In 1940, a local independent commission, under the auspices of Juan Fava and Rufino Inda, both of them former socialist Mayors of the city, made a formal request to the Ministry of War.

There was a first ill-fated attempt against the government, led mainly by the Navy, on 16 June, when rebel aircraft launched a series of air strikes around Plaza de Mayo, killing nearly 350 people.

[11][12] 1962: After the fall of President Arturo Frondizi and his replacement by a puppet civilian government under the supervision of the armed forces, the military remained divided over the issue of the banning of some political parties.

[16] The post was eventually overpassed by the armoured column, but according to Colonel Federico de la Fuente, the group commander, the 40 mm guns disabled between 4 and 5 Shermans.

The first significant GADA activity was the deployment, in 1975, of a full battery of light anti-aircraft guns in Tucumán province, which by the time was the scenario of a rough counterinsurgency campaign against the ERP.

[21] The conflict struck home on 11 February 1976, when a splinter organisation of the ERP ambushed and killed GADA's commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Rafael Raúl Reyes, in Mar del Plata's downtown.

These illegal arrests were carried out with the collaboration of the Air Force, which built a clandestine detention facility near the city's airport, dubbed La Cueva (The Cave).

The main early warning system for the army was an AN/TPS-44 tactical surveillance radar (Alert Mk II A/O), manned by GADA 601 personnel, mounted on the eastern slopes of Sapper Hill.

Unsure of its position after such a long flight at low level over water, the commander (Flt Lt Martin Withers) of Vulcan bomber XM607 briefly climbed to gain a radar fix from the mountains east of Stanley.

[31] The airbase was warned at 4:20 am local time but the low-level approach of the Vulcan bomber combined with active jamming from DASH 10 ECM pod prevented the AAA defences from engaging.

The stick of 21 1000 lb bombs damaged the airport tower, scored a single direct hit in the centre of the runway and killed two Air Force personnel.

[37] The Official History of the Argentine Air Force put the blame on the lack of coordination between the Joint Antiaircraft Command and troops on the ground, who fired small arms and machine guns at the Mirage, unleashing a chain reaction among the Navy and Army's gunners.

This aircraft lacked a Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) as it had been removed before the war to fit instrumentation for the new Sea Eagle missile, that was undergoing trials.

[41] Unaware of the threat ahead, Taylor was hit by a second salvo from the 35 mm cannons in the fuselage and caught fire, losing the left-wing and crashed at a 10° angle.

The crash was caught on the gun camera film, of Flt Lt Ted Ball, which showed a large explosion in the region of the fuselage that was clearly unsurvivable.

The remains of Lt Nick Taylor were buried on the edge of the airfield where he fell, with full military honours, and his grave is still tended by the residents of Goose Green.

[44] The shot down prompted a change of tactics in the employment of the Sea Harriers, in order to avoid further losses of such a valuable air defence assets and pilots, the subsequent air-to-ground operations were carried out from high altitude, well above the reach of the enemy ground fire.

A series of losses and aircraft damaged[47] left just three GR3 Harrier operational of 1(F) Squadron by June 1 (although reinforcements joined the Task Force later that day by flying directly from Ascension Island).

[54] One of the Harriers, piloted by Sqn Ldr Jerry Pook, released chaff approximately 2 km from the target zone, blinding the radar and triggering an anti-missile alarm (confirmed by the reports of the GADA's antiaircraft battery under Second Lt. Claudio Oscar Braghini).

[57][64] The next morning, on May 28, British troops from the 2nd PARA Regiment took Darwin Hill after fierce fighting and the GADA detachment, observed several platoons advancing down the southern slopes of the ridge.

The 35 mm bursts blocked the advance of the leading companies, killing one man Private Mark Holman-Smith who was trying to recover a machine gun [65] and wounding eleven including their commander, Major Hugh Jenner and his signaller.

On May 30 a pair of GR3 was initially tasked to attack, with SNEB rockets, entrenched troops on Mount Wall, west of Stanley, one of the first strikes against the defensive ring around the Falklands capital.

[86] Argentine authors assert instead that the aircraft was hit by 35 mm fire from GADA's 1st section, B battery, which was completing a redeployment from Moody Brook to a position between Sapper Hill and the Stanley racecourse, under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Roberto Enrique Ferre.

Nevertheless, the actual target's position given by Pook in his book was too far to the west to being acquired and shot at by GADA's gunners, albeit he is not too much assertive about having been hit by small arms rounds.

The aircraft, XZ456, belonging to the 801 Naval Air Squadron from HMS Invincible, was in a recce mission 7 km south of Stanley, apparently out of the reach of the missile, but tracked by its radar.

While at least two Skyguard units were fighting off an air attack – believed at that time to be conducted by Harriers - two missiles were fired by one Vulcan bomber involved in the operation Black Buck six.

Second Lt. Fernando Ignacio Huergo's section claims that they locked on to a "bomb" and destroyed it in mid-air – it maybe they hit one of the missiles - but at the same time of this explosion, another blast was heard.

[103][104] In what was the last GADA 601 success in this war, Harrier XW919 was hit by shrapnel, possibly from a Tigercat missile, and seriously damaged on June 12, while dropping CBUs on an artillery position near Sapper Hill.

[108] In the final hours of the war, the westernmost section of the group took part of the battle of Wireless Ridge, supporting the withdrawal of the Infantry Regiment 7 with 35 mm fire.

[111] Four Skyguard radar units are employed by RAF Police to survey UK military flights over residential areas and to give warning of low-flying aircraft on sensitive facilities since 1993.