Themes

Conflict and Change

• Introduction

• In Focus: 1900

• In Focus: World War One

• In Focus: Interwar

• In Focus: World War Two

• In Focus: Post War Conflict

• In Focus: Cold War Climate

• In Focus: Falklands and Beyond

• Special Exhibition: Falklands 25

  • - Early History

  • - Preparing for war

  • - 74 days of conflict

  • - On the front page

  • - Coming home

  • - Voices of War

Learning

• How To: Understand Propaganda

• Propaganda Image Galleries

• Education Project: Sea With Your Own Eyes

74 days of conflict

Article highlights

• 74 days of conflict

• Harriers and helos

• The heart of the Task Force

• Silent Hunters

• Tankers, tugs and the Great White Whale

• Under attack

• 'Bungs, wedges and woolley bear suits'

• Into Bomb Alley

• Harrass and deceive

• The yomp to Stanley

• 'Mother Hen' and the 'Red and Green Life Machine'

The heart of the Task Force

The heart of the Task Force was the Carrier Battle Group (CBG). Its aircraft carriers HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible, with escort ships and auxiliaries, arrived off the Falklands on 29 April.

Flight deck of HMS Hermes (RNM)

The CBG then spent most of the conflict well to the east. Here the group was beyond the range of enemy aircraft, but near enough for its own Sea Harriers to operate over the islands. Argentinian aircraft and missiles attacked three times but neither carrier was hit. British commanders knew it would be hard to win the war with just one carrier.

The CBG was the command group for the whole Task Force. The flagship, HMS Hermes, communicated directly by satellite with UK headquarters at Northwood.