Falklands War Trivia
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49 free Falklands War trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
The Falklands War lasted just 74 days in 1982, from Argentina's Operation Rosario landings on 2 April to the surrender at Stanley on 14 June, yet it killed 649 Argentines, 255 Britons and three islanders, sank a Second World War cruiser and a brand-new Type 42 destroyer, and remade the politics of both countries. Britain's task force of 127 ships sailed 8,000 miles on the word of a First Sea Lord who told Margaret Thatcher it 'could and should' be done. This quiz follows the whole campaign: the scrap-metal men on South Georgia, Resolution 502, Haig's shuttle diplomacy, the requisitioned liners Canberra and QE2, the Vulcan flights of Black Buck, the sinking of the Belgrano and HMS Sheffield, the landings at Bomb Alley, H. Jones at Goose Green, the burnt-out Sea King in Chile, Sir Galahad at Port Pleasant, and the night battles on Longdon and Tumbledown. There are also questions on the junta, the 'Gotcha' headline, Prince Andrew's helicopter, 'Fortress Falklands', the 2013 referendum and the minefields cleared only in 2020. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a history quiz night.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How long did the Falklands War last?
Ten weeks
Ten weeks: Argentina invaded on 2 April 1982 and its garrison surrendered on 14 June, after 74 days, in a war that neither side ever formally declared.
Q 02Besides the Falklands, which other islands did Argentina invade the next day, 3 April 1982?
South Georgia
South Georgia fell on 3 April only after 22 Royal Marines shot down a helicopter and damaged an Argentine warship; British forces retook the island on 25 April.
Q 03By what name does Argentina know the Falkland Islands?
Islas Malvinas
Islas Malvinas comes from the French Îles Malouines, a name given in the 1760s for the sailors from Saint-Malo who founded the islands' first settlement.
Q 04Which British prime minister secretly sent two frigates and a nuclear submarine south in 1977?
James Callaghan
James Callaghan's government secretly ordered the ships south after Argentina set up a base on Southern Thule, fearing the Falklands might be next.
Q 05Which minister pitched a leaseback scheme to islanders in 1980 and was savaged in Parliament?
Nicholas Ridley
Nicholas Ridley, a Foreign Office minister, proposed handing Argentina sovereignty and leasing the islands back; the islanders rejected the idea and MPs attacked it.
Q 06Which general headed the Argentine junta that ordered the invasion?
Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Galtieri had taken the presidency only in December 1981; he was removed from power before the end of June 1982, the month of the surrender.
Q 07Who were the Argentine party that raised their flag at Leith Harbour on 19 March 1982?
Scrap metal merchants
Scrap metal merchants under contract to clear an abandoned whaling station ran up the Argentine flag, turning a salvage job into the crisis that led to war.
Q 08Which ice patrol ship was Britain's only naval presence in the South Atlantic before the war?
HMS Endurance
HMS Endurance was due to be scrapped in the 1981 defence cuts; her captain warned that Argentina would take it as a green light, and the Foreign Secretary objected too.
Q 09What was the Argentine codename for the 2 April landings?
Operation Rosario
Operation Rosario's commandos had orders to avoid British casualties if they could, and the outnumbered Royal Marines laid down their arms that morning without losing a man.
Q 10Who was the Governor of the Falkland Islands at the time of the invasion?
Sir Rex Hunt
Sir Rex Hunt put on his full ceremonial uniform, plumed hat and all, to face the Argentine commander, and was then expelled to Uruguay.
Q 11Which First Sea Lord told Thatcher that Britain could and should send a task force?
Sir Henry Leach
Sir Henry Leach, still in full uniform from a function in Portsmouth, tracked Thatcher down at the Commons while her Defence Secretary doubted the islands could be retaken.
Q 12What was the British codename for the whole campaign to retake the Falklands?
Operation Corporate
Operation Corporate was directed from a headquarters at Northwood, on the edge of London, some 8,000 miles from the fighting.
Q 13What did UN Security Council Resolution 502 demand?
An Argentine withdrawal
Q 21Which French president banned arms sales to Argentina and opened French ports in Africa to the British fleet?
