an Argentine destroyer began pursuing them ( the corvette ARA " Granville " according to Argentine sources ) . His initiative led to the Gemini reaching an anchored Polish fishing vessel , hiding the small assault boat under her shadow . They patiently waited for a chance , before moving to the shore and landing on a small beach . Back at Government House , the Argentine commandos ' pressure continued unabated . There is some evidence that their use of stun grenades and their continuous shift of firing positions during the battle led the Royal Marines inside to believe they were facing a company of marines and were hopelessly outnumbered . Actually , after the failure of Giachino ' s platoon to break into the residence , the British were surrounded by only a dozen elite troops . These men were under Lieutenant Lugo , Giachino ' s Second - in - Command . The Land Rovers used by the Royal Marines were disabled by automatic gunfire from the commandos . Governor Hunt called Patrick Watts ( at the radio station , Radio Stanley ) , by telephone and said he believed the assaulting force to be the equivalent of a reinforced company : We ' re staying put here , but we are pinned down . We can ' t move . ( . . . ) They must have 200 around us now . They ' ve been throwing rifle grenades at us ; I think there may be mortars , I don ' t know . They came along very quickly and very close , and then they retreated . Maybe they are waiting until the APCs [ Amtracs ] come along and they think they ' ll lose less casualties that way . Consequently , Hunt decided to enter talks with Argentine commanders around 8 o ' clock . The liaison was Vice - Commodore Hector Gilobert , the head in the islands of LADE , the Argentine government ' s airline company . Gilobert and a Governor ' s deputy went to the Argentine headquarters displaying a white flag . A de facto ceasefire was put in place at that time which was occasionally breached by small arms fire . The Governor ' s envoys found the Argentine commanding post at Stanley ' s Town Hall . The Argentine chief accepted the British offer of a face to face meeting with Hunt at his battered office . While the negotiations were still going on , another incident occurred inside the residence . Three Argentine survivors of the first skirmish along the compound inadvertently alerted Major Noott to their presence , while they had been preparing to leave their hiding place . The Major fired his Sterling submachine gun into the ceiling of the maid ' s room . According to British reports , the stunned commandos tumbled down the stairs , laying their weapons on the ground . They became the first Argentine prisoners of war of the Falklands War , albeit by then , Governor Hunt had already been in contact with Argentine officials negotiating the terms of surrender . The version of the commander of these men , Captain Cufré , who was then at Stanley airport , is that his three subordinates kept their fighting position right to the end of the hostilities . Surrender . Admiral Carlos Büsser , commander in chief of the operation , states that a cease fire was already in place when the three commandos , after realising that the battle was coming to a close and that any loss of life at the time would be futile , laid down their arms to the marines in order to assist the wounded . Just a few minutes after this event , Government house capitulated . Meanwhile , the Royal Marines in the House saw the approaching Amtracs that had been engaged earlier by Lieutenant Trollope and his section . The vehicles pushed on toward Moody Brook to link up with Sánchez - Sabarots forces . His amphibious commandos were plodding slowly along the road to reinforce their colleagues besieging Government House after taking some prisoners near the racecourse . Major Norman had earlier advised Governor Hunt that the Royal Marines and the Governor could break out to the countryside and set up a ' seat of government ' elsewhere , but when he finally met the commander - in - chief of the Argentine operations , Admiral Büsser , he agreed to surrender his troops to the now overwhelming Argentine forces at 9 : 30 AM . After the surrender , the Royal Marines and the members of the FIDF were then herded onto the playing fields . Pictures and film were taken of the British prisoners arranged face - down on the ground . This was probably an attempt to demonstrate the lack of British casualties , but it backfired : The images galvanised the British public when they were broadcast on television and increased public opposition to the invasion . Soon afterward , the Royal Marines were moved to a C - 130 Hercules transport aircraft , which would take them to Comodoro Rivadavia , where they were to be picked up by another airliner to Uruguay and on to the United Kingdom . Members of FIDF were not taken to Argentina along with members of NP 8901 ; instead they were disarmed and returned to their homes . As the Marines were being taken to Montevideo , one of them said to an Argentine guard " don ' t make yourself too comfy here mate , we ' ll be back " . Corporal York ' s section remained at large . On 4 April , they reached a secluded shepherd ' s hut owned by a Mrs Watson . York had no radio , and due to worries about possible civilian deaths , chose to surrender to Argentine forces . They gave their position to the Argentine Army using a local islander ' s radio , and York subsequently ordered his men to destroy and then bury their weapons . In Buenos Aires , huge flag - waving crowds flooded the Plaza de Mayo upon hearing the news . Argentina ' s losses in the operation were one dead and three wounded . In London , where the bad news was fully known from Argentine sources , the government was in a state of shock . The crisis prompted the resignation of the British Foreign Secretary , Lord Carrington . The next day , Argentine forces captured the island chain of South Georgia , 1350 km to the east of the Falklands . In that action , the Argentines suffered one sailor from the corvette ARA " Guerrico " and two marines killed ( Navy Corporal Patricio Guanca and marine conscript s Mario Almonacid and Jorge Aguila ) . One British Royal Marine was wounded in an exchange of fire with the Argentine troops . The Marines eventually surrendered when this position was bracketed by the " Guerrico ' s " main 100mm gun . Informing London . At 4 . 30pm on 2 April 1982 , the Governor ' s telex operator had this conversation with a Ministry of Defence operative in London , announcing that the islands were under Argentine control . LON ( London ) : HELLO THERE WHAT ARE ALL THESE RUMOURS WE HEAR THIS IS LON < br > FK ( Falklands ) : WE HAVE LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS < br > LON : WHAT ABOUT INVASION RUMOURS < br > FK : THOSE ARE THE FRIENDS I WAS MEANING < br > LON : THEY HAVE LANDED < br > FK : ABSOLUTELY < br > LON : ARE YOU OPEN FOR TRAFFIC IE NORMAL TELEX SERVICE < br > FK : NO ORDERS ON THAT YET ONE MUST OBEY ORDERS < br > LON : WHOSE ORDERS < br > FK : THE NEW GOVERNORS < br > LON : ARGENTINA < br > FK : YES < br > LON : ARE THE ARGENTINIANS IN CONTROL < br > FK : YES YOU CAN ' T ARGUE WITH THOUSANDS OF TROOPS PLUS ENORMOUS NAVY SUPPORT WHEN YOU ARE ONLY 1600 STRONG . STAND BY . Operation timeline . The timeline of the operation was as follows : Reaction in the United Nations . On 3 April 1982 the United Nations Security Council comprising the 5 permanent members and the 10 elected members ( Poland , Spain , Ireland , Panama , Guyana , Japan , Jordan , Uganda , Zaire , and Togo ) passed the Resolution 502 demanding an immediate withdrawal of all Argentine forces from the islands and called on the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom to seek a diplomatic solution to the situation and refrain from further military action . Panama voted against this resolution , with China , Poland , Spain and the USSR abstaining . All 10 remaining members voted for the resolution .