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The Falkland Islands are richer than Britain, but anxiety’s in the air

A leaked memo from Washington is picking at the scabs of war in a territory that is flourishing into an unlikely petrostate

Tony Scales was playing cards below deck with three friends — a game of Sergeant Major — when the announcement came over the loudspeaker: “Take cover!” He barely had time to react before the explosion ripped through the ship.

“It was like being inside a big flame,” he said, standing on a wind-blasted hillside looking over the bay where the RFA Sir Galahad was hit by Argentine jets on June 8, 1982. A total of 48 people were killed, including 32 Welsh Guardsmen, in one of the deadliest single incidents for British forces in the Falklands conflict.

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