necessary please carry out as you wish, in the utmost secrecy, of course.'
Again, none of this was especially good news for Douglas Jarvis and his boys.
Trapped in the western foothills of Fanning Head, out of contact with their headquarters, they were forbidden to use a mobile phone, because it could so easily be traced. And now they had not the slightest idea what was happening, on the islands, at sea with the Battle Group, or on the landing beaches of Lafonia.
Douglas had few options except to make his way furtively out of the Fanning Head area, and try to select a seaport with some kind of a fishing trawler and attempt a getaway. Trouble was, he'd have to take the crew with him, otherwise the boat would be missed and they might end up being strafed by the Argentine coast guard. Right now there was a lot of bad news for Douglas Jarvis and his boys.
The Argentinians lost no time in announcing their victory. Agence Argentina Presse released the government's statement to the world's media as it stood, no comments, no interviews, and no follow-up. It read simply:
At 0930 this morning, Saturday, April 16, at the request of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Argentina accepted the unconditional surrender of the British armed forces in the Battle for the Islas Malvinas.
Argentina suffered relatively minor losses of just eight downed fighter-bombers, while Great Britain's losses were enormous. The heroic pilots of Argentina hit and sank a total of nine Royal Navy warships, including the flagship aircraft carrier the Ark Royal.
Great Britain's entire force of fighter jets, the GR9s, were all destroyed. More than 1,250 Royal Navy personnel are believed dead, with many more injured. The gallant commanding officers of the Argentinian Navy are currently in the area of the sea battle, assisting the Royal Navy with the wounded.
In the early hours of this morning, British forces, numbering almost 3,000, made a landing on the beaches of Lafonia. They brought with them attack helicopters, heavy-lift troop transport helicopters and missile installations. At 0945, after fierce fighting, this force surrendered to the armies of Argentina.
A white flag of surrender still flies over those landing beaches and we are currently in talks with London as to the immediate future of the prisoners of war. We have been asked to be merciful, and your government will comply with this British request.
A communique has been received from the British Prime Minister confirming that their former colony, described as the Falkland Islands, has now and shall be in future known as the Islas Malvinas and shall constitute a sovereign state of Argentina, under Argentine law, and Argentine administration. The national language shall henceforth be Spanish.
All islanders who wish to remain after the change in national structure will be welcomed to do so, and the government of Argentina will work closely with the former administrators to ensure the most peaceful transfer of power.
The important oil and gas fields, seized by the Argentine Army in February, shall remain the property of the Republic of Argentina, and there will be future announcements as to its administration.
The statement was signed by the President of Argentina. And countersigned by Admiral Oscar Moreno, Commander in Chief (Fleet), and General Eduardo Kampf, Commander of Five Corps, which had secured the island and was deployed to face the British in the Battle for Mount Pleasant Airfield, had that been required.
No statement ever flashed around the world faster. It has been said that King George III fell back in a chair and almost fainted when he heard of the loss of his American colonies six months after the surrender at Yorktown.
Several dozen of the world's news editors very nearly did the same thing, out of sheer excitement, when news of the British surrender reached them about an hour and a half after it happened.
There were several military experts in London, Washington, and Moscow who had long considered the outcome to be inevitable. But to other nations, especially journalists with their mostly superficial knowledge, the news came as a snowstorm might present itself to residents of Tahiti Beach.
BRITS BLASTED IN BATTLE FOR THE FALKLANDS
PAMPAS PILOTS PULVERIZE BRITS
GALLANT GAUCHOS SLAM THE ROYAL NAVY
MASSACRE IN THE MALVINAS AS BRITS SURRENDER
VIVA LAS MALVINAS — IT'S OFFICIAL!!
In Spain it was VIVA LAS MALVINAS. In France it was FRENCH JETS HELP ARGENTINA WIN THE FALKLANDS (never mind their European Union partners in London). Russia's
Great Britain's Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of Defense to break the news of the calamity in the South Atlantic to a stunned nation — a nation that in the past 230 years had known setbacks in war, had withstood bombs and attack, suffered and retreated in the Crimea, Gallipoli, and Dunkirk; but never decisive, overwhelming defeat and unconditional surrender to a foreign enemy.
Two hours after that news bulletin, the Premier himself broadcast to the people on all television and radio channels. Six spin doctors had worked ceaselessly in a bold but futile attempt to distance their man from the disaster.
He made a rambling speech, referring to 'unending courage,' and 'gallantry beyond the call,' about meeting 'an enemy that had secretly been preparing for several years.'
Right after that he recalled every Member of Parliament to Westminster to begin an emergency sitting at midnight.
Admiral Morgan was not surprised at the outcome of the war, but he was slightly surprised at the speed with which it had been accomplished. He first heard the news shortly after eleven a.m. on Fox News, but the updated version of the bulletin at noon contained another surprise. According to the best naval sources available, it seemed the aircraft carrier
This was extremely fast for a big ship hit by either bombs or missiles. There were few examples of the time taken for a major warship to sink finally beneath the waves after a hit by an Exocet. But certainly in 1982 it took