François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand backed Britain from the start, even though France had sold Argentina the jets and missiles that went on to sink British ships.
Q 22Which Royal Marines slang word for a long march under full kit entered everyday British English in 1982?
Yomp
Yomp, a slang word of uncertain origin, caught on when the Marines lost their transport helicopters at sea and had to cross East Falkland on foot under heavy loads.
Q 23Which bomber flew the Black Buck raids on Stanley airfield, then the longest bombing missions ever flown?
Avro Vulcan
An Argentine withdrawal was demanded by ten votes to one, and the Soviet Union abstained instead of using its veto.
Q 14Which Foreign Secretary resigned days after the invasion, taking responsibility for the failure to foresee it?
Lord Carrington
Lord Carrington insisted on going over the Foreign Office's failure to see the invasion coming; Thatcher called it a devastating blow, and an inquiry later cleared him of blame.
Q 15Who was appointed Argentine Military Governor of the occupied Falklands?
Mario Menéndez
Mario Menéndez was ordered by Buenos Aires on 14 June to keep fighting; he chose to negotiate instead, and the surrender was signed the same day.
Q 16Which US Secretary of State flew between London and Buenos Aires on a shuttle-diplomacy mission?
Alexander Haig
Alexander Haig spent much of April shuttling between the two capitals; when his mediation collapsed, Washington dropped its neutrality and openly backed Britain.
Q 17Which liner, fresh from a world cruise, was requisitioned and sailed with 3 Commando Brigade?
SS Canberra
SS Canberra kept her white cruise-liner paint all the way to San Carlos Water, earning the nickname the Great White Whale, and came home to cheering crowds in Southampton.
Q 18About how many ships sailed in Britain's Falklands task force?
130
About 130: the task force grew to 127 ships, dozens of them merchant vessels taken up from trade, from ocean liners to ferries.
Q 19Which two aircraft carriers led the task force out of Portsmouth?
Invincible and Hermes
Invincible and Hermes left Portsmouth on 5 April, within days of the invasion: one carrier was almost new, while the flagship Hermes was about 30 years old.
Q 20Which mid-Atlantic island served as the British task force's staging base, roughly halfway to the Falklands?
Ascension
Ascension was the only usable base on the way south, yet it still lay nearly 4,000 miles short of the Falklands.
The Avro Vulcan was at the very end of its service life; each 16-hour round trip needed a relay of tanker aircraft to get a single bomber to Stanley and back.
Q 24Which American-made air-to-air missile gave Britain's Sea Harriers the edge in dogfights over the Falklands?
Sidewinder
Sidewinder missiles of the newest AIM-9L model let Sea Harrier pilots shoot down Argentine jets without losing a single aircraft in air-to-air combat.
Q 25The British Total Exclusion Zone around the islands extended how far?
200 nautical miles
200 nautical miles was the radius Britain declared on 30 April; two days later the cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed outside it, a decision argued over for decades.
Q 26Which British submarine torpedoed the cruiser ARA General Belgrano on 2 May?
HMS Conqueror
HMS Conqueror, a nuclear-powered hunter-killer, sank the cruiser with torpedoes; the Argentine surface fleet returned to port and stayed there for the rest of the war.
Q 27What had the Belgrano survived unharmed as USS Phoenix?
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor: USS Phoenix came through the 1941 attack unharmed; sold to Argentina a decade later, she was sunk in 1982 with the loss of more than 300 lives.
Q 28Which Type 42 destroyer was the first Royal Navy ship sunk in action since the Second World War?
HMS Sheffield
HMS Sheffield's warning sensors were blanked out by one of her own radio transmissions as the missile came in; she burned for two days and sank under tow.
Q 29Which French-made anti-ship missile became a household word in Britain during the war?
Exocet
Exocet is French for flying fish; Argentina had only five of the air-launched version, yet they sank two British ships and caused near panic in London.
Q 30A Sea King on an aborted SAS mission was burned by its crew after landing in which neutral country?
Chile
Chile was the end of a one-way flight to land special forces near an Argentine air base; the crew burned their Sea King near Punta Arenas and gave themselves up.